Tbilisi recently hosted an International Conference commemorating the 105th Anniversary of the National Statistical Office of Georgia (Geostat) and the 25th Anniversary of Collecting Gender Statistics. The two-day event, themed "Accelerating Progress Towards Inclusive Development Through Gender Statistics," was organized by Geostat and UN Women.

The conference saw participation from heads of statistical offices of EU member states, candidate countries, Eastern Partnership (EaP) nations, Central Asian countries, and high-level representatives from various international organizations. The event also welcomed representatives from Georgian government agencies, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), academic institutions, and international organizations based in Georgia.

Davit Keshelava, the lead economist of the ISET Policy Institute, presented the latest update of the Gender Equality Index at the conference. He discussed the motivation behind the index, its methodology, recent outcomes, dynamics, and the reasons behind observed changes.

The data revealed that the South Caucasus lags behind in the domains of money, power, time, and health compared to the baseline countries. Despite this, all countries in the region have shown significant improvements since the 2000s, steadily converging towards the standards of their Eastern European counterparts.

The conference emphasized the critical role of gender statistics in fostering inclusive development and highlighted ongoing efforts to enhance gender equality across the region.