In the framework of the second phase of the regional project “Women’s Economic Empowerment in the South Caucasus”, the Swiss Embassy in Georgia contracted the ISET Policy Institute to create and maintain “the Gender Equality Index of the South Caucasus.”

The purpose of SCGEI (South Caucasus Gender Equality Index) is to track the gender equality progress in the entire South Caucasus region. The Index will serve as a unique tool to provide stakeholders with relevant information and analysis to inform evidence-based policy actions, an objective way of measuring gender inequality, and an inclusive platform to initiate dialogue and further analyze the underlying issues and potential solutions.

ISET Policy Institute research team, using an internationally established methodology and taking into account regional context, will launch the first Gender Equality Index for the South Caucasus. The Index, accompanied by policy products, will measure progress and provide a synthetic picture of the state of Gender Equality in the region to raise awareness and inform gender policies.

The project team aims to (i) create the South Caucasus Gender Equality Index (SCGEI) to track the Gender equality progress in the region as a whole, benchmarking the SC countries against a relevant  set of countries; (ii) create an online platform to host the Index and serve as a repository of original research products, like policy briefs, policy notes and other studies on gender equality and deeper underlying issues; (iii) produce original research on gender issues in the South Caucasus: producing accompanying policy briefs, policy notes on the issues of gender equality and underlying cross-cutting issues ( e.g. gender equality perspective in poverty, minority, youth issues; digitalization and gender equality; domestic violence; integrating gender issues in climate and trade policies) and serve as a basis for objective assessment and evidence-based discussion of gender equality in the entire region, deep-diving into the underlying issues and possible policy interventions; (iv) popularize the Index and initiate high-level dialogue between policymakers, policy community and civil society groups in the South Caucasus.