The Executive Director of the National Association of Local Authorities of Georgia (NALAG) Nino Rukhadze delivered a speech at the 10th Global Forum on Statistics.
The large-scale event, organized by the National Statistics Office of Georgia and the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD), focused on discussing the importance of data in promoting policy planning and sustainable development.
During her speech, Nino Rukhadze emphasized the significance of data collection and analysis for municipalities, which is essential for making balanced and needs-based decisions, particularly to ensure equality between women and men in local policies.
According to the associationâs leader, local self-governments are the closest link to the population, and therefore, they primarily need to enhance their knowledge of proactive data collection and analysis.
âMunicipalities must have the appropriate tools to determine what data to collect and how to translate it into policy decisions,â stated Nino Rukhadze.
The Executive Director of NALAG informed the audience about the initiatives undertaken by the association and its partner organizations in this regard.
âIn collaboration with UN Women and the National Statistics Office of Georgia, NALAG has developed indicators that enable municipalities to collect data, which they use in policy planning and decision-making processes to ensure equality between women and men. Together, we have conducted training sessions for municipalities, and it can be confidently stated that these indicators are already actively integrated into their daily operations. Notably, the indicators have been incorporated into the action plans of municipal councils working on womenâs and childrenâs issues, which were developed by NALAG in collaboration with municipal representatives, UN Women, and field experts,â noted Nino Rukhadze.
The forum is taking place from October 1-3 at the Biltmore Hotel in Tbilisi and is attended by nearly 200 participants from around 30 countries and 17 international organizations, including heads of national statistics offices, representatives of international organizations, and government institutions. The forum serves as a global platform for exchanging knowledge, experiences, and practical tools in the field of statistics.
The eventâs motto is âDriving Change through Gender Statistics: The Path to Equality,â and it is held within the framework of the UN Global Statistics Programme. The forum addresses topics such as equality between women and men, womenâs economic empowerment, their full participation in social and economic processes, combating violence and stereotypes against women and girls, the aspects of migration, and issues related to labor statistics, time use, and paid/unpaid work.