EPI Report: Engendering Value Chains Within the Program Framework

The Republic of Georgia benefits from strategic location, beautiful physical features and historical treasures, and talented, energetic people. In recent years, a democratically elected, forward-looking government has created an empowering, laissez-faire business environment, complementing these natural endowments with an atmosphere in which business can flourish. Recognizing that this combination of assets and opportunity is rare in the world, the U.S. government wishes to strengthen, deepen, and institutionalize these developments to ensure continued peace, stability, and democratic political and economic growth.

In April-May 2011, the Economic Prosperity Initiative (EPI) program undertook several activities in order to engender its value chain initiatives: capacity mapping of those pro women Georgian organizations that work on economic development, gathering secondary data on the current employment statistics of women across EPI‟s priority sectors, and conducting a small scale gender sensitive value chain analysis exercise across one of EPI’s priority sectors.