Rural women learn about disaster risk reduction
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UN Women in Georgia is actively working to raise awareness among women and girls about disaster risks. The steps taken in this direction aim to ensure greater involvement of women in relevant decision-making processes; to promote the sharing of acquired knowledge; and to support disaster risk reduction, effective response and the introduction of gender-responsive approaches within their communities. The issue is particularly acute for rural women, who are more vulnerable to disaster risks and, at the same time, have more limited access to resources and essential information.
To address the existing situation, UN Women conducted a series of trainings titled “Strengthening Community Capacities for Gender-Sensitive Disaster Risk Reduction” in the regions of Georgia in autumn 2025. The sessions brought together 82 participants from the municipalities of Gori, Kobuleti, Zugdidi and Telavi, as well as surrounding villages.
During the trainings, participants received information on disaster risk reduction, the impacts of climate change and the importance of women’s participation in these processes. Through the interactive sessions, participants learned to identify disaster risks at the community level and to apply gender-responsive approaches in disaster risk reduction initiatives. As a result, the women who attended the sessions are now able to independently identify local hazards linked to climate change, develop household and community evacuation plans, apply basic safety rules in practice, provide first aid and medical response, and prepare thematic, gender-responsive recommendations for local self-government authorities, among other actions.
The training held in Telavi was attended by 44-year-old Lali Turkoshvili, who lives in the village of Zemo Alvani in Akhmeta Municipality. About 15 years ago, together with friends, Lali initiated clean-up and greening activities in Zemo Alvani, engaging young people in these initiatives. She continues to carry out this work actively to this day.
“I am a volunteer in my village, and I think about future generations—I want to set a good example for them,” Lali said. “Before this training, I knew very little about disaster risks. I received valuable information that I can apply in my daily life. This issue affects all of us, so I am already thinking about how to demonstrate preventive measures to my fellow villagers in practice, in a way that allows me to share the knowledge I have gained easily.”
In the future, with the support of UN Women, a women’s network is planned to be established, whose members will be able to identify hazards and respond to them using their knowledge and skills. Notably, the series of sessions was preceded by a training for civil society representatives and a training-of-trainers programme, attended by the co-founders of the Women’s National League, who then led the training sessions for rural women.
The initiative is part of the UN Women project “Gender in Disaster Risk Reduction”, which is implemented with the financial support of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC).