‘Ring the Bell for Gender Equality’: Georgia’s financial sector continues the tradition

“Rights. Justice. Action. For ALL Women and Girls”. To mark International Women’s Day, Georgia’s financial sector united around this cause and once again joined the global tradition of “Ring the Bell for Gender Equality”.

Organized in partnership with the Georgian Stock Exchange and the World Bank Group, this time the annual event was hosted by Telavi. It once again highlighted the role of the private sector in advancing women’s empowerment and underscored the importance of gender equality in ensuring corporate leadership, transparency and accountability.

The main theme of this year’s International Women’s Day was “Rights. Justice. Action. For ALL Women and Girls”, once again serving as a reminder to the business and financial sector of the importance of translating the commitments on women’s empowerment into concrete steps and contributing to the profitability and sustainability of businesses by supporting gender equality.

The event brought together representatives of the diplomatic corps, the banking sector, international financial institutions, business associations and women entrepreneurs. The guests were welcomed by Giorgi Amzashvili, CEO of the Georgian Stock Exchange; Anne Toft Sørensen, Ambassador of the Kingdom of Denmark to Georgia; Kaori Ishikawa, UN Women Country Representative in Georgia; and Nino Udzilauri, Senior Programme Officer at the World Bank Group.

The first part of the event focused on the key findings and recommendations of the Segmentation Study on Women Entrepreneurs’ Access to Financial Resources in Georgia, conducted by German Sparkassenstiftung Georgia and UN Women. It was highlighted that women entrepreneurs in Georgia continue to face multiple barriers in accessing finance, limiting their ability to start, sustain and expand their businesses. Key challenges include high loan interest rates, fear of failure or risk, limited business networks, lack of financial literacy, lack of assets owned by women, especially real estate, and limited awareness of support programmes.

The study also found that the existing gender-neutral financial products often fail to meet the needs of women entrepreneurs, while most financial institutions lack tailored strategies or programmes to support them. Financial products designed for women entrepreneurs in Georgia are largely developed with the encouragement of international organizations.

Following the presentation of the results and findings, a panel discussion titled ‘From Harvard to the Boardroom: Women Redefining Leadership in Banking’ was held. The discussion featured women professionals from Georgia’s financial sector who completed the Harvard Leadership Programme last year with the support of UN Women. The panelists shared their experiences and emphasized the importance of diversity in the supervisory boards of financial institutions.

As noted by one of the panelists, Salome Makaridze, Head of Communications and Projects at the Georgian Banking Association, there are still barriers that contribute to women’s underrepresentation at the highest decision-making levels in the banking sector.

“It is important to speak openly about this challenge and the ways to overcome it,” said Salome. “The key goal is to raise awareness, and the Harvard programme was an example of this. It brought together women leaders from the financial sector and created a platform for sharing experiences and strengthening leadership skills.”

Initiated by UN Women, the “Ring the Bell for Gender Equality” event is held annually in Georgia. It is noteworthy that last year’s event took place in Kutaisi and promoted inclusivity and the engagement of stakeholders from the regions. Holding this year’s event in Telavi was a continuation of this effort aimed at supporting such inclusivity.

The “Ring the Bell for Gender Equality” event was held within the framework of the UN Women programme “Women’s Increased Leadership for Resilient and Peaceful Societies”, implemented by UN Women country offices in Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine with the support of the UN Women Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia, with generous funding from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark.