Maka Meshveliani
Maka Meshveliani
Senior program officer and 2015 Andi Parhamovich Fellow
Georgia

Maka Meshveliani is a senior program officer at NDI’s office in Georgia and the 2015 Andi Parhamovich Fellow. She is also actively involved in the women’s movement and is working to create more opportunities for women in Georgia.

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They Say ‘Why Women’s Political Empowerment?’ and I say ‘What Else?’

Credit: Davit Tomadzea

Georgia lags behind most European countries when it comes to women’s political participation. Only 12 percent of the members of the parliament are women and only 11 percent of those in local councils are women. That is a just a 5 percent and 1 percent improvement respectively compared to parliamentary and local council elections in 2008 and 2010 respectively. Out of 12 directly elected mayors of self-governing cities, not one is a women and all 63 directly elected governors are men. Women make up only 17 percent of the Cabinet of Ministers.

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