Democratization: Gender Equality Tiina Ilsen, Head of the ODIHR’s Gender Unit, giving an interview on the sidelines of a meeting of the Georgian Women’s NGO Coalition, in Tbilisi, 2 November. The ODIHR provided expertise to the Coalition in its work to establish a High-Level Governmental Commission for Gender OSCE/CURTIS BUDDEN Equality. level representatives of key ministries and NGO Coalition members. The ODIHR is now providing expertise on the draft national action plan to the Commission and the NGO Coalition, which is utilizing its extensive women’s network in all regions of Georgia. In Armenia, the ODIHR provided both the methodology and strategy for a large-scale effort of local women’s organizations to launch a public discussion with policy makers in government and parliament on ways of mainstreaming gender issues in the national education system. With the benefit of ODIHR expertise, this has developed into a programme for integrating specific and inter-disciplinary gender courses in secondary- and university-level curricula. II. Women’s leadership development, coalition-building, and networking The ODIHR conducts activities in the areas of leadership development, coalition-building, and networking in order to increase the participation of women in decision-making processes. Such efforts, while largely concentrated on civil society actors, often involve building the skills and knowledge of women who are already in government positions in areas such as politi- 36 cal participation, governance, lobbying, and networking. Throughout 2005, the ODIHR continued to provide skills training, capacity-building, and expertise to women’s coalitions and regional networks in Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Kyrgyzstan. In Azerbaijan, the ODIHR provided expertise to a regional women’s network to conduct awareness-raising and leadership-building activities in 30 regions of the country. This has helped the network’s members develop practical skills for promoting increased transparency of, and the involvement of women in, local government decision-making and for encouraging women’s engagement in ongoing political processes at all levels, in particular the November 2005 parliamentary elections. In Georgia, with the expertise and strategic guidance provided by the ODIHR, the Women’s NGO Coalition and its thematic working groups actively contributed to ongoing reform processes by working to integrate gender aspects into the policy areas of education, health, economy, reform of local governance, peace-building, and environment- and mediarelated issues. The ODIHR also provided advice and consultancy to the regional members of the ANNUAL REPORT 2005