On 14 December, ISET Policy Institute’s Salome Gelashvili, Practice Head for agriculture and rural policy, presented the results of their Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA) of the Draft Law on Food Loss and Waste. This RIA was conducted with financial support from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and presented at an event devoted to the governmental draft law on “Food Loss and Waste Reduction and Food Donation”, held at Rooms Hotel, Tbilisi. The event was organized by the Agrarian Issues Committee of the Parliament of Georgia, with FAO support, under the European Union’s ENPARD III Programme. Furthermore, the results of the latest Gender Impact Assessment (GIA), authored by the Permanent Parliamentary Gender Equality Council, were also presented to the audience. 

Nino Tsilosani, Chair of the Agrarian Issues Committee of the Parliament of Georgia, Khatia Tsilosani, First Deputy Chair of the parliamentary Environmental Protection and Natural Resources Committee, Giorgi Khanishvili, First Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Agriculture, and Jumber Maruashvili, Senior FAO National Policy Advisor, spoke about the importance of the draft law and the respective assessments. They then discussed the objectives of the draft and its potential to contribute to alleviating poverty and increasing food security levels throughout the country. 

Charitable organizations, retailers, non-governmental sector representatives, the farmers’ association, and other interested parties all had the opportunity to gain detailed information about the draft law, the RIA, and the GIA, and to ask any pertinent questions.