On 15 March, ISET Policy Institute, with support from the Swedish Embassy, met representatives from local non-governmental and international organizations, and from the Gori public and private sectors, in order to introduce its activities and key products.

The welcome address was delivered by ISET’s Tamar Sulukhia. ISET representatives thereafter spoke about the importance of evidence-based research, mechanisms, and tools in policymaking.

During the latter part of the conference, Salome Deisadze from the research team in the first part of her presentation introduced a recent ISET development – the Gender Equality Index (GEI), which measures progress toward gender equality within 12 former soviet countries, including the three countries of the South Caucasus: Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan. Later she moved on to overview one of ISET’s regular publications – the Consumer Confidence Index which measures the degree of optimism that consumers feel about the overall state of the economy and their personal financial situation.

Salome Deisadze’s review was followed by a presentation on the ReforMeter, led by ISET’s Giorgi Papava – the ReforMeter is a platform for assessing economic reforms, supported by the USAID Economic Governance Program. During her overview, Ana discussed the project’s target reforms, each of which is assessed, reported, and published by the ReforMeter team.

Mariam Tsulukidze from ISET’s research team took over and briefly talked about the air quality challenges in Georgia. Mariam outlined the policy solutions that are needed to mitigate the pollution problem in Georgia.

This special event concluded with a Q&A and a discussion where participants emphasized ISET's current projects and research activities, as well as all potential partnerships in the future.