On March 19, ReforMeter and the USAID Economic Governance Program hosted a third public-private dialogue dedicated to assessing the progress of the RIA institutionalization reform that aims to integrate the execution of RIAs into the routine practice of policymaking and implementation. The 2020 government ordinance on ‘the approval of the regulatory impact assessment (RIA) methodology’ establishes legislative requirements for conducting RIAs and serves as the cornerstone of the RIA institutionalization reform’s legal framework. In addition, the reform encompasses activities focused on capacity-building, institutional framework, and infrastructure and budget components.

 In the first part of the public-private dialogue Davit Keshelava, Lead Economist of the ISET Policy Institute overviewed the Gender Impact Assessment (GIA) procedure, while Ana Gvenetadze, Head of the Directorate of Governing Institutions of the USAID Public Administration Program, delved into the details of the online course for strengthening RIA-related competencies of civil servants.

In the second part of the dialogue, Tea Loladze, Deputy Head of the Economic Policy Department of the Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development of Georgia, Shorena Kakhidze, Head of the Department of Financial Results Evaluation and Legislative Process Promotion of the Budget Office of the Parliament, and Maya Guntsadze, USAID Economic Governance Program Adviser on Regulatory Impact Assessment and Monitoring overviewed the progress of RIA institutionalization reform, while Levan Tevdoradze, Senior Researcher of the ISET Policy Institute and ReforMeter presented the findings from the government survey assessing the progress of the reform as well as recent dynamics of the economic indicators designed to track the reform progress and outcomes.

The meeting was attended by the representatives of the government agencies involved in the development and implementation of the reform, the civil and private sectors, and various stakeholders. The parties gathered at the meeting discussed the progress of the reform. The event ended with a public-private dialogue and an anonymous, quantitative evaluation of the reform by stakeholders.