The project is aimed at providing a useful basis for the development of the new Cooperation Programme on how to best address the inclusion of vulnerable social groups. The study will help in the formation of decisions over any needed program adjustments and target groups in order to achieve better outcomes of the future Cooperation Program.

The current Strategy of the Swiss Regional Cooperation for South Caucasus (2017-2020) addresses gender and non-discrimination in project activities and focuses on tackling poverty and social exclusion problems of certain groups such as women, ethnic minorities, poor farmers, and residents of mountainous areas. In 2020, the SCO plans to develop a new South Caucasus Regional Cooperation Programme for 2021-2024, and the SCO Tbilisi takes this as an opportunity to undertake the desk review and the portfolio analysis in order to inform the strategy on how to best address inclusion of the vulnerable social groups.

The objectives of the project are the following:

• Identify and report patterns of poverty/social exclusion by spatial distribution, socioeconomic background, and other group-specific characteristics in the three South Caucasus countries;

• Identify existing mechanisms that sustain poverty and exclusion among groups, and which groups are principally suffering from both poverty and exclusion;

• Examine challenges/tradeoffs that should be considered more broadly when looking at social exclusion;

• Review SCO and other donors’ portfolios and suggest alternative strategies to address and reduce exclusion.