The Law of Georgia on Energy and Water Supply, adopted in December 2019, envisages certain general provisions concerning vulnerable customers. The Law states that the Georgian government and local government bodies, in consultation with other interested parties, shall develop special programs/measures/benefits to ensure the supply of electricity and natural gas for vulnerable customers.

This report was prepared under the mandate ‘Analysis of the National Agricultural Knowledge and Information System (AKIS) in Georgia’ commissioned for the UNDP project ‘Modernization of Vocational Education and Training (VET) System Related to Agriculture in Georgia’. The mandate includes three larger fields of inquiry, namely an analysis of the Georgian AKIS actors and linkages including a visualization, the identification of assets and gaps in the current system, and recommendations on how to improve.

This nationwide cluster mapping was conducted under EU Innovative Action for Private Sector Competitiveness in Georgia (EU IPSC), implemented by UNDP, FAO, UNIDO and IOM, and funded by EU. UNIDO’s component of the UNJP aims at strengthening the capacities of policy-makers and other stakeholders to identify and develop clusters.

Georgia experienced a significant rise in Sex Ratio at Birth (SRB1) after its independence from the Soviet Union. Currently, it is among twelve countries worldwide where sex imbalances at birth have been observed. The other countries are Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, China, Hong Kong (SAR of China), India, the Republic of Korea, Montenegro, Taiwan (Province of China), Tunisia, and Vietnam.

Since the Uruguay Round of the World Trade Organization (WTO), which introduced agriculture to the GATT (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade) negotiation table, there has been increasing policy interest and academic debate on food safety regulations and their effect on the agri-food trade. During the Uruguay Round, WTO members negotiated the Sanitary and Phytosanitary Standards (SPSs) in the “SPS Agreement” and the Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) agreements, which share common principles and rules with all member countries (Mayeda, 2004).

The advent of globalization in recent decades has had a profound impact on the development path of countries around the globe. The rapid development of ICT technologies coupled with global tendencies to reduce tariff and non-tariff barriers since WWII made possible economic integration between countries on the scale never imagined before.