The ISET Policy Institute (ISET-PI) was commissioned by the World Bank to assist the Social Service Agency (SSA) of Georgia, an agency of the Ministry of Labor, Health, and Social Affairs (MoLHSA), in setting up a system for providing job seekers with vocational and educational training (VET). The project had two specific goals.

The purpose of this event was to have a discussion about the potential of the tourism sector to improve well-being and reduce poverty in rural areas of Georgia, as well to discuss the contribution the development of large hotels in peripheral touristic destinations can make to inclusive growth in local communities. The follow up activity of this dialogue was an excursion to the Kazbegi Municipality on July 19.

Back in the middle of the 19th century, Georgia was much more fragmented and unequal than today. It was a society consisting of a huge mass of illiterate peasants (mostly serfs working the lands of their lords and the church), a sliver of urban population (large parts of which, particularly in Tbilisi, were not ethnically Georgian), and a relatively large proportion (up to 5%) of nobility, organized according to a rigid hierarchical system and controlling much of the country’s land.

What is a family? Posing this question to a child in, say, Sweden, would almost surely lead to the answer “mum, dad, and children”. What would be the answer in Georgia? In Georgia, a child would most likely answer “grandmother, grandfather, mum, dad, and children”. The multigenerational family, nowadays almost unknown in the economically more developed parts of the world, is still very common in Georgia.

The main purpose of the consultancy was to contribute to the elaboration of the Population Situation Analysis (PSA) section on Socio-Economic Context in Georgia. The Government of Georgia (GOG) and the Prime Minister have announced addressing demographic challenges as a top priority of the country. UNFPA was asked to support undertaking the Population Situation Analysis (PSA) in Georgia, in order to generate evidence regarding demographic situation that would be further used for elaboration of the Demographic Strategic Plan for Georgia.