The relevance of agriculture in formal employment dropped in many European, Central, and East Asian countries over the previous decades. The mutually reinforcing and interdependent processes of development outside the agricultural sector, along with significant urbanization, have resulted in new dynamics and diversity in the rural labor landscape. Remittances, as the link between urban and international migrants and their original households, have gained importance in sustaining rural livelihoods, especially in poorer countries and regions.

On January 26th, ISET hosted a discussion on urban mobility in Tbilisi. The event was co-organized with Iare Pekhit, a non-profit organization that lobbies, advocates, and organizes for the rights of pedestrians. Iare Pekhit is creating space for discussion between urban activists, lawyers, and decision-makers on our city's pedestrian issues to drive the change desperately needed.

Some Background on the Georgian PSA The present Population Situation Analysis (PSA) was carried out by the Country Office of UNFPA in Georgia, at the request of the Government Planning & Innovations Unit of the Administration of the Government of Georgia between late July and early November of 2014.

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.

On 22 April 2014, ISET hosted Dr. Maryam Naghsh Nejad, from the Institute for the Study of Labor, Bonn, who presented her paper “Does Suburbanization cause obesity?”.