Rati, Lasha, and Irakli are first-year engineering students at the Georgian Technical University (GTU). Rather unusual students, one should add. At 22-23, all three are very much alive. Yet, they never attend classes and are not taking exams. BSc in engineering would be their third educational degree, yet neither one of them has any intention of completing his studies at GTU. And one more interesting detail: their ‘studies’ at GTU are paid for by the Georgian taxpayers because engineering (as well as mathematics and natural sciences) is considered to be a priority subject by the Georgian government.

On November 24, the ISET Policy Institute hosted an ENPARD workshop representing all four consortia (CARE, OXFAM, Mercy Corps, and PIN). The workshop featured Michaela Garguláková from People In Need (PIN) who talked about the Monitoring and Evaluation system and gave a presentation about the monitoring indicators of the ENPARD project.

Georgian media is full of stories about nepotism and the funny justifications of those involved: When Irakli Garibashvili, still being Minister of the Interior, was confronted with nepotism allegations, he replied: “Don’t you know that a relative of your wife is not your relative?”

On Thursday, November 19, ISET hosted Zurab Japaridze, a member of the Parliament of Georgia. The title of his presentation was “As of the Argonauts to Shevardnadze”. Zurab presented the economic history of Georgia and discussed various factors affecting its development along the way. The material was unique and heavily based on different alternative historical sources describing economic phenomena of the past.

On November 18th, ISET hosted Principle Economist of Asian Development Bank, Dr. Donghyun Park, who gave a presentation on Inequality, Inclusive Growth, and Fiscal Policy in Asia.