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.

The conclusion of the Association Agreement (AA) with the European Union was euphorically acclaimed by Georgian media as well as political and economic decision-makers. Part of the AA is the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement (DCFTA). The DCFTA is intended to liberalize trade between Georgia and the EU by lowering tariffs and reducing non-tariff barriers. For agriculture, the most relevant changes relate to food safety (bacterial contaminants, pesticides, inspection, and labeling) as well as animal and plant health (phytosanitation).

On June 11, 2014, ISET hosted Douglas H. Brooks, the Assistant Chief Economist of the Asian Development Bank's Economics and Research Department. He presented Georgia’s main trade statistics and discussed the benefits to Georgia from global value-added trade.

On May 29, Dr. Maksym Obrizan, from the Kyiv School of Economics, provided an interesting seminar on the subject of his working paper, "Retirement in HRS participants: the role of endogenous subjective and objective health measures".