Hazelnuts are one of Georgia’s top ten export commodities. During 2010-2020, hazelnuts accounted for around 4.4% of Georgia’s total exports (GeoStat, 2021). In 2013, the quantity of exported hazelnuts hit its maximum level at 30 ths tons, then decreased to 19 ths tons in the following years with an increase in the value indicating higher prices per exported kg of Georgian hazelnuts. In 2016, the quantity of exported hazelnuts amounted to 27 ths tons, which was the second highest indicator in the observed years (2010-2020) (Figure 1).

Considering the significance of a green post-COVID recovery, alongside the importance of maintaining an ecological diverse economy, ISET Policy Institute has spent almost two years developing its Climate Policy Analysis Model. The model, funded by the Swedish International Cooperation Agency (Sida), helps to highlight the climate change adaptation and mitigation agendas, which are ultimately vital for Georgia’s overall economic development and growth.

Under ISET affiliation Luc Leruth, the Lead Economist in the Policy Institute’s Governance and Social Policy Research Center, has recently been appointed a co-editor of The Open-Access, Open-Assessment Journal Economics. As a new form of the academic journal, the publication incorporates a large research community with an open and innovative peer review process; where critically the research is seen as a cooperative enterprise between authors, editors, referees, and readers.

Hosted and moderated by ISET Policy Institute’s Salome Gelashvili, Acting Head of the Agricultural and Rural Development Policy Research Center, the German Sparkassenstiftung Southern Caucasus and Ukraine (DSIK) have recently developed a presentation looking into their Climate Risk Pattern Analysis in Georgia.

ISET is proud to announce its most recent joint research presentation into our impact assessment on domestic work and its influences on female economic empowerment in Georgia. Supported and funded by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, the Austrian Development Cooperation, and hosted by UN Women, the presentation aimed to highlight women’s labor rights and access to reasonable work.