After many years on the back burner of the policy discussion in Georgia, issues related to agriculture and rural development now seem to be at the forefront of debate. And for good reason, as these issues are incredibly complex and have important implications, not only for those residing in rural areas but also for those purchasing agricultural products in towns and cities.

On December 18, 2013, ISET hosted the second event in a series of discussions on the topic of inclusive growth. The topic of the event was Modernization of Vocational Education and Training (VET) and Extension Systems related to agriculture in Georgia.

On November 8, 2013, ISET hosted the first event in a series of discussions on the topic of inclusive growth. The topic of the event was Land ownership of agricultural land: political stability and social cohesion vs. economic efficiency. The presentation opened with a short video prepared especially for the dialogue and was followed by a short presentation about the sector.

The Government of Georgia (GoG) is currently preparing a new Local Self Government Code that will introduce significant modifications to the structure of local-self-governments (LSGs) in Georgia. Currently, Georgia has 63 LSGs (excluding Tbilisi and those areas not under Georgian control). If the proposed law is approved in Parliament, it would increase the number of LSG units dramatically: according to the GoG, by 2015 there would be close to 120 LSGs, and by 2018, approximately 240 LSGs overall. At time of writing, the draft Code was still under discussion by the GoG, prior to its introduction to Parliament.

The main goal of this project was to develop a neutral platform for regular discussion of Georgian government policies, donor-financed programs to promote inclusive growth A total of seven debates and thee project presentations were hosted at ISET as part of this project on topics ranging from farmer cooperation to family farming, to tourism, to vocational training systems, to SME development, to access to energy.