Food supply systems are crucial to the economies of most developing countries, supplying the largest share of food production, and constituting livelihoods and a key source of income for the majority of the population (FAO, 2020). It is therefore vital to maintain the steady flow of goods and services required from local and international food supply chains to ensure the health of the population, and to protect their incomes and livelihoods.

The recovery of the Consumer Confidence Index, observed from May to July, has been losing steam in September and the November survey confirms that consumer confidence is struggling to go back to prior pandemic levels.

Starting from October 26, the ISET Policy Institute team, in cooperation with the USAID Economic Governance Program, started an online training course in Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA) for public servants. The aim of the training is to provide participants from the selected institutions a clear understanding of the purpose of RIA, its structure and implementation, and how it works within the context of Georgian. The course will also develop and strengthen the participants’ technical skills that are necessary to conduct standard RIAs in accordance with the RIA methodology approved by the Government of Georgia in January 2020. The training is organized around specific RIA steps, included practical group activities every week, and will last for a total of seven weeks.

When the Georgian unemployment statistics for Quarter 2 (April, May, June) of 2020 came out, no one was surprised to see that the national unemployment rate, which had been falling steadily over the previous quarters, and even years, suddenly increased by 0.9 percentage points relative to the same quarter of 2019 (more precisely from 11.4% in Q2 2019 to 12.3% in Q2 2020). Perhaps we were more surprised by the fact that the unemployment rate did not go up more drastically in the midst of a strict lockdown, various travel restrictions, and quarantine measures.

On September 11, ISET Policy Institute's Agriculture and Rural Policy Research Center (APRC) presented the main results of the Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA) on the High Mountainous Region Designation of Energy Development and Access to the project's stakeholders.