The COVID-19 pandemic and consequent stringent lockdown measures have had a drastic toll on the Georgian economy. The economic downturn has significantly affected the resilience of local Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), whose sales decreased by almost 13% (YoY) in the first two quarters of 2020. These negative impacts of the economic contraction have been particularly severe for Women-led Small and Medium Enterprises (WSMEs).

Last week Georgians took part in largely proportional parliamentary elections. Dozens of parties were registered as election contestants. To what extent do their visions coincide with yours in different important areas of public policy? You can get a detailed answer to these questions on the digital platform "Election Compass Georgia".

In partnership with PMC Research, ISET Policy Institute is working on the project “Sector and Value Chain Analytics” under the USAID Economic Security Program, implemented by DAI. Using quantitative and qualitative analytical methods, the project team analyzes economic tendencies in the local and also regional/global context, competitiveness of local businesses, opportunities, and challenges in various targeted value chains.

In order to equip citizens with knowledge and information on political parties' programs and help voters explore which political party is closest to their views, the ISET Policy Institute participated in designing and implementing Election Compass Georgia, a collaborative effort of Georgian institutions and countries' development partner organizations.

Identifying barriers to youth entrepreneurship in Georgia studying the Georgian entrepreneurship ecosystem. The study aims to identify the barriers youth entrepreneurship in Georgia faces and proposes interventions, which could be led by relevant actors within the ecosystem, to overcome the challenges.