On the 25th of January, the Agricultural Policy Research Center attended a hearing of the draft law on agritourism by the sectoral committee of the Parliament of Georgia, during which our research team presented the findings of the Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA) of the draft law and discussed the associated socio-economic benefits and costs.

The strength of the ISET community is best demonstrated by the solid bonds that exist within the community. The number of ISET community members are returning to help the institute by passing on their skills, knowledge, and experience to the next generations continues to grow.

Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA) is a core tool for regulatory quality. It is a systemic approach to structurally define policy issues and critically assess the likely positive and negative effects of the regulatory and non-regulatory alternatives proposed to address them.

Christopher Hitchens, one of the greatest public intellectuals of the last four decades, famously said 'The only way for any country to get out of poverty is the empowerment of women'. Everyone at ISET would no doubt agree with him – Professor Norberto Pignatti in particular, whose latest publication examines how increasing women's participation in the labor force is important for sustainable economic development in transition countries.

On November 26, the Agricultural and Rural Policy Research Center (APRC) of the ISET Policy Institute conducted a third stakeholder working meeting under the auspices of a project entitled “Information quality standards for the participants and beneficiaries of the Agricultural Knowledge and Information System (AKIS)”.