Assessment of the national water policy, as well as the needs and challenges associated with strengthening a long-term vision of the water policy framework of Georgia.

This project has been put in place to address this need by providing further insight on the prospective vision of the water policy framework in Georgia, including potential implications for the reform of legal, regulatory and governance systems. The overall purpose of the project is to make the case for future reform steps and add insight into a potential sequence of actions.

The objective of the given project is to review the existing policy framework and declared strategic vision and identify the likely barriers of reaching the strategic destination under the current policy framework. Recommendations for policy reform will be identified that increase the likelihood of reaching the desired target. Where relevant, recommendations to recast the strategic vision will be made in the event that the strategic vision appears unrealistic or unaffordable.

Overall, the study will contribute to promoting the use of strategic thinking in water management, pursuing efforts made so far by national institutions and the OECD in the context of the National Policy Dialogues (NPD). This study will contribute to increasing awareness among decision makers, stakeholders and experts on the potential for, and benefits from, a more visionary strategic decision making for water management, as well as the role that economic assessment methods could play for supporting the identification of more sustainable options for long-term water resources management.

The specific objectives of the requested service are:

• To assist the OECD in developing an assessment of the country water policy framework in Georgia and its prospective vision.

• To collect the available data, strategic documents and arrange and conduct interviews with relevant stakeholders from different sectors to inform the assessment.

• To conduct a scenario analysis for different modalities of water policy framework, taking into consideration macro- and micro-affordability aspects of policy implementation.

• To develop policy recommendations on the sequence of reforms ongoing in the water sector of Georgia and the future.