On May 25-27, the FREE Network Retreat was held in Minsk, Belarus. The Forum for Research on Eastern Europe and Emerging Economies (FREE) is a joint initiative of SITE (Stockholm), BEROC (Minsk), BICEPS (Riga), CEFIR (Moscow), KSE (Kyiv) and ISET (Tbilisi). All members meet annually and share their experiences. Each organization’s researchers deliver presentations on their recent or ongoing research and get professional feedback from the representatives of their fellow organizations. Irakli [Rati] Kochlamazashvili from ISET delivered a presentation on his recent policy paper, entitled: “Size and Sector Effects in the Performance of Agricultural Cooperatives: A Case Study in Georgia.”
On May 22, ISET hosted a panel discussion on the importance of properly defining problems, a measure which serves as a first step of impact assessment and existing practices in Georgia. This was the first meeting of a series of RIA evening talks organized in the scope of an EU funded project, “Legislative Impact Assessment, Drafting and Representation”.
The panel was comprised of key RIA experts, donor organization and state representatives, who all shared their experiences with the audience. In attendance were Professor Norberto Pignatti, the head of the Energy and Environmental Policy Research Center of the ISET Policy Institute; Ms Maka Chitanava, Senior Researcher at the Environmental Policy Research Center of the ISET Policy Institute; Ms Gvantsa Meunargia, the Head of the Strategic Development Division, Analytical Department, Ministry of Justice; Mr David Gvenetadze, RIA & M&E Advisor, USAID Project Governing for Growth (G4G) in Georgia; and Ms. Liana Akhobadze, Legal Advisor of Agenda 2030 Component, Rule of Law Programme, GIZ.