On January 31, ReforMeter and the USAID Economic Governance Program hosted a second public-private dialogue dedicated to assessing the progress of the water resource management reform. The reform assessment includes an overview of the activities outlined and executed under the new law "On Water Resources Management" that was adopted by the Parliament of Georgia on June 30, 2023. The new law replaced the "Law of Georgia on Water" (in force since 1997) and became a new framework document for water resources management. The law stipulates the establishment of a basin management system and the introduction of economic instruments for surface water use. The new law also envisages the expansion of the water resources monitoring network and introduces measures to prevent water pollution.

At a public-private dialogue event Mariam Bakhtadze, USAID Economic Governance Program Advisor in Natural Resources Management, Mariam Makarova, Head of the Water Division of the Environment and Climate Change Department of the Ministry of Environment Protection and Agriculture of Georgia, and Nana Gogitidze, Chief Specialist of the Office of the Environmental Protection and Natural Resources Committee of the Parliament of Georgia overviewed the progress of water resources management reform, while Ana Burduli, Senior Researcher of the ISET Policy Institute and ReforMeter presented the findings from the government survey assessing the progress of the reform as well as recent dynamics of the economic indicators designed to track the reform progress and outcomes.

The meeting was attended by the representatives of the government agencies involved in the development and implementation of the reform, the civil and private sectors, and various stakeholders. The parties gathered at the meeting discussed the progress of the reform. The event ended with a public-private dialogue and an anonymous, quantitative evaluation of the reform by stakeholders.