Developing Regulatory Impact Analysis in Georgia
Best practices from OECD and other economies
Moderator: Charles-H. Montin (France)
Overview
Far beyond the membership of OECD (34 of the most developed economies in the world),
Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA) has been implemented as a cornerstone of regulatory
reform policies, with a view to sustaining and improving national competiveness by ensuring
an optimal regulatory framework for business operation and growth.
All OCDE countries are now implementing RIA and the Public Governance Directorate of the
OECD has been monitoring their success, organizing regular best practice exchange
discussions between Member States, and “exporting” the know-how to a growing number
of interested partners such as the BRICS, Indonesia, Viet-Nam and other regions of the
world such as the Middle-East- North Africa (MENA).
The added value of the OECD approach is that it has elaborated a set of principles to guide
governments to successfully implement RIA. The principles were honed in international
discussion of peer-reviewed best practices and enshrined in the “2012 Recommendation on
principles of regulatory policy and governance.” They are independent from any specific
national institutional or legal context, and are suitable for adaptation to any specific set of
circumstances. They support evidence-based decision making based on optimal awareness
of the underlying economic and social realities and making the most of the contribution of
stakeholders engaged in an effective consultation process.
Before enacting any large-scale reform, it is necessary to take a comprehensive and
integrated view of the impacts of legislation and regulation, encompassing all the
dimensions of social and economic change. Wherever applicable, the full “life-cycle” of the
new norm needs to be ascertained. Cost-benefit analysis (CBA) of draft regulation is a
central component of the process, which also requires inputs from a well-devised
consultation process, as well as the anticipation of compliance and enforcement issues.
The purpose of the proposed workshop is to provide senior officials from the Government
of Georgia with an introduction to planning, implementing and managing the RIA process.
The seminar is intended to be interactive and delegates will have the opportunity of sharing
their own experiences as much as possible to reach conclusions on how the existing RIA
modalities could be improved in the national setting.
At the end of this seminar delegates should:
1. Have an deeper understanding about the institutional setting and capacities
necessary to operate an efficient RIA scheme;
2. Have reached an informal inter-agency view on priorities for improving the existing
national scheme.
Developing RIA in Georgia (day2) (8/11/2014)
Developing Regulatory Impact Analysis in Georgia
Draft Programme for discussion
9:00 – 9:30
Welcome and introduction
After the opening address by a senior Georgian official (t.b.c.), organisers will
propose for discussion the objectives of the event and outline the agenda of the
workshop. Delegates will be asked to state their interest in RIA and cost-benefit
analysis and indicate their expectations from the course.
9:30 – 10:30
Context and justification of RIA: Regulatory Policy and Governance
(C.H. Montin, moderator of the workshop)
This session will examine, on the basis of a presentation by the moderator, the
governance context which is necessary for RIA to be implemented effectively.
All the main notions currently in use internationally will be introduced: national
regulatory policy, smart regulation, better regulation, cost-benefit analysis, and
others, will be explained insofar as these concepts lay behind the purpose and
justification of RIA.
Participants will then be invited to discuss, from personal experience:
 How the ideas do presented fit with their perception of the country’s
regulatory policy needs
 What the main challenges may be to implement RIA in the administration
they know?
 What lessons can be drawn from the experiences presented?
Coffee break
Situation of the RIA scheme in Georgia
(with a representative of the ministry of economy)
This session will take stock of the existing RIA institutional capacities in Georgia
and how they may be improved for more efficient regulation
10:30 – 10:45
10:45 – 11:30
11:30 – 12:30
Representative of ministry of economy
An overview of the phases of RIA preparation
(presentation by C.H. Montin, moderator of the workshop)
This session will give present the RIA process by providing an overview of the
various stages from problem definition to ex-post evaluation, on the basis of the
best practices from around the world? It is not always understood that the draft
RIA should support all the stages of the preparation of new policy or regulation,
and be gradually enriched as the results of data collection and consultation are
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consolidated by the team in charge. At this stage, the main methodological
resources drawn from international best practice will be presented to support
the more technical work in the following sessions.
12:30 – 13.30
Lunch
13:30 – 14.15
Defining the issue, the objectives and the possible policy options
Presentation by C.H. Montin, moderator of the workshop
RIA is a heavy process but much time and effort can be saved by knowing how
to correctly scope the issue under consideration and define the objectives of the
intended policy or regulation. Too often policy is launched without taking this
necessary survey of possible modes of public intervention and specifying the
rationale for the option such as regulation, recommended for adoption. The
method will be illustrated by two practical examples.
14.15 – 15:00
15:00 – 15.15
15.15 – 16.00
16.00 – 16.45
Assessing impacts using cost-benefit analysis and other techniques
Presentation by C.H. Montin, moderator of the workshop
One of the most challenging parts of the RIA process is to identify the multiple
impacts of new legislation, an exercise that must be exhaustive while preserving
the principle of proportionality (focus the effort on most significant impacts).
The problem is that impacts may be very diverse and pose many difficulties
when it comes to estimating them. However, international best practice here
again can serve to illustrate how much accuracy and detail RIA drafters can be
expected to offer. Cost-benefit analysis (CBA) as the most developed assessment
technique will be presented in its contribution to the RIA process.
Coffee break
Group exercise: case study on regulating organic products
This session will provide an opportunity for delegates to practice skills
(identifying the problem, setting objectives, defining options, etc.) presented in
the previous sessions, by addressing a case study taken from true life.
Consultation at all stages of the RIA
Presentation by C.H. Montin, moderator of the workshop
Regulation is now understood to be more effective if it is has been developed
with full knowledge of the positions of the main interested parties
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(“stakeholders.”) Consultation is viewed as a key input into the RIA process,
contributing to each stage of the process. It is not always easy to identify who
are key stakeholders and define a plan of action to collect the information they
may possess on the issue, as well as their views on possible reforms. This session
will look at the vast array of consultation mechanisms that have been used
across the world, and define in which circumstances each can best be employed.
16.45 – 17.00
Conclusion and wrap-up
During this session, the organisers and the course members will come together
and discuss the main lessons-learnt and possible follow-up activities, in RIA or
the wider Regulatory Reform agenda.
Biography of moderator:
Charles-Henri Montin is currently Regulatory Adviser to the ministry of administrative
reform of Lebanon, delivering a simplification programme in 4 ministries. Until March 2014
he had been a senior official from the ministry of economy and finance of France and a
representative of this country in the OECD Regulatory Policy Committee (and vice-chairman
of the committee). An alumnus of the Ecole Nationale d'Administration, he first joined the
ministry of foreign affairs, then opted for an international career (1989-2004) in
management positions at CERN-Geneva, UN and NATO. From 2004 to 2014, he has become
one of the top experts in Regulatory Governance, working successively in the French
administration, the European Commission, the World Bank and OECD. Mr Montin, who is binational French and Australian, has two mother tongues, English and French, and can work
in Spanish. He is the editor of the only blog on regulatory quality directed at government
officials and regulators and has published widely on regulatory reform and legislative
drafting (http://www.smartregulation.net ).
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