The Public Health Institute of Georgia has set out its strategy as a regional public health institute for the Caucasus, Central Asia, Eastern Europe and Türkiye, with Tbilisi as its hub.
Its work is organised in four pillars — Health Security & Infection Prevention, Health & Migration, Environment, Work & Health and Quality, Safety & People-centred Care — delivered through three platforms: knowledge (the Georgian Medical Journal and GMJ News), learning (GMJ Academy) and public reach (the Sheni network).
Accreditation is delivered by the alliance partner, Accréditation Sans Frontières. PHIG’s method runs from evidence to proposal, public voice, engagement, policy change and follow-up.
The strategy document defines PHIG as a regional public health institute — not a national one — with a geographic mandate covering the South Caucasus, Central Asia, Eastern Europe, and Türkiye. This reflects Tbilisi’s position as a transit hub and natural convening point for health cooperation across a belt of countries that share historical, epidemiological, and regulatory legacies but lack dedicated regional public health infrastructure.
The four-pillar structure — health security, health and migration, environment and work, quality and safety — each addresses a domain where regional cooperation generates value that no single country can produce alone. PHIG’s model treats knowledge production, professional training, and platform development as the three instruments through which the institute influences practice and policy: generating evidence, building capacity, and creating accessible tools that lower the cost of applying that evidence.
The strategy sets targets for 2027: a functioning WHO Collaborating Centre nomination, at least one major bilateral health agreement facilitated through PHIG’s convening role, a Health and Migration Observatory serving as the primary English-language reference for migration health data in the region, and GMJ indexed in MEDLINE.
Professor, David Tvildiani Medical University | Chair, Public Health Institute of Georgia | Founder, Accréditation Sans Frontières
