Meet The On Think Tanks Exchange’s participants

9 January 2014
After reviewing the applications 10 candidates will join The On Think Tanks Exchange. The 10 participants include think tankers from Ecuador, Peru, Brazil, Argentina, Hungary, Georgia, Ukraine, Slovakia, and Indonesia. Over the next two years they will come together to share lessons and experiences, learn from each other, and work on collaborative research projects. Read this blog to meet the participants and learn more about the project.

One of On Think Tanks Lab’s initiatives is an exchange between think tanks from around the world. They will come together over a period of two years in virtual and face-to-face meetings to share lessons and experiences and work on collaborative research projects.

Over the holidays, we met (online) to make choose the first group of participants:

After reviewing the applications, the Steering Committee chose 10 candidates to join The Exchange.  We had originally said 8 would be able to participate, but the Knowledge Sector Initiative in Indonesia joined the Think Tank Fund and the Think Tank Initiative to support the participation of two local think tanks.This helped extend the reach of The Exchange to a new region.

In the end the 10 participants included thinktankers from Ecuador, Peru, Brazil, Argentina, Hungary, Georgia, Ukraine, Slovakia, and Indonesia.

Here they are:

Petra Edina Reszkető is a Hungarian economist with an MPhil in Political Economy. Her main fields of interest are development of business environment (esp. supporting SMEs), local economic development aiming at social and economic integration, and measuring government efficiency /transparency. As founding partner of and senior researcher at Budapest Institute for Policy Analysis, a Budapest-based think-thank, she has led and participated in several evaluation and impact assessment projects covering related government and civil programmes in Hungary and in the Central Eastern European region. Prior to the foundation of the Institute, she worked for the Ministry of Economy in Hungary. She has a wide range of experiences with designing and running evaluation projects based on both quantitative and qualitative methods. She is also engaged in various civil projects aiming at promoting open government (see, www.amipenzunk.huwww.mitigernek.huopen data index).

Irine Guruli works as a Program Manager for Economic Policy Research Center (EPRC), a leading Think Tank in Georgia. She is involved in economic policy research analysis, preparation of organization’s flagship product: quarterly and annual economic outlooks of Georgia. Besides, Irina works on budget oversight, monitoring of state funded programs, capacity-building of civic institutions, government agencies and the media for effective engagement in the economic policy-making and budgetary processes. EPRC works on empowering the general population with innovative tools to actively participate in the country’s economic life.

Leandro Echt is the Coordinator of the Influence, Monitoring and Evaluation Program at the Center for the Implementation of Public Policies Promoting Equity and Growth (CIPPEC), a think tank in Argentina. He mainly studies the role of think tanks and their influence in public policies, and develop different capacity building activities to improve organisations’ capacities to influence policy (influence planning, research communications, and M&E of policy influence, fund raising). He has coordinated the program “Spaces for engagement: using knowledge to improve public decisions”, a six year long CIPPEC and GDNet’s initiative developing Latin American, African and Asian researchers’ capacities for policy influence. Leandro also coordinates Bridging research and policy in Latin America (VIPPAL), a space offering resources and other materials to strengthen the link between research and policy in Latin America. He holds a BA in Political Sciences, from the University de Buenos Aires. Professor of Social Sciences, University of Buenos Aires. Master in Public Policies and Development Management of the Georgetown University and University of San Martin (thesis pending).

Nadia Dobryanska is an expert on public administration at the Centre for Political and Legal Reforms (CPLR), a Ukrainian think tank. Her main activities are research and advice on the matters of administrative services, decentralisation, public administration, and local governance. As a member of the CPLR team, she advocates for the good governance principles and respect for human rights in public services, innovations in delivering administrative services to citizens, as well as decentralisation of public administration of Ukraine for better democratic participation in managing public matters. Prior to joining CPLR, she worked as an immigration lawyer at a Big-Four audit firm. Nadia holds a law degree of the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy (Kyiv, Ukraine).

Riko Wahyudi is Coordinator of Climate Change Division in Article 33 Indonesia. Previously, he worked as an assistant lecturer at the Faculty of Forestry at Gadjah Mada University and the Faculty of Agriculture at National University in Jakarta. His main academic interests are revenue management and governance of the natural resources sector for climate change mitigation. He also learned about REDD+ policy analysis on the collaborative program between Indonesia University and Australian National University, and took master classes on Green Growth at Bond University, Queensland, Australia. His work has been presented at several scientific conferences, such as in Australia and the United States (World Congress of theInternational Union for Forest Research Organizations/IUFRO). Riko is also active as a National Board Member of the Indonesian Association of Environmental Intellectuals (PERWAKU).

Adriana Arellano is Grupo FARO‘s Research Director. At present she leads the research project “Understanding the relationship between universities and think tanks in Latin America” and is implementing an initiative to apply prospective research in Ecuador. Before joining Grupo FARO she worked as a consultant to the Inter-American Development Bank and UNASUR and was first an Education Policy Analyst and then the director of Policy Management at the Coordinating Ministry of Social Development in Ecuador.

Adriana has a bachelor’s degree on commercial engineering with a focus on finances at the Pontificia Universidad Católica in Ecuador and a MA in Social Work and Social Policy Management from Florida State University. Her interests are social policy and education.

Francesca Uccelli has a degree in Anthropology from the Catholic University in Peru and a Master’s degree in Education and Human Development at the University of Columbia in New York. Since 1998, she has worked as a researcher at the Institute of Peruvian Studies (IEP) on issues including rural education, intercultural education, families and child socialisation, non-school based childhood education programmes, alternate secondary education in rural areas, secondary education in urban areas, initial teacher training, training and capacity building for teachers, and the role of organised teachers unions (SUTEP). More recently, Francesca has worked on social mobility amongst young people and the treatment of the issue of political violence in schools. Currently, she is an Associated Researcher of the IEP, Senior Researcher, Member of the Executive Board and Director of Finance.

Bambang Hudayana is a senior researcher of the Institute for Research and Empowerment (IRE) in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, working on advocacy and policy reform. He is in charge of the institute’s programs focused on strengthening indigenous communities, village economy and good governance, and enhancing the participation of the victims of natural disasters and the vulnerable communities in the areas where extractive industries are operating. He is also the executive director of the Centre of Rural and Regional Development at Gadjah Mada University, one of the partners of IRE Yogyakarta, through which he is able to reach a broader student audience and promote the subject of community empowerment.

Radka Vicenová is a Junior Reseach Fellow at the Centre for European and North Atlantic Affairs (CENAA). She received her master’s degree in Political Science at the Faculty of Philosophy at the Comenius University in Bratislava. During her studies she focused on the issue of extremism in Central and Eastern Europe. She has long-term experience in the non-governmental sector. As a project manager she cooperated with the civic association People Against Racism on several research projects within Slovakia and international networks (RAXEN, INACH, ENAR) focused on the analysis of the far right and neo-Nazi groups in the Slovak Republic. She has also participated on various projects in cooperation with civic associations such as People in Peril and PDCS. She joined CENAA in 2012.

Pesq_RenataDalaquaRenata H. Dalaqua is the Project Coordinator of the Brazilian Center for International Relations (CEBRI) and a PhD candidate in History and Politics at the Center for Research and Documentation of Contemporary History of Brazil (CPDOC/FGV). Renata holds a BA in Political Science (State University of Campinas, 2008) and a MA (Distinction) in International Politics and Security (University College London, 2011). Currently, her main research interests are: nuclear energy, environmental governance and international security.

We thank all the other applicants: for your interest and effort. In the end we had to weigh up lots of different considerations -not only the individual competence of the applicants. We hope there will be future rounds and opportunities to engage with them (and others) in the future.

To learn more about the project: The On Think Tanks Exchange.