Learning from 2020: being global by engaging locally
2020 has been a difficult year. We have all had to deal with personal and professional challenges. We have all been affected – some more than others – by the pandemic and the effects of the...
On Think Tanks was founded in mid 2010. It has evolved from a blog into a global platform dedicated to study and support policy research and policy research centres, or think tanks. The members of the On Think Tanks Team and its Advisory Board are spread out across 6 continents!
Please subscribe to On Think Tanks. The suggested contribution is GBP5.00 per month and you can unsubscribe at any time.
Alternatively, please send us a donation of any amount you think is appropriate
For alternative ways to support us, or if you would like to read about our strategy and find out more about On Think Tanks, please visit the support section of the website.
The scalingXchange was designed using the four guiding principles of scaling recommended by IDRC: justification, optional scale, coordination and dynamic evaluation, as the connecting thread....
Optimal scale challenges the ‘bigger is better’ scaling model. Scaling produces a collection of impacts and to determine optimal scale, we have to consider the trade-offs between...
Scaling creates dynamic change that calls for dynamic evaluation – continuous learning before, during and after scaling. Dynamic evaluation helps us to apply the other three principles by...
Scaling takes place in complex systems and involves coordinating with a diverse and evolving set of stakeholders. Considering the people, places and things that affect or are affected by the...
Scaling is a choice that must be justified based on a balance of technical evidence and values. And that choice to scale must be shared. An introduction to Guiding principle 1:...
The final session offered the chance to explore remaining questions by IDRC. Guiding questions What were some good practices that emerged to support integration of...
I have chosen four new – or relatively new – think tanks to write about. Each has a different business model and offers a different proposal, but they all promise to contribute to...
Equilibrium CenDE caught my attention for two main reasons: its Latin America focus and its foreign founders. In Peru, it is not common to find researchers or research...
And that's the 60-million-dollar question: how do you get to that point where everything we all do as actors and the system responds to what needs to be done… as opposed to what we, who are...
Sonia Jalfin is Founder and Director of Sociopúblico, a communications studio focused on public issues. She has a BA in Sociology and MSC in Media and Communications and was Head of the...
Majandra Rodriguez Acha is Co-Executive Director of FRIDA: The Young Feminist Fund. FRIDA is run by young feminist activists and supports young feminist movements across the global South....
Chioma Agwuegbo and Ibrahim Faruk are part of the Not Too Young to Run movement leadership group in Nigeria, and involved in the spin-off Ready to Run group. Chioma...
This ‘health check’ aims to support think tanks and research institutes to refine and improve their communications. The tool covers six key areas: strategy, capacity, systems, audiences, channels & messaging and monitoring. It recognises that communication is a complicated process involving strategy, tactics and all sorts of inputs. In other words, it is not all about outputs.
Raymond Struyk, author of Improving Think Tank Management, writes about how two recent developments may be having significant effects on the way think tanks are structuring their staff...
Esta publicación fue elaborada por Leandro Echt sobre la base de un documento de reflexión elaborado por Martha Farmelo, consultora independiente en fortalecimiento de ONGs, en base a su...
Raymond Struyk, author of Improving Think Tank Management, writes about the evolution in staff assessments for think tanks. There is an ongoing, comparatively quiet evolution in the...
Simon Maxwell, former executive director of the Overseas Development Institute, talks about future think tank leaders and how think tanks continue to evolve.
Simonida shares her thoughts on the think tank culture in the western Balkans, the growth of these organisations in the region and what it means, and the challenges they face.
Do think tanks matter? Donald talks to us about his work with think tanks over 30 years, what he finds so interesting about these organisations and how they have evolved, and their role...