{"id":1953,"date":"2011-11-30T10:55:04","date_gmt":"2011-11-30T15:55:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/onthinktanks.org\/articles\/\/"},"modified":"2016-01-26T10:57:25","modified_gmt":"2016-01-26T15:57:25","slug":"ideas-for-the-next-head-of-the-think-tank-initiative-and-other-think-tank-funds-if-i-may","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/onthinktanks.org\/articles\/ideas-for-the-next-head-of-the-think-tank-initiative-and-other-think-tank-funds-if-i-may\/","title":{"rendered":"Ideas for the next Head of the Think Tank Initiative (and other think tank funds), if I may"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a few months, a new\u00a0Head of the Think Tank Initiative<\/a>\u00a0will take on the responsibility of leading a new phase of a programme (see the\u00a0second annual report<\/a>) that has the potential of not only changing the fortunes of its grantees but also the way in which international development (and domestic) funders support think tanks all over other world.<\/p>\n

In view of this, as well as an upcoming launch of its second annual report, I offer some ideas (unsolicited, but hopefully welcomed) to consider. I hope these are also relevant and useful to other\u00a0think tank funds<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0initiatives<\/a>\u00a0that are directly and\/or\u00a0indirectly<\/a>\u00a0supporting think tanks and policy research centres across the developing world.<\/p>\n

Clearly, I do not expect that these recommendations will be implemented right away -and at the same time I do not wish to imply that these are terribly original and that they have not been considered already. But I think it would be good for all of us to keep them in mind and maybe debate them a bit more in the coming months. In all cases, the hoped-for outcome is that the initiative’s work may be taken on by others and its effects (the positive ones) will be greatly strengthened, multiplied, and sustained in the long-run.<\/p>\n

Be a thought leader<\/h2>\n

This is not a new sector but it is certainly not a very popular one. In the world of developing country think tanks there are not many minds and voices out there. This position, I believe, offers an enviable opportunity to contribute to the effort to develop the sector and our own understanding of it. As time goes by, any opportunity found for writing and publishing could certainly add value to our work, think tanks, and their funding.\u00a0Goran Buldioski<\/a>‘s\u00a0blog, for example, is a perfect example what I’d hope to see more of across all think tank and research funders. Another one is\u00a0Jeffrey Puryear<\/a>\u00a0whose account of think tanks in Chile does not cease to provide new insights into the sector.<\/p>\n

Leverage domestic funds<\/h2>\n

Unless national and even local governments, businesses, and philanthropists take on the responsibility of funding research and think tanks in their own countries and communities, initiatives like the TTI will never see the end to their work. Many of the organisations funded by the TTI have been funded by various IDRC programmes in the past. In several cases, their funding helped to set them up many decades ago. None of these think tanks (not even the most established) have been able to ‘graduate’ from foreign funding and I would expect that the same fate awaits the younger ones.<\/p>\n

There are serious problems with relying on international funds for research. First, researchers end up paying more attention to what donors are interested in than what their countries need. Second, they are quick to adopt discourses and processes that often lack relevance for contexts. And finally, to list only three, they become dependent on political (and funding) cycles on which they have no influence what so ever.<\/p>\n

The TTI provides an opportunity to break this dependence that has not existed before. This time around there is a coalition of influential and interested international donors (IDRC<\/a>, the\u00a0William and Flora Hewlett Foundation<\/a>, the\u00a0Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation<\/a>, the\u00a0UK Department for International Development<\/a>\u00a0(DFID) and the\u00a0Directorate-General for International Cooperation<\/a>\u00a0(DGIS) of the Netherlands). There are significant funds available to back their commitment (CAD113 million). The think tanks supported constitute an important community (12 in East Africa, 12 in Latin America,\u00a011 in West Africa, and 16 in South Asia). And the media and governments have paid attention -it is not just think tanks who have noticed what is going on.<\/p>\n

I think that the TTI, ideally working with other think tank and research funders, could use these sources of power and influence that it has so successfully developed during its first two\/three years of existence, to target not just think tanks but also potential domestic funders. How to do this? I’ve thought of some ideas but I would expect that it would be necessary to think about which ones may be more appropriate for each think tank fund and its partners -and of course this would depend on each country.<\/p>\n