{"id":577,"date":"2015-07-22T17:23:48","date_gmt":"2015-07-22T22:23:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/onthinktanks.org\/?p=577"},"modified":"2016-01-27T18:09:49","modified_gmt":"2016-01-27T23:09:49","slug":"the-on-think-tanks-interview-cheikh-oumar-ba-executive-director-of-the-initiative-prospective-agricole-et-rurale-ipar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/onthinktanks.org\/articles\/the-on-think-tanks-interview-cheikh-oumar-ba-executive-director-of-the-initiative-prospective-agricole-et-rurale-ipar\/","title":{"rendered":"Cheikh Oumar Ba, Executive Director of the Initiative Prospective Agricole et Rurale (IPAR)"},"content":{"rendered":"
[Editor\u2019s note: This interview was conducted by\u00a0Till Bruckner<\/a>, independent researcher, advocacy manager for\u00a0Transparify<\/a>, and\u00a0regular contributor<\/a>\u00a0to On Think Tanks. This interview forms part of a series of new\u00a0posts from Africa looking into the future of think tanks<\/a>.]<\/em><\/p>\n Dr.\u00a0Cheikh Oumar Ba<\/a>, a socio-anthropologist by training, has been involved with the national think tank scene in his country for nearly 15 years now. Today, he is the Executive Director of the Initiative Prospective Agricole et Rurale (IPAR<\/a>), a think tank established in Senegal in 2004 that deals with a\u00a0wide range<\/a>\u00a0of rural and urban policy issues.\u00a0Till Bruckner<\/a>\u00a0spoke with him about the opportunities and challenges facing think tanks in West Africa.<\/p>\n Till Bruckner: What are the current trends in policy research in Senegal?<\/strong><\/p>\n Cheikh Oumar Ba:<\/strong>\u00a0Policy research has improved somewhat in the last few years with the emergence of several think tanks and other policy research centres and an environment in which the demand for evidence based policy is growing slowly but at a steady pace. Generally speaking, policy research capacity is still weaker than in developed countries, but it\u2019s definitely growing.<\/p>\n In the past, young people would go off to study abroad and not come back \u2013 the classic brain drain. Today, we\u2019re seeing a new pattern emerging. Many still go abroad for some or all of their higher education, but\u00a0after some time they come back to work here<\/a>, and later they may go to work abroad again for a while. So it\u2019s more of a circulation than a drain.<\/p>\n TB: Is it possible for an ambitious Senegalese student to become a strong policy analyst without going abroad for higher education?<\/strong><\/p>\n COB:<\/strong>\u00a0In the past, that didn\u2019t use to be the case, but things are changing. The internet in particular has really democratized education by making a lot of information accessible for free. There are now a few strong researchers emerging from Senegalese universities who have never studied abroad. However, overall, standards are still low at Senegalese universities, and some other countries in the region perform far worse.<\/p>\n TB: So what\u2019s the research team at IPAR look like?<\/strong><\/p>\n COB:<\/strong>\u00a0We currently have five researchers with PhDs on the team full-time, plus five associates with PhDs who we can call on for specific projects. The\u00a0full team<\/a>\u00a0also includes several research assistants and support staff.<\/p>\n