{"id":946,"date":"2014-05-14T17:12:50","date_gmt":"2014-05-14T22:12:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/onthinktanks.org\/?p=946"},"modified":"2016-01-27T18:10:54","modified_gmt":"2016-01-27T23:10:54","slug":"the-on-think-tanks-interview-roxana-barrantes-director-of-the-iep-peru","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/onthinktanks.org\/articles\/the-on-think-tanks-interview-roxana-barrantes-director-of-the-iep-peru\/","title":{"rendered":"Roxana Barrantes, Director of the IEP (Peru)"},"content":{"rendered":"

[Editor\u2019s note:\u00a0This post\u00a0is part of a series of interviews with Directors of Latin American think tanks addressing different aspects of \u00a0think tanks\u2019 management and leadership.\u00a0You can access the series at the\u00a0On Think Tanks interviews Topic page<\/a>.\u00a0This interview has been originally published in Spanish at\u00a0VIPPAL<\/a>.]<\/em><\/p>\n

Leandro Echt: How did you become Director of the\u00a0Institute of Peruvian Studies<\/a><\/strong>?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Roxana Barrantes:<\/strong>\u00a0The position of director is elected from\u00a0amongst the researchers; it is not a contracted position. So I am also still a researcher. Each\u00a0term is of two years, with a possibility of renewal. Right now, I am finishing the first year of my second term \u2013 I have been director for three years.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

LE: What were the main challenges you faced in becoming director?<\/strong><\/p>\n

RB:<\/strong>\u00a0Within IEP, because the position of director is an elected position, the selection becomes a political decision, which requires building coalitions, support, and understanding. Dealing with these coalitions was, for me, the greatest challenge. Another challenge was beginning to deal with aspects related to institutional management. It was extremely difficult, because I needed a \u201cright-hand man\u201d with experience to accompany me in my work. Lastly, becoming director did not prevent me from remaining part of the institute\u00b4s economics team. Within a few months, two key economists left the team to join\u00a0different ministries. I didn\u2019t\u00a0just take\u00a0on the position of director, but also remained the senior economist on the economics team.<\/p>\n

LE: It seems that at the IEP there is a clear tension between management and research within the role of director.<\/strong><\/p>\n

RB:<\/strong>\u00a0It is a very complicated situation. In fact, sometimes I think it would be good to follow an institutional model in which the president takes on responsibility for issues of protocol, which demand a great deal of time. The Institute is 50 years old, so there are many protocol tasks: dealing with various networks, book launches, seminars, events, etcetera. \u00a0This day-to-day whirlwind makes it very difficult to think about the long-term, which the director should also be concerned with.<\/p>\n

LE: In your time as director, what do you think has been the main contribution of your administration to the IEP\u00b4s work and to Peru\u00b4s public policies?<\/strong><\/p>\n

RB:<\/strong>\u00a0The IEP operates under a creative tension between the development and consolidation of each of the researchers and their agendas, and the development and consolidation of a collective consciousness that allows us to look at Peru in a comprehensive and global way, with a long-term vision. What makes me proud of my administration is the fact that we have helped researchers establish relationships with key actors in the design and implementation of public policies, and these actors know that the researchers have institutional support and it is not just the initiative of a single person knocking at their door.<\/p>\n

LE: Is there a foreseeable challenge that you would like to focus on during\u00a0your last year as director?<\/strong><\/p>\n

RB:<\/strong>\u00a0I still face the challenge of laying a solid foundation for the general modernization of the IEP. One component of this modernization has to do with administrative areas. In IEP, every project contributes to indirect or institutional costs. But this contribution is small in terms of percentage, and depends largely on the researchers\u2019 hours of work. Ideally, researchers should dedicate themselves to thinking and not necessarily to administrative matters. There is space here to make researchers\u2019 lives easier.<\/p>\n

LE: Peru has often been regarded as a favorable environment for researchers to build bridges with the public sector. Why is that?<\/strong><\/p>\n

RB:<\/strong>\u00a0Right now, there is certainly a space that promotes the link between research and officials. But this depends largely on the current government. The previous government was much more political, and had clear ideas that it wanted to pursue. The current government seeks more technical support, which as generated interesting opportunities for dialogue.<\/p>\n

LE: How do you see the future of the sustainability not only of the IEP, but of other think tanks in light of withdrawals from donors in the region?<\/strong><\/p>\n

RB:<\/strong>\u00a0IEP has managed to overcome many crises. On one occasion, the Ford Foundation had the intelligence, will, and commitment to support us with an endowment that fund us for two years of operation. Crisis has\u00a0also forced us to be creative: for example, in the early years of the last decade we began to associate with national companies that wanted to implement social responsibility projects in a more reflective way. Additionally, we received donations from abroad and participated in calls\u00a0for public sector studies. Participating in the\u00a0Think Tank Initiative<\/a>\u00a0(IEP is one of twelve think tanks in Latin America supported by TTI)\u00a0<\/em>has also allowed us to invite young researchers and modernize the organization. Essentially, I think the key is to diversify our funding sources to be able to alleviate potential future crises.<\/p>\n

LE: What assessments have you made about the experience of the Think Tank Initiative thus far?<\/strong><\/p>\n

RB:<\/strong>\u00a0It has been and is essential. It has allowed us to look inward, question ourselves, evaluate ourselves, and from there design and implement new processes. It has accelerated our modernization process. For example, we have put the matter of communication on the map: we now have a communications office, which we didn\u00b4t have before. We are also upgrading our systems, and we have conducted a series of research projects that otherwise would not have been possible.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Roxana Barrantes, Director at the Institutos de Estudios Peruanos spoke to Leandro Echt about IEP and the challenges that Peru’s oldest functioning think tank faces.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"tags":[177,175,176],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/onthinktanks.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/946"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/onthinktanks.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/onthinktanks.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onthinktanks.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onthinktanks.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=946"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/onthinktanks.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/946\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/onthinktanks.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onthinktanks.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}