The ThinkTank Initiative invites applications from independent African organisations that are committed to using research to inform and influence social and economic policy. The Initiative will provide multi-year funding to promising think tanks, and will work with successful applicants to improve their organizational performance.

Public policies work best when they are designed and implemented by local actors. Without locally generated information and analysis, well-intentioned programs often do not respond to realities on the ground. Although international donors now recognize that local ownership is critical to successful development interventions, they often fail to invest in the local institutions that can carry out the ongoing research and analysis needed by policy makers to effect policy improvements over time.

Most developing country research institutes never receive the kind of predictable core funding that would allow them to do long-term planning, establish their own research priorities, and invest in creating strong research programs. International donors give them some support, but usually for one-off projects, which the donor agency often designs and leads. As a result of this constraint, most policy research institutes are doing primarily “responsive research,” rather than setting a forward-looking research agenda responding to locally-determined needs.

Despite this and other challenges, policy research institutes do exist in the developing world, and those that have overcome some of these challenges are demonstrating the impact of quality research on the policy making process. As more developing countries become multiparty democracies, there are signs that governments are increasingly tolerant of outside input and critique. In some places, researchers are beginning to work more closely with members of parliament, who need data and analysis to make more informed policy decisions. In this context, opportunities are expanding for independent research to inform and influence policy.

With almost no domestic sources of support for independent policy research institutes in the developing world, international donors are a key source of funding for local research. But shortsighted funding policies have failed to build strong research institutions with forward-looking research agendas. Given these opportunities and constraints, a well-structured program to strengthen developing country research institutions is a significant first investment towards potential impact.

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About the Author: Jonathan Gosier (Founder) is an American-born software developer, writer and social entrepreneur. He currently lives in Kampala, Uganda where he is working on two fronts: to encourage western businesses and investors to engage African entrepreneurs and to encourage the adoption of computers, programming and use of the internet in the developing regions of Africa. He is a huge advocate for promoting the ways in which a semantic web will benefit emerging economies in the world.

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