The case for education, as expressed in the quotation above from a Sudanese refugee, is simple. First and foremost, education is a fundamental human right and the birthright of every child. It is also the springboard for human development, creating the conditions for progress in health and gender equity; it plays a key role in helping to tackle some of the world’s pressing challenges such as climate change, food security, and peace building. Economic growth and poverty reduction depend on an educated and skilled workforce. In developing countries, one additional year of education adds about 10 percent to a person’s...

After almost a decade of authoritarian rule, Argentina’s return to democracy in 1983 coincided with a new discourse on the protection of human rights and economic development based on the importance of education as a means of economic progress. During the 1980s, the Radical Party organized a National Congress of Education in order to democratically plan the educational policy. However, the congress failed to translate the discourse into concrete actions. In 1993, under a Peronist government, deep educational reform was finally implemented through the Federal Law of Education. Among other provisions, the law established that the investment in education should...

This chapter examines the impact of the Centre for Public Policy (CPP) on public policy in India through a specific case study. CPP is part of the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore, one of India’s leading business schools. CPP is a think tank engaged in research, consultancy, teaching, training, and outreach. CPP was established in 2000 to address the gap between research and public policymaking in India through a collaborative effort between the Department of Personnel and Training, the government of India, the United Nations Development Programme, and the institute. The CPP also received an endowment grant from the government...

This chapter looks at the reform of the urban transit system in Delhi, the capital of India, specifically the manner in which bus services are provided. Buses, in 2006, when this intervention occurred, accounted for 60 percent of all vehicular trips in Delhi. The chapter emphasizes the role of civil society, working through the media and the courts in highlighting the issue. It also details the various political balances that had to be struck in crafting a solution. The chapter begins with a short reiteration of the importance of urban transport within a broader agenda of sustainable growth. The impact...

The Ecologic Institute, founded in 1995, is an internationally minded, private-initiative, nongovernmental, and nonprofit organization. Based in Berlin, Germany, and with a policy office in Brussels, Ecologic is very active at the European Union (EU) level. In 2008, the institute was also formally established in the United States as an IRC 501c3 public charity, with its main office in Washington, D.C., and a project office in San Mateo, California.

The Ecologic Institute covers the full range of policy challenges on environment and the movement toward sustainability, in developed and developing countries alike. It provides policy responses to the environmental and...

The extent to which think tanks are able to exert policy influence is a function of their access, credibility, and timing. Each variable is critical in its own right, but may be insufficient alone. A think tank may have access to policymakers, for instance, but lack credibility because of an apparent ideological bias on the part of the institution (or on account of the poor quality of the products). In such instances, policymakers may doubt the relevance or sincerity of the policy advice or simply ignore it. The timing may also render what might in fact be sound and credible...

The emergence and role of think tanks and research institutes located in the Arab Gulf states (this refers to the member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council, or GCC, states and includes Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates) is relatively new and as such is underdeveloped. A closely related point is that the overall status of civil society in these countries is weak as virtually all aspects of political decision making reside within the ruling monarchies and a handful of other political and economic elites. Civil society organizations do exist but their function is limited...

“It’s the economy, stupid.” This phrase, which was repeated like a mantra during the presidential elections in 1992, helped Bill Clinton defeat his Republican rival, George H. W. Bush.¹ The message still holds true in the context of the European financial crisis, which has ravaged Europe since 2009. Economics and politics are intrinsically linked in the sense that the electorate has expectations for the future including public services and welfare. Such services are often taken for granted in Western democracies. However, in the European Union (EU), politics is standing in the way of viable economic solutions. This is detrimental to...

Indonesia’s economy has been growing at a relatively rapid rate—in December 2011, amid the economic turbulence in the United States and Europe, Indonesia grew at 6.5 percent. In 2012, it was projected to grow at a rate between 6. 2 and 6.8 percent. Strong investment growth and domestic consumption offset weak export demand. This sound growth rate is needed for a developing country such as Indonesia. Sound economic growth and other macroeconomic indicators, including robust growth of credit, a low fiscal deficit, and the debt-to-GDP ratio, and sound banking indicators are not ends in themselves but also, and most...

The past two decades witnessed the rapid expansion of the Chinese economy. But China’s economic development is unbalanced and unsustainable in the long run. Rebalancing the Chinese economy has gradually become one of the priorities on the agenda of Chinese policymakers. Many think tanks in China have been involved in this policy change. The Institute of World Economics and Politics (IWEP) within the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) plays a unique and important role in this process.

This chapter documents IWEP’s involvement in three stages to reshape China’s development strategy. In the stage of policy discussion, IWEP led the...

This chapter analyzes new challenges and opportunities faced by think tanks in the face of globalization, particularly in the economic and social policy spheres. Globalization has made the entire world more integrated, with an increasing number of economic, social, and political issues becoming of international importance. As result, economic and social research, analyses, policy advice, and policy advocacy increasingly must address supranational challenges. This supposes that a transformation has to take place among think tanks, which traditionally have focused on national policymaking agendas and competition in the national markets of ideas. This transformation affects various aspects of think tank business:...

In March 1971, the Korea Development Institute (KDI) was established as a government-funded research center under a strong commitment by then President Park Chung Hee. Its aim was to develop and propose plans for Korea’s economic and social progress, hence contributing to the prosperity of the national economy. As the first Korean research institute in the social sciences, KID actively used experts in each area, thus contributing to the development of the nation’s Five-Year Plan for Economic and Social Development. KDI then took part directly and indirectly in the development of economic policies. By proposing leading alternatives to existing national...

Fundar’s Subsidios al Campo project makes extensive use of the Federal Transparency and Access to Government Public Information Law to provide evidence about how federal monies allotted to farm subsidies are distributed among rural producers. This chapter draws most of its information from the report published by Fundar’s main researcher involved in the Subsidios al Campo project, Ana Joaquina Ruiz Guerra, as well as Guillermo M. Cejudo’s account of this experience. Among the project’s findings, the concentration of these subsidies among the country’s biggest rural producers stands out prominently. This finding raises important concerns, since poverty affects a large percentage...

Ethiopia is relatively rich in natural resources, with reasonably diverse agroclimatic regimes, good resource potential for development including agricultural resources, huge biodiversity, abundant water resources, minerals, and others. However, in spite of this potential, Ethiopia is a very poor country. Nearly one-third of the population lives in severe poverty. Constraints ranging from internal wars and conflicts, inappropriate policies, and structural conditions to external factors have contributed to the dismal performance of the Ethiopian economy during the various regimes. The wars and conflicts that took place in Ethiopia have consumed significant resources and have destroyed the economic base of the country....

As the ecosystem that occupies the largest land area of China, grassland accounts for 40 percent of the territory. It is found mainly in two ecologically sensitive areas—the Tibetan Plateau and the arid-semiarid area of northern China, both of which have a significant impact on China’s ecosystem. Since the 1990s, the majority of China’s grasslands has significantly degraded. Research carried out at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences Planning Institute shows that the degradation rate of grassland in northern China was 51 percent in the early 1990s, and had reached 62 percent by the late 1990s.¹ According to statistics...

The African Economic Research Consortium (AERC) model is not a result of a preconceived design; rather, its structure has evolved over the past quarter century in light of operational experience. The AERC was established in 1988 with the aim of strengthening African capacity to conduct rigorous, independent research bearing on economic policy. Its mission is to strengthen local capacity for conducting such inquiries into problems facing the management of economies and to facilitate evidence-based policymaking in sub-Saharan Africa. It also promotes the maintenance of such capacity and encourages its application in the policy context. AERC was established under the Delaware...

Research on Poverty Alleviation (REPOA) is a nongovernmental organization in Tanzania, which was formed in 1994 and commenced operations in 1995. REPOA seeks to deepen the understanding of and inform future policy on the causes, extent, and nature of poverty, and to establish strategies to combat its spread throughout the country. Tanzania being one of the poorest countries in the world, REPOA considers research to be central to understanding the poverty challenge as a development challenge. In addition, research is a vehicle for developing broad-based knowledge that can be used to make decisions and design realistic and effective evidence-based interventions....

The Center for American Progress (CAP) was founded in 2003 to be a different kind of think tank—one dedicated to developing and promoting a progressive policy agenda across a wide range of issues. Like that of all think tanks, the primary goal of CAP is to produce original research on pressing policy issues. Half of the center’s resources are dedicated to providing leadership in analysis of progressive ideas, with the other half devoted to ensuring that those ideas gain traction in the public sphere. Beyond producing written materials, hosting public and private events, and providing expert speakers at conferences...

Work at the Carnegie Moscow Center (CMC) has been and remains an adventure. The organization’s story is one of a notable contribution to Russian social development in a key area of policy research and intellectual debate. The CMC was founded under a decree signed by President Boris Yeltsin in 1992. To prepare ground for the CMC founding, the field office began its work in Moscow in 1993, and the first scholars were recruited in 1994, when the center became operational. Since the early to mid- 1990s, the CMC has witnessed an uneven evolution of Russian politics, from Yeltsin to Vladimir...

This chapter demonstrates how the Fundação Getulio Vargas (FGV) has influenced an important policy issue fundamental to the social development of contemporary Brazil—the national Public Security with Citizenship (PRONASCI) program launched in 2008 by the Ministry of Justice. It also explains how FGV’s strategy, structure, and resources contributed to its ability to successfully address this issue.

FGV is a private, independent, and nonprofit institution created in 1944 to foster Brazilian development. To accomplish this goal the institution trains qualified personnel for the administration of Brazil’s public and private sectors and produces and advances scientific and technological knowledge for public...