REPOA ranked country’s top think tank

 

RESEARCH on Poverty Alleviation (REPOA) Dr Donald Mmari Executive Director for the organisation

DEOGRATIUS KAMAGI

THE non-profit Research on Poverty Alleviation (REPOA) has been ranked as the top think tank in Tanzania and the number 18 of the 92 leading research organisations in Sub-Sahara Africa in the 2015 Global Go to Think Tank Index (GGTI).

Top think tanks in Sub Saharan include the Kenya Institute for Policy Research and Analysis (KIPPRA) followed by Ghana’s IMANI Centre for Policy and Education.

Apart from Repoa, other local research institutions that have been ranked to the 2015 GGTI are Economic and Research Social Foundation (ESRF) ranked 42nd, African Technology Policy Studies Network (ATPS) in t he 51st position and the Uongozi Institute ranked in the 60th position.

The report is a product of a global survey conducted by the Think Tanks and Civil Societies Programme (TTCSP) at the University of Pennsylvania covering over 6,000 think tanks in the TTCP’s global think tank database and over 20,000 stakeholders.

The respondents included journalists, policymakers, public and private donors, think tanks and functional and regional area specialists to nominate and rank public policy research centres of distinctions.

Addressing reporters in Dar es Salaam yesterday, Repoa Executive Director, Dr Donald Mmari, urged the government to continue supporting national think tanks and to earmark funding for policy research and research capacity building.

“In many parts of the world, most governments play a crucial role in funding their think tanks such as in the case of KIPPRA in Kenya and BIDPA in Botswana, which are among the top five in Sub- Saharan Africa.

We therefore urge our government to take the same measures,” he said. He said it is important to recognise that think tanks contribute to shaping a county’s development by critically examining and providing evidence on outcomes of various policy options and informing the relevant policy makers, development partners and the public in general.

The TTCSP at the Institute of the University of Pennsylvania conducts research on the role policy institutes play in governments and in civil societies around the world.

It also examines the role and character of public policy research organizations. REPOA is an independent research institution which creates and utilizes knowledge to facilitate socio-economic development. It produces high quality research, provides training, facilitates knowledge sharing and promotes the use of accurate information in policy development.