07/01/08

Think tanks aid decision-making in developing world

Calestous Juma, founder of the African Centre for Technology Studies Copyright: David Dickson

We encourage you to republish this article online and in print, it’s free under our creative commons attribution license, but please follow some simple guidelines:

You have to credit our authors.
You have to credit SciDev.Net — where possible include our logo with a link back to the original article.
You can simply run the first few lines of the article and then add: “Read the full article on SciDev.Net” containing a link back to the original article.
If you want to also take images published in this story you will need to confirm with the original source if you're licensed to use them.
The easiest way to get the article on your site is to embed the code below.

For more information view our media page and republishing guidelines.

The full article is available here as HTML.

Press Ctrl-C to copy

<div class="article-wrap">
<div id="article-introduction">
<h1>Think tanks aid decision-making in developing world</h1>
<h4></h4>
</div>
<br />
<br />

<div id="article-body">
<p>When it comes to environmental and development problems, poorer nations are forming institutes that enable them to think for themselves.</p>
<p>In this <em>Nature</em> article, Ehsan Masood talks to the founders of four such ‘think tanks’ in the developing world.</p>
<p>Spurred on by the UN Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, Saleemul Huq, Christian Samper, Calestous Juma and Tariq J. Banuri set up science policy institutes in their respective countries of Bangladesh, Colombia, Kenya and Pakistan.</p>
<p>They had seen in Rio and elsewhere that research could inform and reform environmental policy, that consensus of environmental issues was needed from scientists — not just politicians — and that politicians in developed countries had advisors in industry and academia.</p>
<p>From humble beginnings the centres faced many challenges, including financial crises, a small pool of expertise, and scepticism from donors, scientists and politicians — who couldn’t see how science could, or should, inform policy.</p>
<p>But the centres were soon in demand from policymakers, and found that — unlike developed nations where the attention of politicians is fought over — their work was quickly noticed and could make an immediate difference.</p>
<p><a onclick="pageTracker._trackPageview('/tracking/external/'+this.href);" target="_blank" href="http://www.nature.com/news/2008/080102/full/451008a.html" rel="noopener noreferrer">Link to full article in Nature</a></p>

</div>
<div class="quick-links-wrapper">
<h3>You might also like</h3>
[related-articles]
</div>
<p>This article was originally published on <a href="https://www.scidev.net" target="_blank">SciDev.Net</a>. Read the <a href="https://www.scidev.net/global/features/think-tanks-aid-decisionmaking-in-developing-worl/" target="_blank">original article</a>.</p>
<script type="text/javascript">
(function(e,t,n,r,i,s,o){e["GoogleAnalyticsObject"]=i;e[i]=e[i]||function(){(e[i].q=e[i].q||[]).push(arguments)},e[i].l=1*new Date;s=t.createElement(n),o=t.getElementsByTagName(n)[0];s.async=1;s.src=r;o.parentNode.insertBefore(s,o)})(window,document,"script","//www.google-analytics.com/ga.js","ga");var _gaq=_gaq||[];var _gaq=_gaq||[];_gaq.push(["_setAccount","UA-3223906-8"],["_trackEvent","article interaction","republished","https://www.scidev.net/global/features/think-tanks-aid-decisionmaking-in-developing-worl/",null,true])
</script>
</div>

When it comes to environmental and development problems, poorer nations are forming institutes that enable them to think for themselves.

In this Nature article, Ehsan Masood talks to the founders of four such ‘think tanks’ in the developing world.

Spurred on by the UN Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, Saleemul Huq, Christian Samper, Calestous Juma and Tariq J. Banuri set up science policy institutes in their respective countries of Bangladesh, Colombia, Kenya and Pakistan.

They had seen in Rio and elsewhere that research could inform and reform environmental policy, that consensus of environmental issues was needed from scientists — not just politicians — and that politicians in developed countries had advisors in industry and academia.

From humble beginnings the centres faced many challenges, including financial crises, a small pool of expertise, and scepticism from donors, scientists and politicians — who couldn’t see how science could, or should, inform policy.

But the centres were soon in demand from policymakers, and found that — unlike developed nations where the attention of politicians is fought over — their work was quickly noticed and could make an immediate difference.

Link to full article in Nature