Publication: Strengthening African Regional Economic Policy Making through Evidence: Opportunities and Challenges for Think Tanks and Their Supporters
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2024-11-26
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2024-11-26
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Against the backdrop of a new World Bank initiative to support African think tanks, the “Africa Think Tank Platform”, this paper outlines critical opportunities and constraints that think tanks may face in shaping and informing policy. It describes examples and models of support that have been offered to African think tanks and considers how these have enabled their performance in different ways. It argues that although navigating complex processes of African regional economic policy-making is not easy, funders who aim to support economic development and value the contributions of research in low- and middle-income countries have a significant opportunity to support the critical role of evidence in national and regional policy-making. Ensuring that facts and analysis are used to inform policy decisions, funders can help protect the integrity of important regional and national knowledge actors like think tanks, who add value by conducting rigorous and impartial research and facilitating engagement with a wide range of stakeholders around policy issues. African think tanks, in turn, can help improve the effectiveness and legitimacy of national and regional policy processes and counter ill-informed forces that seek to curtail or derail democratic public policymaking, adoption and implementation.
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“Taylor, Peter; Oviedo, Maria Alejandra Ormeño. 2024. Strengthening African Regional Economic Policy Making through Evidence: Opportunities and Challenges for Think Tanks and Their Supporters. Education Working Paper; No. 2, September 2024. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/42470 License: CC BY-NC 3.0 IGO.”
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