June 2014: I attended the Think Tank Initiative’s 4th regional meeting held in Nagarkot, just outside Kathmandu, on behalf of SDPI. The focus of the meeting was the emerging trends for think tanks in Southern countries.
I talked about the emerging challenges and opportunities faced by think tanks in Pakistan. The major challenges included negative perceptions of NGOs (often conflated with think tanks); limitations to movements of think tank researchers from the state as well as non-state actors; and a lack of funding options other than foreign aid.
Opportunities included increasing interest among political representatives to involve evidence based research into their discussions in policy making venues and the need to approach civilian bureaucrats.
Asif Saeed Memon 