Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps her Department has taken to support local think tanks in countries in which it operates.

Think tanks are an important component of the kind of vibrant, open and diverse ecosystem of civil society organisations that we enjoy in Britain. Effective policy making means hearing expert voices and opinions and being accountable for the decisions we make and think tanks are part of that equation. DFID is acting to ensure that developing countries and their citizens benefit from the same critical friend relationship with this important component of civil society.

DFID builds the capacity of think tanks through our programmes in the developing countries with whom we partner. For example, DFID provides funding to the Think Tank Initiative (TTI), which seeks to build the capacity of independent social and economic policy think tanks to provide evidence-based advice to policy makers. Think tanks supported by TTI push for more open policy making at national, regional and global levels, and deliver new research and policy engagement on important policy areas including poverty reduction, tax, transparency, growth, democratic transition, trade, regional integration, and climate change.

TTI is a ten year joint-funded programme, which runs until September 2019, funding 43 think tanks in 20 countries across Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and Latin America. DFID’s current commitment is £6.5m for Phase Two.