By Dimithri Wijesinghe
There’s much to be said about think tanks and the lack of thinking one generally sees at a larger policy level. However, think tanks do play a vital role in helping envision how we as a whole progress – they can help guide social, economic, and even fiscal progress because of their capacity for research and advocacy.
Earlier this week, a conference titled ‘Think Tanks as Vehicles for Social Progress’ was held at the Cinnamon Grand Colombo on 19 and 20 September. This was jointly organised by the Rule of Law Collaborative (ROLC) at the University of South Carolina (UoSC) – an academic centre based in the US focused on issues relating to the rule of law, the Consortium on South Asian Think Tanks (COSATT), and Strategic Inspirations (Pvt) Ltd. (SIPL) – the local partners in the implementation of the Think Tank Capacity Building (TTCB) project. The conference was further supported by the US Department of State.
As a regional workshop that examined issues related to research, advocacy, and issues faced by think tanks and civil society in Sri Lanka and across the South Asian region, ‘Think Tanks as Vehicles for Social Progress’ focused on the successes and challenges that think tanks throughout the region face. The conference also explored the ongoing economic and political challenges facing Sri Lanka and other countries in the region including India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Nepal.
While COSATT conferences are held three times a year in one of the capitals of South Asia on themes such as connectivity, countering violent extremism and terrorism, refugees and IDPs in South Asia, and so on, this event proved to be rather significant for Sri Lanka, particularly given that it is being held during an incredibly crucial juncture for our country.
Commenting on the nature of its timing, UoSC Rule of Law Collaborative Deputy Executive Director Steven Austermiller said: “We have gathered here, in my opinion, some of the best minds in Sri Lanka and South Asia to come together and talk about these problems we are having at such a pivotal moment.” He added: “There is a lot of momentum right now to talk about how to fix some of the problems in Sri Lanka, with the IMF deal, the default, etc. Sri Lanka is going to go through some very important changes in the next year or two and research institutes and think tanks are going to play a huge role I believe, in that future.”
Austermiller also highlighted that think tanks would be doing research, providing recommendations based on that research, and hopefully, this would contribute in some small way to put Sri Lanka on the path toward a future of sustainable success.
In keeping with the theme of the event, participants, together with the panellists, moderators, and organisers explored themes of post-Covid resiliency for think tanks, including navigating economic, political, and social landscapes. They also explored democratic resiliency and good governance on the theme of think tanks serving as a ‘fifth estate,’ featuring ideas, tools, and approaches with regard to action research.
The role of think tanks in crisis-ridden Sri Lanka
Speaking to The Sunday Morning Brunch on the role of think tanks in a country such as Sri Lanka in its current context, Advocata Institute Senior Research Fellow Dr. Roshan Perera said: “A lack of evidence-based thinking and decision-making has led Sri Lanka to where it is right now,” adding that there was a lacuna of thought-based information and that the Government often acted with no analysis.
COSATT Convener and Centre for South Asian Studies, Kathmandu Director Dr. Nishchal Pandey highlighted how think tanks had an important role to play in the colouring of information and how they were presented to the public.
“For Sri Lanka, it has to be said that dissemination of positive news is also important,” Dr. Pandey said, recalling a movement of collaboration between Lankan and Nepalese efforts. “During the earthquake of 2015, a contingent of 141 soldiers from the Sri Lanka Army led by Major General Maithri Dias went on a rescue operation in a place called Dolalghat. All Nepalese remember this very fondly as it was a time of need for Nepal. I think South Asian countries should collaborate not only in disaster management or only during disasters, but also during peacetime. One such way to do this is through this collaboration of think tanks.”
He added: “In a way, all of us have been suffering during these difficult times; during the lockdown, the health crisis, and now the economic crisis. There is an urgency for think tanks of South Asia to come together with collaborative research, publications, and events. I think it is a need for which the time has come,” he said, adding: “COSATT is a network of some of the premier think tanks of the region which have contributed significant publications, so we want to collaborate with newer think tanks that have emerged from Sri Lanka and other places. Therefore, this conference is particularly important.”
Strategic Inspirations Managing Director and Senior Consultant Peter Rezel also shared with Brunch that considering the role of think tanks in present-day Sri Lanka, they were significant in supporting the larger mechanics at play. “Right now, there are many issues coming up in the country. We are a bankrupt country facing a huge economic and political crisis and there is so much that think tanks can do in that context. In addition to civil society, the research or evidence-based thinking coming from a think tank can feed into the proposals done by the rest of civil society. Perhaps not by design, but by default, the symposium of a collaborative effort of think tanks in this way is just perfect timing,” he said.
Capacity building and empowering more think tanks
A major component of the Rule of Law Collaborative and its larger activities was capacity building by providing the tools and skills necessary for local think tanks to grow and carry out their intended activities.
This is particularly important considering that think tanks may operate in an elitist bubble, or rather, it may appear that way. Addressing this, Centre for Poverty Analysis Senior Researcher Natasha Palansuriya said: “It can be easy to say that think tanks operate in a sort of elitist bubble, however, it can also be said that we are able to do this because we come from a place of privilege. In this way, think tanks are able to talk to the people and provide solutions from a different perspective.”
Meanwhile, Adayaalam Centre for Policy Research Co-Director Anushani Alagarajah provided the perspective of one of the only think tanks based outside Colombo, which has made attempts to break out of the traditional model of how research institutes operate.
Speaking about Adayaalam and the capacity building they received through the programme with the Rule of Law Collaborative, she said: “We are really a bunch of activists who came together to form this think tank. We did not have a background in knowing how to run an organisation or to prepare budgets – we were not trained in these. With this programme, we were actually able to analyse what we were doing right or wrong and take a step back and really work on sustaining organisational activities. The capacity building programme really helped us, particularly in these areas of management.”
She added: “It was amazing to have a number of women working with us. I really think that there was that personal understanding of where we were coming from, what our limitations were, why our communication was a certain way, and so on, so I am glad we had this. We couldn’t change all the aspects we wanted to, but we are really happy about how far we were able to go.”
Alagarajah also shared the efforts they undertook within their community and the steps they have taken to further expand the role of think tanks, particularly in the north: “We work with war-affected individuals, victims, and survivors, families of the disappeared, people who are affected by surveillance and security issues, and those with disabilities. Really, we work with anyone we think needs extra support in order to push forward their issues.”
“We work very closely with protesters; we attend protests and write statements in support of them or anyone who needs their issues to be put forth. We don’t take the traditional approach of researchers by taking these people as the subject [of our research]. Instead, we work very closely with the affected communities, and we even include them in the process of designing methodologies. We sometimes even include them in performing the research by employing them. We try our best to give them an equal space because we can’t be replicating the same model,” she noted.
The post-pandemic environment together with our current economic crisis has brought with it very specific challenges. Those in attendance at the symposium, representing many of the thinkers in the region, all shared that think tanks would have a key role to play in identifying future developments and trends, as well as in enabling stakeholders to best position themselves to adapt to the many issues we as a nation would be facing.