BIDS among 100 top think-tanks worldwide in 2020

The Daily Star  January 30, 2021
Star Business Report

Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS) has been ranked as one of the top 100 think-tanks worldwide, according to the 2020 Global Go to Think Tank Index (GGTTI) released on Thursday.

The autonomous public multi-disciplinary organisation advanced 10 notches to 94 in the 2020 GGTTI from 104th position the previous year, according to the index prepared by The Think Tanks and Civil Societies Program (TTCSP) at The University of Pennsylvania.

This is the 15th edition of the GGTTI since the index was launched in 2006.

This year, 3,974 plus university faculty and administrators, journalists, policymakers, think tank scholars and executives, and donors from every region participated, said the report released by The Lauder Institute of The University of Pennsylvania.

US-based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Belgium’s Bruegel and Brazil’s Fundação Getúlio Vargas (FGV) has been ranked as the top three think tanks globally in 2020.

In South and Southeast Asia and the Pacific region (excluding India), BIDS emerged in 17th position out of 107 organisations.

The 2020 GGTTI, which is designed to identify and recognise centres of excellence in all the major areas of public policy research and in every region of the world, ranked Bangladesh Institute of International and Strategic Studies 22nd.

It ranked Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) Bangladesh 30th, Institute for Policy, Advocacy, and Governance (IPAG) Bangladesh 34th in South and Southeast Asia and the Pacific region, excluding India.

The GGTTI 2020 ranked Alternative Development Initiative (ADI) Bangladesh 49th, Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) 54th, Bangladesh Enterprise Institute (BEI) 55th, Institute for Governance Studies (IGS) Bangladesh 57th and Associates for Community and Population Research (ACPR) at 58th position among top think tanks in the region.

The latest GGTTI ranked Bangladesh Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (BCSIR) (Bangladesh) 65th, Institute of Social Welfare and Research (ISWR) Bangladesh, Centre on Integrated Rural Development for Asia and the Pacific (CIRDAP) (Bangladesh) and Policy Research Institute of Bangladesh (PRI) of Bangladesh 93.

The position of all the organisations in the grouping remained unchanged.

According to the report, Bangladesh has 46 think tanks.

It showed that position of BIDS advanced three notches to 23 in the latest ranking in the category of top international development policy think tanks category. CPD advanced two steps to 87 in the same category in the 2020 GGTTI.

Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC) has been ranked as 24th top social policy think tank in 2020 report.

In the category of top transparency and good governance think tanks globally, BRAC Institute of Governance and Development (BIGD) emerged as top among Bangladesh’s think tanks. Its position was 40th in the category.

Bangladesh Rice Research Institute has been ranked 16th among food security think tanks while CPD’s position was 35th in the same category in 2020.

BIDS has been ranked 27th among the best government-affiliated think tanks followed by BIISS which is ranked 47 in the GGTTI report.