For the fourth consecutive year, the South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA) has been voted the leading think tank in sub-Saharan Africa in the 2012 Global Go To Think Tanks Survey.  

This year’s survey highlighted the substantive challenges that face think tanks globally, especially in relation to dramatic changes in funding patterns, increased competition, assessing output versus impact, the growing importance of the internet and social media, and a greater emphasis on marketing strategies to promote the work of think tanks.  

SAIIA CE Elizabeth Sidiropoulos paid tribute to her team for the quality, dedication and exceptional work ethic that has made this accolade possible, often under difficult external circumstances, as highlighted by the survey.

“At the interface between policy makers and academia, think tanks can fulfil a significant function of providing policy-grounded analysis and alternative perspectives to enrich the policy debate. The survey shows that the think tank community in South Africa is diverse and of a high quality. We are proud to be part of it and to see sister institutes from South Africa fare so well in the global rankings”, she says.                   

SAIIA has been rated by its international peers in the following additional global categories:

• Top 100 Think Tanks – Worldwide excluding the USA: SAIIA at 45
• Top 150 Think Tanks – Worldwide including the USA: SAIIA at 81
• Top 70 Security and International Affairs Think Tanks: SAIIA at 43 (the top African think tank in this category)   
• Top 80 International Development Think Tanks: SAIIA at 26 (the top African think tank in this category)
• Think Tanks with the Most Significant Impact on Public Policy: SAIIA at 58  
• Think Tanks with the Best Use of the Media to Communicate Programmes and Research – SAIIA at 32 (the top African think tank in this category)
• Think Tanks for the Best External Relations/Public Engagement Programme: SAIIA at 43
• Think Tanks for Outstanding Policy-orientated Research Programmes: SAIIA at 50.

The survey editor, Dr Jim McGann, in his conclusion to the Global Go To Think Tanks Survey Report, states that “gone are the days when a think tank could operate with the motto of ‘research it, write it, and they will find it.’ Today think tanks must be lean, mean policy machines.  […] New technologies are being developed every day and at an accelerated pace that will continually force think tanks to identify new and faster ways to collect, sort and analyze data and then communicate their findings to a highly segmented target audience using a variety of communication tools.”  This has certainly been our experience and we will continually look at innovative ways to ensure that our research findings reach you as a key audience timeously and in a user-friendly format.

The yearly survey is conducted by the University of Pennsylvania in the US and is the most comprehensive ranking of the world’s top think tanks.  It covers 6 603 think tanks across the world, of which 554 are in sub-Saharan Africa.  It is based on a global peer and expert survey of 1 900 scholars, policy-makers, journalists and regional and area experts from 120 countries.        

Click here to access the full survey report.