The International Conference on the Role of Think Tanks in Developing Countries: Challenges And Solutions

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Agenda and Documentation

Saturday, 17th January 2009
8:30 – 9:30	Registration
	Opening Session
09:00-10:00	- Hussein El Kamel,International Cooperation Senior Advisor, The Egyptian Cabinet Information and Decision Support Center (IDSC), Egypt - Magued Osman, Chairman of The Egyptian Cabinet Information and Decision Support Center (IDSC), Egypt - Ismail Serageldin, Director of Bibliotheca Alexandrina, Egypt - Video Message by Prince El Hassan bin Talal, Royal Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, Jordan

10:00-11:00	Coffee Break Media Coverage & Networking
International Forum Sharing Worldwide Experiences on the Role of Think Tanks

11:00 - 12:45	Introductory Remarks Aly Maher, Advisor, Bibliotheca Alexandrina , Egypt The role of think tanks in the transformation process of Eastern European countries Valdis Birkavs, Former Prime Minister of Latvia Latvia Research Policy Linkage: UNESCO's Experience Pierre Sane, Assistant Director-General for Social and Human Sciences, UNESCO, Senegal. Think tanks: An American perspective Lisa Anderson, Provost of the American University in Cairo, USA The experience of Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies Abdel Monem Saied, Chairman of Al Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, Egypt The Role of advocacy think tanks in the process of public policymaking: Japan’s experience Hiroshi Kato, Executive vice president of National Institute for Research Advancement (NIRA), Japan. Discussions Concluded remarks Aly Maher, Advisor, Bibliotheca Alexandrina , Egypt

Session 1:The Independence of Think Tanks
12:45-14:30	Chairman: Lisa Anderson, Provost of the American University in Cairo The politics of independence: can government think tanks act independently? Magued Osman, IDSC Chairman, Egypt The independence of think tanks in developing countries Dr. Fabienne GOUX BAUDIMENT, Head of World Future Studies Federation, France The experience of private think tanks in developing countries Moustafa Kamel Elsayed, Executive Director, Partners In Development, Egypt The endowment model in financing think tanks Thawilwadee Bureekul, Director of the Research and Development Office, King Prajadhipok's Institute, Thailand The independence of the Research and Information System for Developing Countries S.K. Mohanty, researcher at the Research and Information System for Developing Countries (RIS), India Discussions

14:30 - 15:30	Lunch

15:30 – 17:15	Session 2 Factors Challenging the Role of Think Tanks	Session 3 The Advocacy Role of Think Tanks and Multidisciplinary Research
Concurrent Sessions	Chairman: Patrick Matlou, Chief Executive of The African Institute of South Africa, South Africa Think Tanks in China: Evolution and Challenges Sun Lanlan, Director General of International Cooperation Department, Development Research Center, China Think tanks in the Arab World: Challenges and opportunities Azmy Khalifa, Advisor at IDSC , Egypt The Capacity building of think tanks Ulrich Erhart , Capacity building consultant at Denkmodel , Germany Discussions	Chairman: Mohammed J. K. Alghatam, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Bahrain Centre for Studies and Research, Bahrain The advocacy role of think tanks in developing future visions: Kenya 2030 Julius M. Muia, Secretary National Economic and Social Council, Kenya Emerging needs for Future Research : Edgar Goell, German Consultant for Future studies Center, IDSC, Germany Follow the money: Think Tanks, Finance, and the World of 2015 : John Casti, Research fellow, The International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis , Austria Basic changes in the structure of the world society and its impact upon the strategy of research in think tanks : El-Sayed Yassin, Advisor of Al- Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies , Egypt Discussions

Sunday, 18th January 2009
8:30 – 9:00	Registration
9:00-10:45	Think Tanks for the Unheard: Observatories for Child Rights	Development Oriented Think Tanks: German Experience

Concurrent Sessions	Chairman Ahmed El Moslemany, Journalist at El-Masry El-Youm News Paper,Egypt Presentation of Egypt National Child Rights Observatory Raga Shehata, Coordinator, Egypt National Child Rights Observatory, Egypt. Huda Alkitkat, Team leader at Population Research Unit, IDSC, Egypt Ecuador Observatory for Child and Adolescent Rights (ODNA) & Child Development Index Carolina Reed, President, ODNA, Ecuador. Wallonian Child and Adolescent Observatory (OEJAJ) & Child-Centred Research Dominique Delvaux, Coordinator OEJAJ, ,Belgium. Indian Ocean Regional Observatory for Child Rights (ODEROI) & Youth Led Advocacy Mariam Gopaul, Project Manager ODEROI, Mauritius	Chairman Edgar Goell, German Consultant for Future studies Center, IDSC, Germany Think Tanks in Public Policy Support at the Federal Chancery Mario Sander von Torklus, Head of Division 215, Development Politics for North South Issues, Federal Chancellery, Germany Independent Research Institutes as Government Consultants Habil. Sigrid Faath, Associate Fellow of the German Council on Foreign Relations, Germany Bridging research and policy in a globalized world - the contribution of the German Development Institute Thomas Fues, Head of Training Department at the German Development Institute in Bonn (DIE), Germany
10:45-11:15	Coffee Break

11:15-13:00	Think Tanks for the Unheard: Observatories for Child Rights	Measuring and Assessing Progress: International Experiences of Think Tanks Influencing Policy	The Role of Think Tanks in Shaping Reform Policies
Concurrent Sessions	Chairman Ahmed El Moslemany, Journalist at El-Masry El-Youm News Paper, Egypt Child Rights Observatory Madhya Pradesh (CROMP) and National Observatory for Child Rights (ONDE) & Platforms for Dialogue Nirmala Buch,President CROMP, India Said Raji, Executive Director, ONDE, Morocco Observatory for Information, Training, Documentation and Studies on Protection of Children’s Rights (ODE) & Children’s Parliament Rajhi Nehed, Director ODE, Tunisia Panel discussion	Chairman OECD Development Centre Northern Country Experiences: USA, UK, Irland, Australia Katherine Scrivens, OECD Global Initiative on Measuring Progress, Spain The Challenge in Conflict Countries Nicola Jones, ODI London Evidence Based Policy Processes: General Reflections Andy Sumner, IDS	Chairman Valdis Birkavs, Former prime Minister of Latvia The role of Spanish laboratories of ideas in shaping reform policies Manuel Pérez Yruela, Director of Institute for Advanced Social Studies, Spain Latin American think tanks: the long, rocky road towards influencing public policy making Mauricio Rodas Espinel, Executive Director of Fundación Ethos, Mexico American think tanks and Middle East Issues: The experience of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace Amr Hamzawy, Senior Associate, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace , U.S.A Modalities for south south cooperation Patrick Matlou, Chief Executive of The African Institute of South Africa, South Africa The experience of the Royal Institute of Strategic Studies: Overview and challenges Mohammed Tawfik Mouline, Managing Director of Royal Institute of Strategic Studies, Morocco


13:00-14:00	Luncheon Keynote Speaker: H.E. Fayza Abulnaga, Minister of International Cooperation, Egypt
14:00-15:45	Value Systems and Decision Support in Developing Countries	Think Tanks Influencing Political and Economic Policy: India and China Experiences
Concurrent Sessions	The insight of the world values survey: dissemination and usage Bi Puranen, Centre Internationale de Communication Avancée, Sweden The gap between values and public policies: The national perspective of world value survey: Egyptian perspective Khadiga Arafa, Researcher at IDSC, Egypt The Arab families working group: A template for collaborative, interdisciplinary, comparative research Suad Joseph, University of California, Davis, U.S.A Values in the Mediterranean region Juan Díez-Nicolás, Prof. Emeritus of Sociology, Spain	Chairman: Heba Handoussa, Advisor of Social Contract Center (IDSC), Egypt. India Experience Peter De Souza, Director of Advanced Studies Centre, India. China Experience Minquan Liu, University of Beijing, , China
15:45-16:15	Coffee Break/ Meeting of the Conferece Drafting Committee
16:15-17:15	Conference Closure
Closing Speech H.E. Ahmed Nazif, Prime Minister of Egypt, Egypt Conclusion / Cairo Declaration Magued Osman, Chairman of The Egyptian Cabinet Information and Decision Support Center (IDSC), Egypt - Cairo Declaration. - Conference Conclusions.