Gabrielle Alves, researcher at Plataforma CIPÓ, was one of the speakers at the “Young Thinkers Forum: A new generation of researchers building a sustainable and fair future”, which took place on November 10th at 11 am (Brasília time).
The session, organized by Southern Voice and On Think Tanks, was led by young thinktankers across the Global South, to share ideas and discuss proposals on how present actions, such as exploring new business models, attracting and developing new skills and competencies, positioning the organisations to engage with new stakeholders and audiences, etc., can equip us to respond better to future challenges.
During this session they addressed some of the following questions:
- What will think tanks look like in the future?
- What roles could young thinktankers play in delivering the future of think tanks?
- Who will think tanks engage and communicate with? How will they need to adapt to meaningfully engage with social movements, activists, indigenous leaders, influencers and other emerging changemakers?
- What will they focus their attention on? Will they fiercely fight for very specific sectoral territories or will they give up depth in favour of breadth?
- Where will think tanks be located? Will there still be offices – conveniently located near the centre of government- or will think tanks embrace distance working to “embed” their teams in local universities, NGOs, rural communities, neighborhood libraries, etc. across the country – or globally?
- Who will work there? How inclusive and diverse will their staff be? What will be thinktankers most prized skills and competencies?
- Can think tanks respond to the needs, demands and interests of young people? How can they involve them more: as young leaders, as the focus of think tanks’ agendas and as allies for young people’s efforts to bring about change?
Speakers
Gabrielle Alves works as a researcher at Plataforma CIPO, a Brazilian independent institute devoted to climate, governance, and peace research. She has developed a strong platform for environmental justice advocacy in Brazil and Latin America through granting commentaries, interviews and writing opinion editorials. Twitter: @gabriellealvesx Instagram: @leiturasdagabrielle
Regean Mugume works as a Research Analyst at Uganda’s Economic Policy Research Centre (EPRC). His areas of expertise include financial inclusion, commerce, food security, monitoring and evaluation, and quantitative survey analysis. He has worked on the micro and macro analysis of national household surveys and global trade data sets.
Twitter: @RegeanMugume
Dr. Awa Diouf is a project coordinator at IPAR-Senegal, a think tank focusing on public policies in agricultural and rural sectors in West Africa. She is an expert in developing countries’ public finance, and has featured on online deliberations, virtual topical conferences, informed policy papers on oil & gas in Senegal, and featured on African news reports. LinkedIn: @AwaDiouf
Maryam Shabbir Abbasi works as Project Associate on Climate Change and Gender, as well as Coordinator – Digital Media, at the Sustainable Development Policy Institute, Pakistan. Her work mainly focuses on incorporating gender mainstreaming into climate change policies through evidence based research. Maryam is also a social media activist, trainer, and an active member of National Youth Assembly. Twitter: @ S_Maryam8
Bakang Ntshingane is a Program Officer at Southern Voice, supporting the research and policy analysis programs of the organization. Before joining Southern Voice, Bakang was a summer intern at the Green Climate Fund, working to help prepare developing countries to finance scaled up and impactful climate action through the Readiness program. He has also worked for think tanks and grassroots civil society organizations in Botswana and South Africa. LinkedIn: @BakangNtshingane
