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Connecting To Advance
Ory Okolloh tells the story of her life and her family — and how she came to do her heroic work reporting on the doings of Kenya’s parliament
Ory Okolloh is a Kenyan activist, lawyer, and blogger. She currently holds the position of Policy Manager for Africa with Google. She also works as a legal consultant for NGOs and has worked at Covington and Burling, the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights, and the World Bank in the past.
[youtube]0652vE9Q3VQ[/youtube]
The 2010 Global Go To Think Tank Rankings marks the fourth edition of what has now become an annual report. The Think Tanks and Civil Societies Program at the International Relations Program, University of Pennsylvania has created a process for ranking think tanks around the world. It is the first comprehensive ranking of the world’s top think tanks, based on a worldwide survey of close to 1500 scholars, policy makers, journalists and regional and subject area experts. The think tank index has been described as the insider’s guide to the global marketplace of ideas. All 6480 think tanks in the world were contacted and encouraged to participate in this year’s nominations process. For this ambitious global project, I have assembled a panel of over 250 experts from around the world, across the political spectrum and from every discipline and sector to help nominate and select public policy research centers of excellence for 2010. This group of peers and experts were asked to nominate and then rank regional or global centers of excellence that they felt should be recognized for producing rigorous and relevant research, publications and programs in one or more substantive areas of research.
The Global Go To Think Tank Rankings was launched in 2006 in response to the never-ending requests that I received from journalists, scholars and government officials to provide a list of the leading think tanks in a particular country or region of the world. When I first designed the project it was intended to identify some of the leading think tanks in the world in an attempt to answer these inquiries in a more systematic fashion. Over the last years the process has been refined and the number of institutions and individuals involved in the project has grown steadily.
The primary objective of the rankings is to recognize some of the leading public policy think tanks in the world and highlight the important contributions these organizations are making to governments and civil societies around the world. In five short years the Global Go To Index has become an authoritative source for the top public policy research institutes in the world. Last year’s Report was launched at a briefing at the United Nations University in New York and at the Johns Hopkins University, School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in Washington DC. Over 225 diplomats, foundations and think tanks attended the meeting at the UN and over 100 print and electronic media outlets featured the findings of the study.
Contained in this Report are the results of the 2010 Global Go To Think Tank Rankings. Also included in this report is a summary of the major trends and issues that think tanks face across the globe. These trends were identified through our annual survey of think tanks and interviews with the staff of think tanks and civil society organizations in every region of the world.
Every year we try to respond systematically to comments and suggestions for how we might improve the nomination and rankings process but this year we devoted considerable time and energy to evaluating the entire process. Based on the findings of the evaluation and the other input we received for how to improve the quality and representativeness of the rankings we instituted several changes. Specifically, we made some minor changes to the wording of the nomination and rankings criteria so the meaning was clearer, launched an aggressive outreach effort in Asia, Latin America, Africa and MENA and proposed a set of options for changing the process for the Expert Panel to consider. After careful consideration of how to organize the nominations and rankings process we settled on a mixed approach that was explained in the letter I sent out to every institution in August 2010. This change resulted in turning the process on its head by having an open nominations process in which all 6480 think tanks were invited to submit nominations, rather than having the Expert Panel develop the initial slate of institutions to be ranked as we had done in previous years. The changes dramatically increased the levels of participation from the regions listed above and greatly improved the quality and representativeness of the universe of institutions that were nominated this year. The fact that individuals and organizations from 120 countries participated in this year’s nominations and rankings process is a clear testament to the success of these efforts.
While this year’s selection process is greatly improved, a number of qualifications are still in order. First and foremost, the significant differences between the levels of development and resources in the world continue to contribute to certain regions being underrepresented on the top 50 think tanks in the world list. We suspect that this has to do with the relatively small number of think tanks in developing countries, their underdeveloped capacity and the limited resources available to these organizations. The unfortunate reality is that there are simply more and better-funded think tanks in the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) countries. In addition, the dominant role these countries play in world politics and the influence they exert over political, economic and social thinking is reflected in the global prominence of their think tanks. That being said, the real story is not what organizations make it on the list of the Top 50 think tanks in the world but the ones who make it on the list for the top think tanks in Africa, Latin America, Asia and Eastern and Central Europe.
Despite our best efforts to consult widely and create a rigorous and inclusive process, we cannot eliminate all bias from the selection of the top think tanks in the world. We fully recognize that personal, regional, ideological, and disciplinary biases may have been introduced into the nomination and selection process by some of those consulted for this study. We are confident, however, that our efforts to create a detailed set of selection criteria, an open and transparent
process, and an increase in the participation from underrepresented regions of the world has
served to insulate the nomination and selection process from serious problems of bias and underrepresentation.
It is also important to note that US think tanks (see the list of the top 50 Think Tanks in the US) were not included in the universe of institutions considered for the Top Think Tanks Worldwide list because we felt their inclusion would have a distorting effect on the global rankings. By organizing the process in this way, we were able to further highlight the lesser-known think tanks in other regions of the world.
Finally, we should point out that the data collection and research for this project was conducted without the benefit of field research, a budget or a staff.
Despite these limitations, I am confident that the international experts group and peer nomination and selection process that was constituted for this study has enabled us to create the most authoritative list of high performance think tanks in the world.
The entire report is available here
2010 Global Go to ThinkTank Report
(Source: GoToThinkTank.com)
Approximately 30 non-renewable Spencer Dissertation Fellowships for Research Related to Education are awarded each year to encourage scholars from a wide range of disciplines and professional fields to undertake research relevant to the improvement of education.
These fellowships are not intended to finance data collection or the completion of doctoral coursework, but rather to support the final analysis of the research topic and the writing of the dissertation.
Award Amount: Stipends of $25,000 per year.
Disciplines: Open to all fields. As long as dissertation topic is relevant to education, in the broadest sense.
Citizenship: No citizenship requirements.
Requirements: All predissertation requirements must be completed before activation of award.
Must be candidates for the doctoral degree at a graduate school within the U.S.
Expect to complete the dissertation by the end of the two-year award period.
Contacts: Dissertation Fellowship Program, The Spencer Foundation, 875 N. Michigan Ave., Suite 3930, Chicago, IL 60611-1803, 1 (312) 274-6526, E-mail: fellows[at]spencer.org.
Deadline: November 2 each year.
For further details, and application materials, contact: Spencer Dissertation Fellowships for Research Related to Education
(CNN) — Unrest has spread across the Middle East and North Africa. Here’s a look at what has happened — and what is happening — in various countries:
ALGERIA
Authorities in Algeria said Monday that they would lift a 20-year state of emergency in the “coming days,” but it had not been canceled as of Tuesday. They acted after anti-government protesters chanting “Change the power!” clashed with security forces in the capital over the weekend, witnesses said. The state of emergency was imposed in 1992 to quell a civil war that led to the deaths of what U.S. officials estimate to be more than 150,000 people. About 100 protesters were arrested during the protests in Algiers on Saturday, according to the opposition Algerian League for Human Rights.
BAHRAIN
The king of the small Gulf nation addressed his country on national television Tuesday, promising changes in the law after two people were killed in as many days. King Hamad ibn Isa Al Khalifa said he would “ask the legislative authority … to
suggest the necessary legislation which will solve this in a way that will benefit the homeland and its citizens.” One person was killed in a demonstration demanding reform on Monday, and another was killed at the funeral of the first victim on Tuesday. Protesters initially demanded reform and the introduction of a constitutional monarchy. But some are now calling for the removal of the royal family.
EGYPT
The military council now running Egypt said Tuesday it is moving ahead with constitutional reforms, appointing a committee with instructions to propose changes within 10 days. Banks were closed and were set to remain shut for the rest of the week after an 18-day revolution toppled longtime President Hosni Mubarak, who stepped down Friday. The nation’s stock market remained closed until further notice because of turmoil in the banking sector. In addition, current and former police officers continued a peaceful protest Monday in front of the Interior Ministry, saying they want higher pay, shorter hours, better benefits and more respect. And some police officers told reporters they were ordered to shoot protesters during demonstrations last week and threatened with prison if they did not.
IRAN
Iranian lawmakers called Tuesday for the execution of key opposition leaders, a day after tens of thousands of demonstrators marched along Revolution Avenue in downtown Tehran. They issued fiery chants against former presidential candidates Mehdi Karrubi and Mir Hossein Moussavi, in video shown on government-run Press TV. Monday’s wave of people protesting the government of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad remained largely silent as they walked toward the capital city’s Azadi Square, though some clashes between security forces and demonstrators broke out in several parts of Tehran, according to witnesses. Security forces fired tear gas in some places and detained demonstrators in other areas of the city. The Iranian government rounded up activists last week after Karrubi and Moussavi called for supporters to gather at Azadi Square — the site of mass protests by Iran’s opposition movement after the disputed 2009 presidential elections.
IRAQ
Thousands of people have rallied this month in cities across the country, protesting rampant poverty, a 45% national unemployment rate and shortages of food, electricity and water. Hundreds took to the streets Tuesday in at least two areas — the predominantly Sunni town of Falluja, about 35 miles west of Baghdad, and the Shiite district of Sadr City in eastern Baghdad. Police also reported smaller protests elsewhere in Baghdad and in several provinces. Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki announced earlier this month that he would cut his salary in half amid the growing unrest over poor public services and water shortages. State television also reported this month that al-Maliki would not run for a third term when his current one expires in 2014.
JORDAN
U.S. Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, traveled over the weekend to Jordan, where King Abdullah II swore in a new government last week following anti-government protests in his country. The new government has a mandate for political reform and is headed by a former general, with several opposition and media figures among its ranks. The appointment of Marouf al-Bakhit as the new prime minister was seen as an attempt to shore up support among Jordan’s Bedouin tribes — the bedrock of the monarchy. Jordan’s economy has been hard-hit by the global economic downturn and rising commodity prices, and youth unemployment is high, as it is in Egypt. Officials close to the palace have told CNN that Abdullah is trying to turn a regional upheaval into an opportunity for reform.
LIBYA
Calls were made through Facebook for a day of peaceful demonstrations in Libya on Monday. The call came in the shadow of leader Moammar Gadhafi, who has ruled the country for almost 40 years and had expressed support for former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak during the crisis there. It was not immediately clear Monday whether protests had taken place.
PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES
Prime Minister Salam Fayyad’s Cabinet submitted its resignations to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Monday, days after the announcement the legislative and parliamentary elections will be held before September. The Palestinian Territories have not seen the kind of demonstrations as in many Arab countries, but the government has been under criticism since Al-Jazeera published secret papers claiming to reveal some of the wide-ranging concessions Palestinian officials were prepared to make in negotiations with Israel. Negotiations have collapsed. Abbas’ Palestinian Authority holds sway only over the West Bank. The militant Islamist movement Hamas controls Gaza.
SYRIA
As protests heated up around the region, the Syrian government pulled back from a plan to withdraw some subsidies that keep the cost of living down in the country. President Bashar al-Assad also gave a rare interview to Western media, telling The Wall Street Journal for a January 31 article that he planned reforms that would allow for local elections and included a new media law and more power for private organizations. A planned “Day of Rage” that was being organized on Facebook for February 5 failed to materialize, The New York Times reported.
SUDAN
Demonstrators have clashed with authorities on several recent occasions in Sudan. Human Rights Watch has said that “authorities used excessive force during largely peaceful protests on January 30 and 31 in Khartoum and other northern cities to call for an end to the National Congress Party rule and government-imposed price increases.” Witnesses said that security forces used pipes, sticks and tear gas to disperse protesters and that several people were arrested, including 20 who remain missing. The Sudanese Embassy said that people in Sudan have the right to “demonstrate as they wish” but that “some opportunists capitalize” on incidents “to inspire chaos or smear Sudan’s image.”
TUNISIA
The European Union’s top foreign policy official, Catherine Ashton, met Monday with government and civil society leaders in Tunisia, the North African country where protests in December sparked unrest that has spread across North Africa and the Middle East. After weeks of demonstrations that started in December, longtime President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali fled the country. Since then, Italy has complained about a wave of migrants from Tunisia coming into its territory.
YEMEN
Clashes broke out between pro- and anti-government protesters in Yemen’s capital on Tuesday, at least the fourth day in a row of protests. A group of anti-government protesters marched toward the center of Sanaa Tuesday afternoon and were attacked by pro-government supporters with sticks and rocks, said Abdul Rahman Barman, a human rights activist who marched in the anti-government demonstration. Human rights group Amnesty International condemned the use of force in a statement issued Monday. Yemen’s Embassy in Washington said the opposition coalition had announced its intention to hold a dialogue with the administration. Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh has been in power for 32 years and has pledged not to run for re-election when his current term ends in 2013.
Pregnancy is a risky time when the slightest deviation from a healthy lifestyle can cause a lot of damage to the unborn child’s future.
Drinking alcohol when you’re pregnant can lead to foetal alcohol syndrome. And smoking too poses a threat to the unborn child.
Women who smoke are in fact twice as likely to have an extra-uterine pregnancy and three times as likely to suffer a miscarriage.
Causing facial abnormalities, delayed growth, malformations of the cranium and the brain, foetal alcohol syndrome can result in serious damage to the nervous system which in turn leads to delayed intellectual development.
The risk of premature birth is also greatly increased if a pregnant woman drinks alcohol.
Smoking too is harmful to the unborn child. The placenta transmits almost everything the mother consumes to the foetus and the mother’s blood will be loaded with carbon monoxide and nicotine.
Carbon monoxide is particularly toxic and slows down foetal development. Nicotine also acts as an intoxicant on the unborn child who, once born, is likely to suffer from withdrawal syndrome.
Eligible fields include: Aeronautics and aeronautics and astronomics/aeronautical engineering, agriculture (theoretical or research-based focus only), astronomy/planetary sciences, biology, biomedical engineering, chemistry, computer sciences/engineering, energy, engineering (electrical, chemical, civil, mechanical, ocean, and petroleum), environmental science/engineering, geology/earth and atmospheric sciences, information sciences and systems (engineering focus only), materials science/engineering, mathematics, neuroscience/brain and cognitive sciences, oceanography, public health (theoretical research focus only) and physics.
ELIGIBILITY: Applicants must be citizen of Nigeria and must apply through the U.S. Mission Public Affairs Sections in Nigeria. Applicants must have completed an undergraduate degree with a First Class or very strong Second Class Upper before applying. Applicant must be proficient in English with a recent TOEFL score of 85 or higher in the Internet based Test (iBT) format. A nominee is expected to achieve a GRE General Exam quantitative score of at least 700. (Note: a GRE Subject Exam score report will also be needed for all selected candidates in the following fields of study: biology; biochemistry, cell, and molecular biology; chemistry; computer science; mathematics; and physics. GRE subject testing occurs in October and November of each year.)
APPLICATION PROCEDURES: Each applicant will be required to submit an online application at https://apply.embark.com/student/fulbright/international/20/ along with all supporting documents. Applicant logs onto the website, then enters an e-mail address and creates a password, which would be used throughout the application process.
A complete application includes:
An online application which includes:
A clearly written research objective
A professional resume Three letters of reference specifying the personal, academic and professional competence of the candidate (submitted electronically and attached to the online application)
Official (or scanned and attached to the online application; official paper transcripts should also be sent at a later date) academic transcripts from each post-secondary institution attended
TOEFL and GRE score reports.
Hard copies of official academic transcripts and other supplementary documents should be forwarded to our office by regular mail. Please address the envelope to: FS&T Program Officer, Public Affairs Section, U.S. Consulate General, 2 Walter Carrington Crescent, Victoria Island, Lagos.
Please note that the STRICT deadline for submission of online application and all supplementary documents is Friday, April 1, 2011 by 12 noon.
For more information, please check the program website at http://scienceandtech.fulbrightonline.org/
Rwanda’s government has said it wants to encourage men to have vasectomies in a bid to stem the small landlocked country’s growing population.
It would be done along with its HIV prevention campaign to encourage all men to be circumcised.
Health officials would take the opportunity to talk to men about the birth-control method at the same time.
A BBC reporter in Rwanda says vasectomies are uncommon in the country and the move may meet resistance.
A vasectomy is often irreversible. The operation for a male sterilisation takes about 15 minutes and can be carried out in a clinic under local anaesthetic.
The Rwandan government has been encouraging male circumcision since 2008 as the UN World Health Organization says it reduces the risk of heterosexual HIV infection.
Health Minister Richard Sezibera said the government aimed to have 700,000 men circumcised in the next three years.
“Those who will be willing to join the programme of family planning will be allowed to have a vasectomy,” Dr Sezibera said.
But men interviewed on the streets of the capital, Kigali, were cautious about such a permanent method of contraception.
“I think I can’t go for it. You may plan to have two children and then unfortunately one dies,” one man told the BBC’s Network Africa programme.
“When this happens when you already have had vasectomy, you can’t have another child. Instead of going for vasectomy, you would rather practice other methods.”
“I can never go for it,” another added.
One man was a little more positive: “I personally wouldn’t prefer to. But perhaps if I had three children, I would go.”
Experts say a slowdown in Rwanda’s fast-growing population, which the UN estimates was 10.2 million in 2010, would help improve living standards.
South African health authorities will soon lunch a highly criticised HIV testing campaign for schools. But Parents, backed by several groups, believe that the campaign could have a devastating impact on children. Meanwhile, Zimbabwe’s health ministry has announced that an estimated 47 000 HIV positive pregnancies this year will result in tens of thousands of HIV positive births.
A massive HIV testing drive in South Africa targeting schools has caused an uproar among parents and student unions who have accused the government of planning to use statistics from student testing to reach set targets.
The South African government is aiming to test 15 million people for HIV/AIDS by June 2011.
With the roll out of the planned voluntary testing expected to take place anytime soon, reports say that teacher unions, legal experts and child rights organizations have demanded to know exactly how this will work.
The voluntary campaign is expected to be rolled out at high schools and tests will be performed in private spaces on school premises during weekends and school holidays.
While the groups argue that the planned HIV testing has the potential to raise serious human rights concerns, the country’s main students body the Congress of South African Students (Cosas) has described the campaign as a “bomb waiting to explode”.
Cosas president Bongani Mani is quoted saying: “The country has not dealt with the stigma attached. You cannot expect a learner to go for such a life-changing test and then go back to class as if nothing happened.
“Serious medical tests such as HIV and Aids should be done outside the school. Schools are for learning and should remain so.”
It is “something we fully support”, Health Department spokesman Fidel Hadebe defends the campaign as he describes extension of the campaign to pupils as overdue.
But Parents are worried that children found to be carrying the HIV virus would not be able to deal with the psychological pressure.
However Mani says that “if the testing takes place we would like full psycho-social support in the form of the presence of parents, social workers and councilors in order to ease the burden on teachers”.
Several publications quote health experts raising concerns as to whether learners would be able to keep their status secret especially since those who test positive are usually kept longer in counseling, thereby revealing their positive status to other people in attendance.
Nonetheless, advocates for the campaign say it is never too early to begin school testing as figures show that children are sexually active at a young age and want children older than 11 to be tested without parental consent.
Zimbabwe’s soaring rates
In another related development in neighboring Zimbabwe, its health minister Henry Madzorera has disclosed that close to 14 000 births with the deadly virus from an estimated 47 000 HIV positive pregnant women will occur in 2011.
“Out of the estimated 47 000 HIV-infected pregnant women in 2011, about 14 000 children will become infected with HIV without any intervention. However, with high quality of Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission interventions, this figure can be reduced to 2 350,” said the minister.
He, however, does not explain how they came up with the figure of women to fall pregnant. Heath statistics reveal that about 150 000 children below the age of 15 are living with the virus in the southern African country because more than 90 per cent of them acquired the virus from their mothers.
The health ministry, which is heavily dependent on international donors, is exploring ways of increasing funding for Aids programmes.
Alice Chimora, Sakhile Modise Afrik-News