IMANI: The Center for Policy& Education has undergone remarkable growth
since its inception barely 4 years ago, and has today attained a stature
that is in many ways truly astounding.
IMANI’s “competitors” in Ghana are on average more than 4 times older,
with extensive networks across governmental and corporate circles, and
thus a pedigree borne of the privilege that such access endows. It is
therefore quite fascinating that IMANI is frequently cited in the same
leagues as the most prestigious of these institutions.
Since May 2008, a weekly media citation index managed by in-house staff has consistently shown IMANI to be number one among Ghanaian institutions for “web-presence” and number two when it comes to citations in the print press. Its profile in the broadcast media has also improved dramatically in recent times. Considering the resources available to these older institutions, IMANI’s higher public profile constitutes a remarkable feat
indeed.
Over the course of the past four years here in Ghana, IMANI has
consistently raised the level and quality of debate and discourse in the
popular and specialized press by highlighting hitherto neglected issues
that touch on the four broad thematic pillars that in the organisation’s
view under gird the development of free, stable, and prosperous societies.
The master themes of “Rule of Law”, “Market Growth & Development”, “Individual Rights, Human Security, and Human Dignity”, and “Institutional
Development” have by careful and sustained marketing been mainstreamed
into the national discourse through IMANI’s advocacy and public outreach
efforts. Consequently, as indicated above, the organisation has become the
most consulted think tank in Ghana by such major media houses as the BBC, the IPS (Inter Press Service), and more recently the CBC. It is perhaps worthy of more than a passing comment to add that the representation of IMANI’s work in international periodicals such as the Wall Street Journal outstrips that of any other organization of similar orientation in West Africa.
With only 5 staff and 8 unremunerated fellows IMANI nevertheless maintains commitments across the aforesaid 4 thematic areas at a level and to an extent that very few of its larger, older, competitors have shown a
willingness match. The evidence for these claims is manifest in the breadth of subject matter covered by IMANI publications, press submissions, and other commentary.
The influence of the organisation’s views, and their scope, have led to
the modification of anti-market tax policies, to the reversal of highly restrictive food & beverage safety regulation in Ghana and beyond, and to
wide-ranging re-drafting of national primary healthcare policy. Ministers
of State have cited IMANI’s work in explaining directions of policy; the
organisation’s research has been referenced in the UK House of Lords, by a
High Court in South Africa, by the eminent Jamestown Foundation, and by
the Association of South East Asian Nations; and its thought leadership
has reframed the dominant trends in scholarship on China-Africa relations,
as well as reshaped the debate about the interplay of energy geopolitics
and the US-Africa strategic security relationship, as evidenced by follow-on publications in the Asia Times and elsewhere.
Yet, IMANI’s focus has not departed its core objective of training a new
corps of future visionaries and leaders who will carry the torch of liberty and blaze the trail of prosperity in the coming dawn of African renaissance. IMANI’s continental seminars have catered to dozens of youth from a dozen countries in Africa, and brought needy and academically underserved students in contact with Africa’s leading thinkers and doers.
In the most recent residential program, 60 speakers, comprising Army
Generals, CEOs, Senior Technocrats, and Academic Deans and Dons,
administered to 40 students, enkindling in these bright young minds a
strong desire to become champions of liberty, proponents of the prosperity
borne by strong markets and human rights, and principled advocates for the rule of law and institutional growth here in Ghana and farther afield.
One beneficiary of these programs wrote: “you have fertilized my mind; all
my life I will bear fresh seeds of liberty”.
To consolidate these public education objectives, IMANI intends to launch
a National Press Club in order to create a community of scholarship within
which journalists can improve upon their capacity to independently
scrutinise government conduct, policy and performance by drawing on
freshly acquired analytical skills and the mentorship of policy experts.
Furthermore, following Ghana’s contentious presidential election, which
has left the nation deeply polarised, divided along ethnic and ideological
lines, and its institutions riven and rife with controversy, IMANI is of
the view that Ghanaian society requires a period of stimulated reflection
about the broad choices that faces it.
IMANI should be able to set a framework of discussion informed by dispassionate, independent, and highly competent analysis conducted in the
public sphere by respected stakeholders representing identified
constituencies. A series of 6 ‘National Debates’ is planned for 2009 with
the aim of bringing leading stakeholders together to brainstorm in public
view about the foremost questions dogging the nation-building process.
Our approach in offering a medium for the evolution of a critical framework for national discourse has resonated so well with independent observers, that IMANI is so far the only think tank in Africa to have won the Templeton Prize of the Atlas Economic Research Foundation twice (each time, beating around 180 think tanks across the globe to it). It has since crowned this achievement with an Anthony and Dorian Fisher Award. Such recognition is clearly consistent with the notion expressed above that the organization cultivates a unique formula for success.
One Templeton Prize Judge remarked: “I give them [IMANI] the highest
points for being most specific and rigorous in applying free-market solutions to an array of complex social problems. Their submission shows
the importance of using rigorously derived, quantifiable research outputs
to gain credibility in shaping the policy debate. Crisp, clear, compelling data is the most useful tool to provide to any media outlet, and it’s easy for the media to use, without interpretation.”
It is without doubt always a testimony to the viability of an organization
if its members show excellence both within and outside its remit. IMANI
Principals have received awards ranging from the Ashoka Fellowship through Marie Curie Scholarships to World Economic Forum accreditations, as well as invitations to share panels with international leaders such as Bill
Gates Snr., Mark Goldring, Anwar Ibrahim, Martin Wolf, and Maat Laar
(former President of Estonia).
And yet how much more, and how far better, could we have done; what
greater developmental impact might we have made; and what greater heights in scholarship we would have reached, had support been more forthcoming. While we revel in our achievements, we are also all too aware of the ampleness of our challenges. In the context of the above-mentioned four thematic areas, we have initiated 3 major projects that constitute the
strategic bedrock of our medium-term vision.
Over the next five years, we aim to become the foremost authority in the
world on the unfolding Sino-African relationship, through the Sino-African
Virtual Institute (www.sinoafrica.org); the leading developer of research
methodology and practice guidelines for corporate social responsibility in
West Africa, through our upcoming ISBIX project; and one of the three most prolific research houses in Africa working in the area of human security as a function of market institutionalization, through our upcoming
National Debates project. Across these frameworks, public outreach will be
consolidated through AfricanLiberty.org, the publication/syndication
project run jointly with the Cato Institute, and the launch of Ghana’s
first Research Journalist Corps.
Each element in this vision, upon critical analysis, reveal the extent of work we that needs to be done. Lack of remuneration for adjunct and research fellows is increasingly the organisation’s ability to carry out many original researches. The adjunct fellowship model has proved immensely useful in the past, and two of our current full-time staff begun their relationship with us that way. It brings into the fold talented individuals who prefer the freedom of multiple affiliations in order to nurture interdisciplinary excellence, and help foster useful and potentially synergistic linkages between our institution and others. But it needs to be sustained by means of a level of regular compensation for adjunct fellows. Currently, Adjunct Fellows are rewarded on a ad hoc, per event/program, basis that weakens the bonds of communal scholarship required for genuinely groundbreaking work.
IMANI would also prefer to be able to encourage a certain degree of
specialization, in correspondence with the aforementioned themes and
projects, amongst staff using customized training and core competence
augmentation. However, the unavailability of long-term core budget support
has interfered with longstanding plans.
Donors and partners are currently being sought for the strategic vision
vehicles identified above (ISBIX, the National Press Club, SAVI, and (National) Big Debates), hence consistent funding and support should prove
immensely crucial to the sound development of the organisation’s long-term
viability.
IMANI enjoys healthy partnerships with a good number of organizations in
Africa and beyond, amongst these: Cato Institute, (www.AfricanLiberty.org)
Atlas Economic Research Foundation, International Policy Network, Initiative for Public Policy Analysis, The Inter Region Economic Network,
the Free Market Foundation and the Liberty Institute, each from a different continent. The next level for organizational planning would be to enter into specialized partnerships with other institutions around strictly-specified objectives.
These kinds of relationship-based initiatives will clearly demand a greater ability on IMANI’s part to define and monitor strategically-shared goals and visions. Technical assistance on this front would definitely be also welcome.
Become a Member of IMANI
We are currently restructuring IMANI and we would like you to join and
recommend others as well. There are various levels of membership. Please
email IMANI’s director of development, Bright Simons for details.
Donate to Keep IMANI Alive!
As per our Antony and Dorian Fisher award, the Atlas Economic Research
Foundation is prepared to match every dollar, cedi, pound, euro that you
donate towards IMANI’s growth.
Please support institutional renewal, peace, liberty and prosperity in
Ghana and Africa today. Please send an email to IMANI on how you would like to support us. No amount is small.
Thank you for your attention. Enjoy the best of 2009!
IMANI
First Floor, No. 231 Bari House Flat Top Junction, Off Achimota-Lapaz Rd.
P.O. Box AT 411
Office:+233 21 417094 / +233 28 951 0383
Cell: +233 244 638 178
Email: franklin@imanighana.com
Web: www.imanighana.com
Web: www.africanliberty.org
