Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya, Distinguished Fellow, Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) and Chair of Southern Voice chaired the third plenary session on “Southern Development Narrative and Role of Southern Think-tanks” at the first day of the International Conference on South-South Cooperation (SSC), organised by the Finance Industry Development Council (FIDC) and Research and Information System for Developing Countries (RIS). The conference took place on 10-11 March 2016 at New Delhi. The conference focused on, among others, South and the global economy; global aid architecture and SSC; theoretical framework for SSC, besides sharing regional and sectoral experiences.
Discussants of the session focused on the two-pronged role of Southern think-tanks on bridging the gaps not only between policy makers and practitioners but also between advocacy organisations and policy makers. They also stressed on various ways so that Southern think-tanks can build capacity in the challenging atmosphere of limited resources.
Prof. Anuradha Chenoy, Dean, School of International Studies, JNU; Chairperson, FIDC, New Delhi was the Co-Chair of the session. Dr. Vicente Yu, the South Centre, Geneva; Prof. Li Xiaoyun, China Agriculture University, Beijing; Dr. André de Mello e Souza, Instituto de Pesquisa Econômica Aplicada (IPEA), Brasilia; Prof. Elizabeth Sidiropoulos, Director, the South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA), Johannesburg; Dr. Samar Verma, Senior Programme Officer, Think Tank Initiative, New Delhi and Prof. Sachin Chaturvedi, Director-General, RIS, New Delhi were the panelists of the session.