Erbil-based Think Tank ranked among the top in Middle East and North Africa
The Erbil-based Middle East Research Institute (MERI) has been ranked as a top think-tank in the Middle East and Northern Africa, and the highest ranking in Iraq, according to a publication from Pennsylvania University’s Lauder Institute.
MERI was included in the Global Go To Think Tank Index in mid-2015 just one year after its foundation and has now been ranked 58 out of 398 organisations in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region in a report issued by the Think Tanks and Civil Societies Program at the University of Pennsylvania’s Lauder Institute.
Among 31 operating think tanks in Iraq MERI has received the highest rank.
According to the Institute’s website “MERI is a newly established, independent, not-for-profit organisation, focused on policy issues relating to the people, the land and the system of governance in the Middle East in general, and Kurdistan and Iraq in particular.”
In a statement MERI wrote that this year marks the 9th year of the Lauder Institute’s “continued efforts to acknowledge the important contributions and emerging global trends of think tanks worldwide.”
“The Lauder Institute maintains the largest and most comprehensive database of over 6,500 think tanks, policymakers, and policy-oriented civil society groups; and ranks organisations annually both globally and regionally,” read the statement.
The selection and ranking process has been conducted by 6,846 think tanks and over 4,750 journalists, policymakers, public and private donors, and regional area specialists who were surveyed to nominate and rank public policy research centers of distinction such as MERI for 2015.
“Some of the ranking criteria included: the quality and commitment of the think tank’s staff; the quality, number, and reach of its publications; the academic performance and reputation of the organisation and the impact of publications on policymakers,” said MERI in its statement.
