Opportunities for policy impact in regional and global spaces

Together with the South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA), IDOS with its Managing Global Governance (MGG) and Shaping Futures programmes hosted a session on (strategies for) policy impact in specific regional and international forums at OTT conference. 

Policy impact is hard to plan for and measure in the national context of a think tank; it often is an ambiguous process without clear notions of ‘causal relations’. This challenge redoubles when we look at operations in transnational networks and in regional or global settings. Unpacking what constitutes impact and how it is achieved is thus crucially important. Which elements do institutions consider in their impact creating processes? To what extent is impact the result of a deliberate process? Which strategies are most effective in achieving intended impact?

In the joint session “Opportunities for policy impact in regional and global spaces: Lessons from the T20 and beyond”, leading experts from six international research organisations shared insights from their long-standing experience in policy advice to forums such as T20 and other G20 engagement groups, the BRICS, the COP30 process as well as to multilateral or supranational institutions such as the AU and the EU. The panel consisted of Beatriz Pfeifer, Partnerships and International Cooperation Manager at CEBRI (Brazil), Gala Díaz Langou, Executive Director of CIPPEC (Argentina), Sven Grimm, Head of Department Knowledge Cooperation and Training at IDOS (Germany), Luciana Santos Servo, President of IPEA (Brazil), Sara Pantuliano, Chief Executive of ODI Global (UK), and Elizabeth Sidiropoulos, Chief Executive of SAIIA.  

Building on the inputs, structured group discussions deepened the exchange on strategies and success stories on impact in regional, transnational and global forums. The session was jointly facilitated by Goodwill Kachingwe, Head of Monitoring and Evaluation and G20 Coordinator at SAIIA, and Chris Büscher, Researcher in the Shaping Futures programme and Eva Lynders, Researcher in the MGG programme at IDOS.