About Enrique Mendizabal

See Enrique Mendizabal’s LinkedIn page

I am an independent researcher and advisor on think tanks and policy research networks.

In 2010 I founded  a blog on think tanks: www.onthinktanks.org to accompany my research and on-going advisory work. Onthinktanks.org has become one of the leading sources of information and opinion relating to think tanks.

Until December 2010, I headed the Research and Policy in Development (RAPID) programme at the Overseas Development Institute. I joined ODI in 2004 and since then have led the organisation’s research and practice on think tanks, networks, research communications and policy influence, including the development of the Network Functions Approach (NFA) for supporting networks and the RAPID Outcome Mapping Approach (ROMA) for planning, monitoring and evaluating policy influencing strategies. As Head of Programme I was also responsible for the Outcome Mapping Learning Community (www.outcomemapping.ca) and the Evidence based Policy in Development Network (www.ebpdn.org). More recently, my focus has turned towards the political economy of research uptake. In 2009 I published a book on the links between think tanks and political parties in Latin America and in 2010 a paper on the relation between think tanks and politics in East and Southeast Asia. Also in 2010 I launched, through the ebpdn, a series of studies on the relative role of research-based evidence in political debates in Latin America (published in June 2011) and Africa (published in June 2012); all can be accessed here: A new political economy of research uptake.

Since 2006, I have been working closely with the Think Tank Fund, DFID, IDRC, GDNet, AusAid, USAID, the Danish Development Research Network and other global agents in the study of policy influence and the development of approaches and tools to support the development, monitoring and evaluation of influencing strategies.

I have also worked for Development Alternatives Inc. Europe (then known as Bannock Consulting) between 2003-2004, and at the Research Centre at the Universidad del Pacífico in Perú (Centro de Investigación de la Universidad del Pacífico) between 1998-2002.

During the last 10 years I have published extensively and developed an excellent portfolio of workshops and seminars –including invitations to provide keynote speeches at high-level events and TEDx in Peru. I have worked with well over 1000 researchers and practitioners from across the developing and developed world through mentoring, training, collaboration and consultancies that have contributed to my own personal and professional development.

In 2012 I became Research Associate at CIPPEC, in Argentina.

See Enrique Mendizabal’s LinkedIn page