In the Global Go-To Think Tank Ranking Index Report for 2020, the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC), has emerged the second highest-ranked African Think Tank.

A statement issued by the KAIPTC, copied to the Ghana News Agency said the Centre ranked 85th after Al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies (ACPSS) in Egypt who ranked 35TH, which topped Africa's Foreign Policy and International Affairs Think Tanks category.

It said in total, the category featured five African Think Tanks out of an overall ranking of 156 institutions from 49 countries.

The Global Go-To Think Tank Ranking Index Report is produced annually by the Think Tanks and Civil Societies Programme (TTCSP) of the Lauder Institute at the University of Pennsylvania.

The Think Tank Index is the result of an international survey of scholars, who ranked think tanks using set criteria developed by the TTCSP.

The statement said the TTCSP worked with leading scholars and practitioners from think tanks and universities in a variety of collaborative efforts and programmes and engages with a panel of peer institutions and experts from the print and electronic media, academia, public and private donor institutions, and governments around the world, to produce the Index that ranks the world’s leading think tanks in a variety of categories.

It said the goal was to increase the profile and performance of think tanks and raise public awareness of the important role think tanks played in governments and civil societies around the globe.

It noted that the KAIPTC’s ranking on the Index report was due to its work in disseminating African thinking on peace, security and conflict issues globally through numerous and cutting-edge research publications, policy advice to governmental, non-governmental and private institutions.

It said the KAIPTC outranked institutions such as the South African Institute of International Affairs, the Asia Society Policy Institute (United States), American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research (AEI) (United States), and Amnesty International in the United Kingdom, which placed 97th, 103rd, and 104th respectively.

It said over the years, the Centre had featured on the Index Report as one of the top foreign policy and international Think Tanks, strengthening the Centre’s reputation, visibility and credibility in public policy globally, as a Centre of Excellence for research in the sub-region and Africa as a whole.