Center for Economic and Social Development
Center for Economic and Social Development, or CESD; in Azeri, İqtisadi və Sosial İnkişaf Mərkəzi is an Azeri think tank, non-profit organization, NGO based in Baku, Azerbaijan. The center was established in 2005.
CESD focuses on policy advocacy and reform, and is involved with policy research and capacity building. CESD involves leading researchers prominent in their fields and enjoys a broad regional and international networking.
CESD ranked as one of the top think tanks in the world by The University of Pennsylvania, United States, in the . According to the University of Pennsylvania rankings - a result of surveys from 1500 scholars and peer review evaluation - the Center for Economic and Social Development is one of the top 25 think tanks in Central and Eastern Europe, including CIS. CESD is the only think tank from the Caucasus and Central Asia included in the top think tanks rankings.
CESD is also ranked as one of the top 25 domestic economic policy think tanks in the world. Only CESD and the Center for Social and Economic Research, were included in the list from Central and Eastern Europe and CIS countries.
Mission
CESD has been set up to promote research into domestic and regional economic and social issues, advocacy towards reforms, and capacity building for the purpose to positively impacting policymaking and improving participation.The focus
The center is a leading Azerbaijani think tank specialized in economic and social policy issues, working with and establishing bridges between the government and the various representatives of civil society. At the same time, the Center positions itself in the center of the civil society, having tight relationships with media, 24 communities spread around Azerbaijan, NGOs providing services at the grass-roots level, international think-tanks, financial institutions and donors, and virtually all the other think tanks functioning in Azerbaijan.Goals
- Policy advice and advocacy
- Government and civil society capacity development
- Public awareness, interest in involvement, and participation in policy programs and reforms
- Anticorruption reforms, mechanisms, programs, and tools at the policy and grassroots levels
- Understanding and application of market economy principles and values in Azerbaijan and the region
- Cooperation between educational institutions and public, private, and NGO sectors in addressing the economic and social issues
- Research and programs to address sustainable development, as well as the issues on women's rights protection, poverty reduction, Millennium Development Goals and economic and social reforms
Management
The chairman of CESD is Vugar Bayramov, well-known economist in Azerbaijan. He has a Ph.D. in economics from Washington University in St. Louis. The center board consists of 5 economists and social-work specialists, and all of them are alumni from different US universities.Publications
- Ending Dependency: How Is Oil Revenues Effectively Used in Azerbaijan?
- Audit in Local Government
- Modern Economics
- Reforms in Public Administration; Policy Recommendation
- Health Economics
- Strategy of State Oil Fund
- Azerbaijan's Accession to the WTO
- Gender Economics; “Brain Lost” Problem in Azerbaijan
- Political Credibility; why investments go to the oil sector
- Why 90% of investments go to oil sector?
- Oil Revenues; Transparency, Effectiveness and Accountability
- Investment Strategy in Business Sector
- Social insurance in Azerbaijan: diagnostics and recommendations on policy and implementation