Last year was one of consolidating the considerable progress made by CEPA in the previous year. While the Think Tank Initiative funded by IDRC gave us the opportunity to achieve organisational development through our thematic research programmes, other long term projects have enabled us to plan ahead. It is critical for us to think ahead to mobilise resources to fund us when these long term support comes to an end. Unlike research institutes that have assured sources of funding, CEPA must always keep in mind the need to raise funds to support itself.

The breathing space we have gained through our hard work and quality research must be utilised to understanding the research needs of the next decade and becoming familiar with funding agencies, national and foreign, that would be willing to support such research. For CEPA this has to be a continuous concern for which we need to develop expertise. We may not be doing enough to familiarise ourselves with the changing priorities of funding agencies and developing relationships with them. All our senior staff should consider it one of their responsibilities.

Our success will depend as much on such relationships as well as on the quality of the research we deliver. That depends on continuous upgrading of the research capability of our staff through formal research training, interaction with reputed researchers and publishing our research in recognised research publications. We need to work out a way of evaluating and rewarding quality improvements that should be a part of our annual staff review.

As an organisation that must support itself, we must always be conscious of saving on costs without adversely affecting the quality of our research. We have already started the process by enabling staff to keep a watchful eye on their budgets through improved computerised accounting. Our staff must become as much conscious about costs as about quality. It is very much a team effort.

At the same time, we need to explore ways of expanding our investment base. The Development Fund is increasing again after being stationary for a few years as a result of our better financial situation but we need to have a larger vision for our investment base. It should be our objective for the next decade to make ourselves sustainable.

We have achieved much; we need to achieve much more. Team CEPA can do it.



Prof. Hiran D. Dias
Chairperson