MAPUNGUBWE INSTITUTE FOR STRATEGIC REFLECTION INSTITUTE FOR STRATEGIC MAPUNGUBWE MAPUNGUBWE INSTITUTE FOR STRATEGIC REFLECTION (MISTRA) (MISTRA) Annual ReportAnnual 2013 | 14 Physical address: First floor, Cypress Place North, Woodmead Business Park, 142 Western Service Road, Woodmead, Johannesburg, 2191 Postal Address: PostNet Suite 586, Private Bag X29, Gallo Manor, Johannesburg, 2052 Annual Report 2013|14 Tel: +2711 518 0260 Fax: +2711 518 0266 Email: [email protected] Web: www.mistra.org.za Mapungubwe Institute (MISTRA) • [A Non-Profit Company][104-474-Npo] • Registration Number 2010/002262/08 [“The Institute”] CONTENTS Message from the Chairperson of the Council of Advisors 2 Message from the Chairperson of the Board of Governors 4 Preface by the Executive Director 6 Background 8 Strategic Vision 10 Governance 12 Organisation 20 Our Approach to Research: MISTRA Policy Impact 24 Core Business 28 MISTRA’s Second Tranche of Priority Research Projects 42 Strategic Reflections, Joint Research Initiatives, Commissioned Studies 54 Operations 68 Human Resources 80 Finance 82 Financial Statements 86 MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIRPERSON OF THE COUNCIL OF ADVISORS 2 Mapungubwe Institute for Strategic Reflection (MISTRA) JENNY CARGILL Chairperson of the Council of Advisors MISTRA launched in 2010 with the vision to provide a long-term view on the strategic challenges facing South Africa and the rest of the continent. However, given South Africa’s status as a new democracy, it could not ignore the need of the diverse constituency that it serves for analysis and interpretation of current day events and developments. Importantly, therefore, it has steered a course of robust and intellectually challenging debate on the socio-political dynamics within our body politic without losing its core purpose. This has been crucial in a time of social and economic dislocation globally, on a scale far deeper, wider and longer than first imagined at the beginning of the financial crisis in 2008. Short-term responses are inadequate and long-term perspectives in short supply. MISTRA’s research choices therefore are an invaluable contribution to South Africa and beyond. Among its new projects are The Great Recession, which explores the impact and implications of the current global recession, and the Changing Economic Balance in Africa. These follow on from published research into Platinum Group Metals and the Evolution of the South African State, with work being concluded on Nation Formation and Social Cohesion and The Arithmetic of Savings. As MISTRA’s body of knowledge expands, its insights into our interesting times become increasingly evident – as does the strategic logic of its research choices. We are living in an era of profound change, where not just our economic assumptions and presumptions are being challenged, but where the planet on which our existence depends is at risk. MISTRA therefore has made enormous strides in a short lifespan, but it can never sit on its laurels. It has given itself an inordinate responsibility to contribute to the rethinking of our future. Annual Report 2013 | 2014 3 MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIRPERSON OF THE BOARD OF GOVERNORS 4 Mapungubwe Institute for Strategic Reflection (MISTRA) SIBUSISO VIL-NKOMO Chairperson of the Board of Governors This year of 2013/2014 has been a period of further growth for the Mapungubwe Institute for Strategic Reflection (MISTRA). The focus on strong leadership, fulfilment of the MISTRA research agenda and the attraction of top quality staff is testimony to the Think Tank’s drive towards competitiveness. As leaders of MISTRA, we underscore that the ‘MISTRA proposition is a unique and necessary addition to the intellectual landscape in South Africa and further afield’. We are proud that MISTRA has some of the best managers who have demonstrated efficiency and effectiveness in the utilisation of the Institute’s scarce human capital and financial resources. As MISTRA’s Board of Governors (BoG) we were fully cognisant in 2013/2014 of the fact that we carry out our business in a competitive world; and work during the year under discussion was pursued with this understanding. 2013/2014 was also important for MISTRA to advance its research agenda. Besides the release of five comprehensive research reports, the Institute was able to establish research collaborations with outstanding researchers and institutions in South Africa and the world. On the latter, the management and BoG successfully presented the case of MISTRA to potential global partners. This has had the potential to further strengthen the future of the Institute in all respects. The year 2013/2014 was remarkable for MISTRA. Let me highlight a few examples of excellence and competitiveness. First, MISTRA was ranked among the Top 10 Best New Think Tanks globally by the Global Go To Think Tank Index housed in the Civil Societies Program at the University of Pennsylvania. Second, the Executive Director of MISTRA delivered an excellent first Pixley ka Isaka Seme Lecture at Columbia University in the United States of America. Third, Mr Barry Gilder, a Senior Research Fellow of Mapungubwe Institute (FMI), had a successful book tour in the US with universities and the African Studies Association (one of the largest world gatherings of African thinkers and scholars). Last, Dr Tanya Abrahamse, a member of the BoG, was appointed to the United Nations Scientific Advisory Board, and Dr Thandi Ndlovu was awarded the Businesswoman of the Year Award (Entrepreneurial Category) by the Businesswomen’s Association of South Africa (BWASA). These developments are testimony to the calibre of individuals who are in the ranks of MISTRA. I wish to express my thanks to all the friends and collaborators of MISTRA. Your support and encouragement during the 2013/2014 financial year has been invaluable and contributed extensively not only to MISTRA but also to the development of our country in knowledge advancement. It also demonstrated your willingness to developing young thinkers who are mentored by individuals who have institutional memory. I encourage you to read the publications produced by MISTRA that are beginning to circulate around the world. Annual Report 2013 | 2014 5 PREFACE BY THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR As the curtain closed on the Mapungubwe Institute’s 2013/2014 financial year, MISTRA started a new period, the end of which will mark its fifth anniversary. This in itself is a monumental achievement, and the fact that MISTRA has deepened its contribution to intellectual and policy discourse in South Africa is even more cause for celebration. During 2013/14, MISTRA released comprehensive research reports on the rise and decline of the Mapungubwe ‘civilisation’, transdisciplinarity, platinum group metals and fuel cell technology, patronage politics in local communities, and the evolution of the post-apartheid state. This was after months of workshops and colloquia, field studies and gruelling peer reviews. Besides attendance at these forums by policy makers and practitioners from both the public and private sectors, the most remarkable outcome of this process is the continuing engagement to integrate the findings into the programmes of relevant stakeholders. Thus we can measure MISTRA’s contribution critically on the basis of its policy impact. Research reports on nation formation and social cohesion and on savings are being completed. As this happens, the Institute is already initiating research into new areas: the rise, decline and rise of Chinese ‘civilisation’, the arts and national development, a social compact in education, South Africa’s capacity in nano- and biotechnologies, the pedagogy of mathematics, South Africa’s innovation value chain, policy on green technologies, changing economic balances in Africa and the implications of the global economic crisis. And with this, the MISTRA family of researchers and partners is growing in leaps and bounds. Strategic conversations in this period have included the Annual Lecture by Professor Mahmood Mamdani and a special public lecture by Professor Francis Fukuyama, as well as roundtables on Census 2011 and fertility data, on the legacy of Madiba, Martin Luther King and Mahatma Gandhi, and the crisis facing South Africa’s NGO sector. In this regard, MISTRA is also meeting its objective to act as a platform for intellectual and policy engagement. This is besides the participation of its researchers in various conferences and seminars, the publication of papers and media articles, and other forms of public engagement. During this period, the Mapungubwe Institute has further streamlined its consultancy work to provide insights to both public and private sector clients on strategic matters facing our country and humanity at large. As this activity expanded, so did the range of products MISTRA offers, including facilitation and scenario planning. In accordance with the policy of the Institute, such consultancy services do not exceed 25% of the work of MISTRA’s researchers. 6 Mapungubwe Institute for Strategic Reflection (MISTRA) JOEL NETSHITENZHE Executive Director The 2013/2014 year has also witnessed the expansion of MISTRA’s international networks, including engagements with visiting public and private sector delegations, strengthening of relations with such organisations as the African Centre for Economic Transformation (ACET) and other African ‘think tanks’, participation in the BRICS Think Tank Consortium, initiation of partnerships with Chinese and Indian researchers, and joint activities with Delaware University