The Overseas Development Institute (ODI) has been named as the leading non-US think tank for international development, and among the top five think tanks in the world for policy making.

In a New Year poll, Foreign Policy Magazine has ranked think tanks around the world in an index for 2009. ODI is in the top five for influencing policy and comes second for international development, behind Washington’s Brooking’s Institution.

Of the 5,500 think tanks in 170 countries, ODI ranks fourth overall, outside the USA – the highest rank for a think tank focusing on international development and humanitarian issues.

ODI Director, Simon Maxwell, said:

""I am delighted that international development features so prominently in the think tank world, especially when developing countries risk being marginalised and further impoverished by the economic crisis, and that ODI’s expertise and influence has been recognised.""

View the full Foreign Policy Think Tank Index