Praxis is an independent, non-profit, civil initiative think tank. They enrich public debate, create valuable knowledge and effective solutions for policymakers, the third sector and other interested people.

Praxis Centre for Policy Studies Foundation is an independent, non-profit, civil initiative think tank. Praxis was founded in 2000 and has now become one of the biggest think tanks dealing with socio-economic topics in Central and Eastern Europe.

Their mission is to enrich the public debate, create valuable knowledge and effective solutions for policymakers, the third sector and to other interested people. They are inspired by the idea that their work will contribute to meaningful changes in Estonia.

Applied research forms the largest part of their work and is the foundation for everything else. In addition to analysis, out of the box ideas are also needed for social development so that habitual behaviour does not lead to stagnation. As a third sector organisation, they are the catalyst and experimenter for ideas which national authorities deem too risky.

They contribute to making societal debate meaningful and constructive and creating a wider circle of co-thinkers. To reach real changes, they also offer support by training and advising people in their fields of work.

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Independence

They do not depend on any political or economic interest group. They act in the public interest, drawing attention to society’s problems and raising uncomfortable issues if necessary.

Openness

They operate in a transparent manner and make the results of their work available to the public in a clear way. They are open-minded and generate new inspiring ideas.

Quality

Their work is knowledge-based and to a high analytical standard, their recommendations are responsible.

Practicality

Their work is applicable and their analysis can be used to make decisions that improve society.

Engaging nature

They create intellectual synergies by engaging experts from different countries and disciplines as well as various social groups and society at large.

WHY WAS PRAXIS ESTABLISHED?

Praxis was founded in June 2000 as the first independent, non-profit think tank in Estonia. It was established with the financial support of George Soros’ Open Society Institute, which is a foundation supporting the development of civil society. Praxis was founded as a non-governmental organisation by four Estonian public figures – Tiina Randma-Liiv, Vello Andres Pettai, Heli Aru and Peter Lõhmus. The first two are currently active in the academic world, Peter Lõhmus is working at the International Monetary Fund and Heli Aru is an Education Attaché at the OECD Permanent Representation of Estonia.

Praxis’ creation was motivated by the following shortcomings in Estonian society at the turn of the century:

• - Modest policy analysis skills
• - Little high-quality independent analysis for practical policy decisions
• - Weak public involvement and poor understanding of participatory democracy
• - Heavy dependence on international know-how

In the early years of Praxis, the main fields of research were labour and social policy, innovation and education policy. The health policy programme was fully launched in 2004, although research in this field had already been carried out since 2003. In 2008, a wider programme of government and civil society developed from the public administration projects started in 2000. The economic programme grew out of the innovation programme in 2008. The Praxis Academy programme was founded in 2011 with the goal of sharing the systematically generated knowledge by training people and by other development activities.

Peter Lõhmus was the first manager of the think tank, the other three founding members and Wolfgang Drechsler formed the supervisory board. In the early years, the supervisory board acted as the management body and decided which projects of research to initiate and which actions to take with the subsidy from the OSI. Currently, the primary role of the supervisory board is targeting strategic goals and supervising the foundation’s activities.

The ancient Greek word praxis represents practical wisdom in political philosophy. In addition to skills and intellectual capabilities, it includes setting a goal for which this knowledge is applied. Such wisdom is the basis for good governance, which Praxis has promoted since its founding.

AREAS OF FOCUS

Highlighting the synergies between our areas of focus is one of the biggest strengths of Praxis, because their experts cover all the main topics of socio-economic development.

EDUCATION

• - Improving coherence between the education system and the labour market
• - The quality of teaching
• - Equal access to education

ECONOMY

• - Developing knowledge-based and regionally balanced entrepreneurship
• - Increasing the competitiveness of the economy and its sectors
• - More efficient use of public money and better consideration of the impact of tax changes
• - Ensuring sustainable development and more efficient use of resources

GOVERNANCE AND CIVIL SOCIETY

• - Capability and impact of non-governmental organisations
• - The development of public services
• - Coherent and effective governance
• - State personnel policy that supports strategic objectives

HEALTH

• - Sustainability and strategic management of the healthcare system
• - Quality and patient-centred care
• - Mental health
• - Long-term care

EMPLOYMENT AND SOCIAL LIFE

• - Taxes and benefits
• - Access to the labour market and participation in working life
• - Industrial relations and social dialogue
• - Health and safety at work
• - Gender equality
• - Children’s rights and parenting

HORIZONTAL COURSES OF ACTION

In addition to the above-mentioned objectives, they have also formulated several high-priority horizontal areas of focus, which cover all the policy areas and which they want to actively pursue in the coming years.

• - Participatory democracy
• - Empowering the parties
• - Open governance