Center for Economic and Social Development, or CESD; in Azeri, İqtisadi və Sosial İnkişaf Mərkəzi (İSİM) 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 Global "Go-To Think Tanks" Report in 2010. 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 (CESD) 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 thinks tanks in the world. Only CESD (ranked 19) and the Center for Social and Economic Research (CASE), (Poland, ranked 21) were included in the list from Central and Eastern Europe and CIS countries.
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 impact the policy making and improve the participation.
The Center is a leading Azerbaijani think tank specialized in economic and social policy issues working with and establishing bridge 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-root level, international think-tanks, financial institutions and donors, and virtually all the other think tanks functioning in Azerbaijan.
Chairman of CESD is Vugar Bayramov, well-known economist in Azerbaijan. He has 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 almunues from different US universities.
CESD is a member of PASOS, CIVICUS World Citizen’s Alliance, Global Development Network, NISPAcee, etc. and local partner of Global Integrity.