Two professionals from East Africa have been chosen by an influential Washington think tank to develop policy proposals for consideration by the Obama administration, the US Congress and international institutions such as the World Bank.

Founding director of the Kenya Institute for Public Policy Research and Analysis Mwangi Kimenyi and former Ugandan finance minister Ezra Suruma, were both appointed to posts at the Brookings Institution.

Prof Kimenyi became a senior fellow a year ago, while Mr Suruma began his tenure as a visiting fellow last month.

The East Africans are based in Brookings’ Africa Growth Initiative, a programme launched in 2008 by the 94-year-old think tank.

The initiative aims to foster economic development in Africa and to amplify the voice of Africa policy experts such as Mr Kimenyi and Mr Suruma.

“Our work is intended to influence policy both in Africa and in how the US government designs policies regarding Africa,” Mr Kimenyi says.

Working in the US capital city, Mr Kimenyi adds, he and his colleagues are able to interact regularly with US officials and with policymakers at the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, both of which are based in Washington, as well as with visiting ministers from Europe and Africa.

“Our work is taken seriously because of our affiliation with Brookings,” Prof Kimenyi declares.

The institution is currently headed by Strobe Talbott, who served as deputy secretary of state under President Clinton.

Former head of the UN Development Programme Kemal Dervis is one of five research vice presidents at Brookings. Foreign Policy magazine ranked Brookings last year as the top think tank in the United States.

Prof Kimenyi suggests that if the Africa Growth Initiative had existed 10 years ago, the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa) might have been designed differently.

“We know what Africans need,” Prof Kimenyi says. He theorises that input from the sort of specialists now employed at Brookings could have helped the Clinton administration fashion the Agoa trade-preference programme more effectively.

Prof Kimenyi is concentrating on Africa agriculture issues that entails discussions with State Department figures on a food security programme for Africa developed by the Obama administration.

Proximity to policymakers, coupled with the prestige Brookings enjoys, allows Prof Kimenyi and other researchers to comment on documents drafted by Obama administration officials and by assistants to US Congress members.

Prof Kimenyi also recently hosted a Web chat keyed to the World Economic Forum that took place in Tanzania May 5-7.

Mr Suruma, currently the senior finance advisor to President Yoweri Museveni, is working on a book examining Uganda’s economic growth during the past decade. He will remain at Brookings for six to nine months, he says.