Our Activities
The Institute of Welsh Affairs (IWA), founded in 1987, is an
independent think-tank, which acts as a bridge between public
policy makers, the academic community, business and non-profit
organisations. It operates by commissioning research, organising
seminars, lectures and conferences to facilitate debate, and by
publishing reports and policy papers. The IWA has its own journal,
agenda, and has published many reports and discussion
papers in the last three years. It is highly regarded in Wales
and has built a track record of effective influence on a range
of policies. Its central aim is to develop practical proposals
for policy innovation and improvement. It is a membership-based
organisation which has over 1,100 individual members and 150 corporate
members. The IWA is based in Cardiff but has branches in north,
and west Wales, Swansea Bay, Gwent and London.
Recent Work
See our Research page
for information about our research programme 2007/08, our recent
publications, work under way, and research proposals in development.
For a list of past IWA Events in 2004-05, click
here (PDF 61K)
For a list of past IWA Events in 2005-06, click
here (PDF 62K)
A Review of Our Work in 2004/05
The publication and dissemination of reports is at the heart of the
IWA’s work, bringing together politicians, academics, business
people and the voluntary sector. 2004/05 saw a sustained programme on
both these fronts, involving the publication of reports and discussion
papers, editions of our journal, agenda, further contributions
to our series of Gregynog Papers, together with related seminars, conferences
and other public events.
Our work covers the following areas:
The Economy
The year under review saw publication of a number of economic
research reports on which IWA staff had been working, including
The Socio-Economic Characteristics of the South Wales Valleys
in a Wider Context, a study carried out in collaboration
with the University of Glamorgan for the Welsh Assembly Government.
Its findings, which pointed to significantly more serious problems
in certain parts of the area under review, have been followed by the
appointment of a new task force intended to bring an integrated approach
to problems in the heads of the valleys.
We also collaborated with the University of Glamorgan Business School
and the Centre for Advanced Studies at Cardiff University to produce
a report Auditing Welsh Industry: A Clusters-based Approach.
This research, commissioned as a Welsh Assembly Government Research
Grant Pilot, has tested whether a framework for identifying and assessing
existing and potential clusters could be created for use by policymakers.
The study took as its test cases the Welsh timber, construction and
education sectors and is due for publication during the current year.
The IWA was commissioned by the Construction Industry Training Board,
together with the National Construction College (NCC), to assess the
overall case for expanding the activities of the NCC into Wales. The
resultant study Plugging the Gap: the Case for Establishing
a Site for the Construction Industry’s Training Board’s
National Construction College in Wales, examines the
nature of the firms likely to use such a facility, their likely size,
location, the likely take-up by trainees, and the trades where the
greatest demand for training exists.
Local economic issues featured in a number of events organised by
our branches. These included a conference at the Celtic Manor Hotel
and Resort on Newport’s ambitions entitled A City
in Transition at which the First Minister Rhodri
Morgan was principal speaker, a dinner addressed by
Judith Isherwood of the Wales
Millennium Centre on what the new institution could
do for Swansea, and a similar event in North Wales.
Also in Swansea, the Welsh born senior Ford Motor Company executive
Richard Parry-Jones spoke on The
Motor Industry’s Role in Regenerating the Welsh Economy.
The way Wales appears in the online universe and the part that the
worldwide web could play in the lives of Welsh people were the subject
of an IWA seminar in Gregynog last year and these discussions formed
the starting-point for a comprehensive and well-argued tour d’horizon
Wales on the Web by the National Librarian,
Andrew Green.
On a related theme a successful conference was held at Llancaiach
near Nelson on the Future of Broadband Communications
in Wales with Andrew Davies, Minister
for Economic Development making the keynote address.
Transport issues were addressed at a dinner in Llanelli where Professor
Stuart Cole sketched out in Fast Track
to the West a vision of high-speed services connecting
Wales much more effectively with London and the rest of Britain.
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Social
Policy
The Future of Social Housing, a project on behalf
of the Principality Building Society and the Welsh Assembly Government,
was embarked upon during the year and is due for completion by end
2005. Its mission was to open up a debate in Wales on the future of
social housing, looking ahead 10-20 years. It investigates the purpose
of social housing at the beginning of the 21st century and seeks to
explore the longer-term strategic thinking taking place within the
local authorities and government. The results will be taken out to
conferences of the wider housing community in Wales to inform future
decision-making.
Funded by LloydsTSB, The Implications of Ageing
project is looking at the implications for policy-makers of the ageing
of the Welsh population. The research, which will also be relevant
to regions of England with a similar demographic profile, will seek
to inform the Assembly Government’s ten-year Strategy for Older
People.
A contract for a two-phase 18 months investigation Integrated
Centres in Wales: Development and Implementation was
awarded by the WAG and will trace the implementation and development
of integrated children’s centres in Wales. Phase 1 which was
largely completed in 2004—05, maps developments in all 22 local
authorities to date and traces the evolution of policy. Its findings
were featured in a day conference in Cardiff addressed by Peter
Clarke, Children’s Commissioner for Wales. Phase
2 will produce a more detailed analysis by selecting three centres
for an in-depth eight months analysis, from which best practice guidelines
will be drawn. Funding for the project has also been received from
the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation.
Barbara Wilding, the newly appointed chief
constable of South Wales was guest speaker at a Cardiff lunch where
she highlighted some of the challenges she faces in policing the
region.
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Culture and Education
The Eisteddfod lecture by Professor Richard Wyn
Jones of University of Wales, Aberystwyth, generated
considerable publicity, perhaps not surprisingly given its controversial
title and theme – Methiant Prifysgolion Cymru /
The failure of the Universities of Wales. Professor
Wyn Jones argued in the lecture that the existing higher education
system does the people of Wales a great disservice, with failure to
promote Welsh medium education, inadequate research work carried out
on Welsh issues and an inability to stem the brain drain of talented
young people to universities in England.
The Minister for Education and lifelong Learning, Jane
Davidson also spoke to IWA members, addressing a lunch
meeting in Cardiff on Education Policy in Wales,
and her colleague Alun Pugh, Minister for Culture, Welsh
Language and Sport addressed a West Wales branch dinner
on Wales’s Cultural Future. Also on
an educational theme Sheila Drury chair of Elwa
spoke in Cardiff on the theme of The Way Ahead
for education and training in Wales.
Broadcasting policy featured in two events – a well-attended
conference on the Future of Public Service Broadcasting
in Wales in Cardiff at which Ed Richards,
one of Ofcom’s senior executives led discussions and a talk
by Clive Jones, chief executive of ITV News Group
who presented a picture of The Changing Broadcast Environment.
Heritage and the environment featured in two events during the year.
A conference in September The Welsh World Heritage Experience:
Blaenafon and Big Pit brought together historians,
heritage enthusiasts and local leaders to celebrate the ongoing
transformation of the area, and Trevithick’s Legacy
focused on the 200th anniversary of the first journey by a steam
locomotive from Merthyr Tydfil to Abercynon, with Richard
Bowker, chairman of the Strategic Rail Authority,
the guest speaker.
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Political
and Constitutional
Four more reports monitoring the National Assembly were published
during the year under a funding arrangement with University College
London’s Constitution Unit / ESRC and Leverhulme Trust.
Richard Commission Sets the Agenda (June 2004)
as well as focusing on the inquiry into Assembly powers chaired by
Lord Richard, included an analysis of the June 10 local elections
in Wales, which produced possibly the most varied local government
map in the history of Welsh electoral politics. Cull of
the Quangos (September 2004) examined the political
reaction to the Welsh Assembly Government’s decision to incorporate
the Welsh Development Agency, Elwa and the Wales Tourist Board;
Quango Cull Falters but Continues (December
2004) looked at the later developments in this process and Labour’s
Majority in Doubt (April 2005) looked ahead to the forthcoming
General Election and its consequences for the Assembly.
The Richard Commission report understandably dominated political discussion
in Wales during the period and was the subject of a conference,
Responding to the Richard Commission Report,
in Cardiff addressed by Lord Richard himself
and a number of academic experts from the Constitution Unit, from
Cardiff and Aberystwyth and from Liverpool University, together with
AMs and MPs. Speeches given at the conference were incorporated into
a publication Welsh Politics Comes of Age; Responses to
the Richard Commission and published in January 2005
jointly with the ESRC Devolution and constitutional Change Programme.
October saw the launch at a lecture in Cardiff of Building
Self-Reliance: Why Welsh Conservatives should support the Richard
Commission’s Case a booklet by Lord
Griffiths of Fforestfach, one of the party’s leading
thinkers.
With the election in mind the Gwent branch arranged a hustings meeting
in Newport at which candidates from all four main political parties
in Wales submitted themselves to questions from the public, and some
forthright views on politics generally and on the challenges of environmental
change were presented by Newport East MP Paul Flynn
when he spoke on the provocative subject of Dragons Donkeys
and Poodles at a Gwent branch dinner.
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