Birashoboka!, a Kirundi word that means “It’s Possible,” is the rallying cry of Centre for Development and Enterprises-Great Lakes’ campaign to drive a national conversation on the power of free enterprise in solving the country’s endemic poverty. The campaign is also promoting a favorable environment for doing business in Burundi, a country named in many rankings as the poorest country in the world. With their help, entrepreneurs are moving into the formal economy, growing their customer bases, and providing meaningful employment to countless job seekers.

For decades, agricultural patent holders in the Philippines were prohibited from selling their land or using it as collateral because of Commonwealth-era legal restrictions that ignored the developing needs of the country’s economy. Thanks to the work of the Foundation for Economic Freedom (FEF), a new law has removed these antiquated legal constraints, opening up a free market for patent holders to use their land as a source of capital.

Rolling blackouts and billions spent on subsidies to a failing state-owned electricity company have been facts of life in Lebanon the last several years. Government losses from managing the problem account for forty-five percent of Lebanon’s total debt, putting the country on the brink of a Greek-style bankruptcy. In 2016, the Lebanese Institute for Market Studies’ (LIMS) was the first to identify that opening up the electricity sector to private competition could save billions for taxpayers—and in 2019, the government approved a plan developed by the LIMS team.

The modern administrative state has allowed regulatory agencies to undermine the separation of powers by combining all three branches—legislative, executive, and judicial—within their walls. This unconstitutional, tyrannical “fourth branch” of government poses a threat to individual liberty in America and around the world, and Pacific Legal Foundation’s Center for the Separation of Powers is reversing this trend. In more than forty years defending freedom, PLF has directly represented clients in 14 U.S. Supreme Court cases and has won 12. Five of these victories have constrained the power of regulatory agencies.

Nebraska is one of many states that have made it difficult to earn a living with burdensome licensure laws that protect entrenched special interests at the expense of both consumers and aspiring entrepreneurs. The Platte Institute in Omaha is playing a central role in reducing these laws and setting precedents that can be used as a regulatory reform model across the United States.

State and local governments have amassed up to six trillion dollars in unfunded pension liabilities across the United States. Reason Foundation established the Pension Integrity Project to provide customized, expert assistance with pension reform. Reason’s experts have facilitated the passage and implementation of more than forty bills in Arizona, Michigan, and Colorado, working with local policymakers to help facilitate bipartisan coalitions and develop policy solutions that are expected to save billions of dollars over the long term.

For young leaders in the liberty movement, there are few opportunities to learn how to take a good idea from theory to practice. During the 2019 Africa Liberty Forum in Nairobi, attendees learned how to break a project into achievable outcomes, celebrated victories for freedom, and connected with one another for the common cause of advancing human flourishing around the world. 
 

"Governments and outside organizations, in general, tend to blunder when trying to plan for local communities, each with its own rich histories, traditions and values," explains Atlas Network President Matt Warner in his recent Hill op-ed. "Innovators in the poverty space are now recognizing how critical even individual choices are in the process of finding a successful path to prosperity."

Audace Institut Afrique of Côte d'Ivoire has won the 2019 Africa Liberty Award for their work on rural land reform in the country. The $7,000 prize is generously sponsored by the John Templeton Foundation and Templeton Religion Trust and is part of Atlas Network's suite of Regional Liberty Awards. The two other finalists—IMANI Center for Policy and Education (Ghana) and African Students for Liberty International (Kenya)—were each awarded $1,500. The award was announced at Africa Liberty Forum 2019.

Centro Conin was founded to help prevent child malnutrition, and social workers and teachers on staff provide nutritious meals, medical care, and vocational education classes. Until recently, the center couldn't afford the technology that made it easy to record the needs of their clients. Large tariffs placed on laptops made them unaffordable for the center but now, thanks to Libertad y Progreso, this barrier has been removed and more mothers are getting the help they need to raise happy, healthy children. This story is part of our ongoing Doing Development Differently series.