Enterprise Africa! Fighting Poverty through Entrepreneurship in Africa: A Panel Discussion

Featuring

Karol Boudreaux 
Senior Research Fellow, Mercatus Center
Member of the Working Group on Property Rights at the United Nations Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor

Eustace Davie
Director
Free Market Foundation

John Kasaona
Assistant Director
Integrated Rural Development and Nature Conservation, Namibia

Shadrack Mabuza
Smallholder Team Member, Monsanto South Africa

Temba Nolutshungu 
Director,
Free Market Foundation of Southern Africa

While most regions of the world witness increased living standards and greater economic opportunity, Africans continue to face famine, poverty, and political corruption.  Billions of foreign aid dollars spent by western governments have made little difference to the lives of ordinary Africans.  Yet while western elites hold conferences on how best to redistribute wealth, unsung African innovators are quietly erasing the effects of poverty at the local level. This fresh perspective-that solutions to Africa's poverty are not to be found in international aid bureaucracies but in Africa's entrepreneurs-is the focus of Enterprise Africa!, a project which uncovers examples of successful entrepreneurship in Africa and shares them with policy makers and opinion leaders world-wide.

This panel presentation, sponsored by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University is part of a week of Enterprise Africa! events in New York and Washington, DC.  Drawing on two years of field research with African entrepreneurs, the panel will discuss specific and innovative ways that Africans are developing their own solutions to the problems of poverty, corruption, conflict resolution, and environmental degradation.  Participants will learn about what is working in African development and gain an understanding of the obstacles Africa's entrepreneurs must overcome to achieve long-term growth in their communities.