African Youth Hosted by
Inter-Region Economic
Network
by James S. Shikwati
ISIL rep, Kenya
Councilor Victor Agarwal from London, England (left) with IREN director & ISIL Rep
James Shikwati (right)
In late March, members of the African Youth Parliament from 42 countries converged here in Nairobi, Kenya to discuss a wide range of issues including: proper governance, HIV/AIDS, conflict resolution, poverty and education.
Our organization, the Inter Region Economic Network (IREN) of Kenya, was active not only in the seminars, but we also sponsored a side event to the main conference by hosting a table with books, T-Shirts and materials designed to explain free-market issues to the visiting "parliamentarians". It was very exciting to see so many young men and women from throughout Africa so keenly interested in finding solutions to African problems. A cocktail party sponsored by IREN proved to be
extremely popular, drawing overflow crowds.
June Arunga, the IREN-Kenya Director of youth affairs and Franklin Cudjoe, IREN Kenya visiting fellow from Ghana, were both actively involved throughout the entire week in debates on issues of personal choice, voluntary exchange, freedom to compete, freedom to innovate and protection of person and property.
June reported that close to a hundred addresses were exchanged with the view of maintaining contact and continuing dialogue with interested attendees. She also announced plans to launch a special interactive page on the IREN
website to facilitate further discussion with these individuals.
June Arunga [IREN Kenya] left, Franklin Cudjoe [Ghana IREN visiting fellow], Wakisa
Mwalughali [Malawi], and Anjela Masaviru [IREN Kenya assistant]
Thanks to the generosity of the Foundation of Economic Education (FEE), The Institute of Economic Affairs [London], The Heritage Foundation, The International Society for Individual Liberty, and other individual contributors, the
IREN Kenya table featured books such as The Law by Frederic Bastiat, Economic Policy by Ludwig Von Mises, The Adventures of Jonathan Gullible by Ken Schoolland, Liberty the Best Remedy Against Poverty by Otto Graf
Lambsdorff and the classic I Pencil by Leonard Read.
Many young people from across Africa kept asking for ideas on how to emulate IREN and set up free-market institutes in their own countries. As a result, June and Franklin are exploring ways of assisting our new friends -- through the assistance of the Atlas Economic Research Foundation and a pledge from the International Society for Individual Liberty to assist any such new think-tank with complimentary Free-Market.Net Partnerships and guidance with web design. I am grateful for this support.
Some of the African youth attending the IREN cocktail party.
We look forward to addressing more of the issues that were raised during this week in our proposed conference on "African youth for free enterprise" and will be glad to receive support for this from other established think tanks around the world. This is in line with our recently launched "Africa Freedom Network".
Those wishing to assist in the spread of free-market ideas throughout Africa are encouraged to contact ISIL Rep James Shikwati at (James@irenkenya.org). Donations for specific educational projects may be made through ISIL (and are tax-deductible in the USA).
International Society for Individual Liberty
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African Youth Hosted by IREN
