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About IMANI Center for Policy & Education

IMANI, founded in 2004, is an African based nonprofit, non-government organization dedicated to educating society on the benefits of a free economy and fostering public awareness of important policy issues concerning business, government and civil society. Through seminars, publications and articles, IMANI and its international partners seek to promote enlightened inquiry based on sound values and scholarship. IMANI is headquartered in Accra, the capital of the country of Ghana in Africa. International network partnerships include Instituto Bruno Leoni ( Milan, Italy), The Heritage Foundation (Washington, D.C.), International Policy Network (London, England), Initiative for Public Policy Analysis, Nigeria, Atlas Center for Economic Research (Washington, D.C.), among many others.

 

Letter from Franklin

Dear IMANI Friends & Partners,

Ideas, they say, are everywhere but knowledge is rare. An authentication process is needed in order to certify that ideas put forward do not breed unintended consequences. The world has learned rather painfully through two world wars how bad ideas ended freedom in the free world.  Many Western countries have since labored to build stronger institutions that promoted progress.

We in Africa are still experimenting ideas that failed others in the past. And the results are not farfetched; today average per capita incomes in rich countries are fifty times that of Sub-Saharan African countries.  Despite some shining examples in Botswana, South Africa and Mauritius, over 40 African countries continue to invest illogical business regulations, corrupt, bloated and inefficient bureaucracies, scant respect for contracts, and absence of property rights and worrying deficits of free and competitive markets within Africa.

Our institutions of learning are fast losing their credibility as knowledge factories and the results have been ill-equipped graduates unable to grasp the workings of a free enterprise. There cannot be a spontaneous reaction to put off the challenges posed by decades of misrule unless we begin to invest in what Economist Frederic Hayek calls second hand dealers in ideas. The task is arduous but we at IMANI are committed to it.

Our seminars, programs and leadership initiatives offer a chance for restorative reflection on the meaning of free enterprise, leadership, and sound public policy based on non-partisan principles.

Our core mission is to research economic trends for the benefit of government, business and civil society. For that, we have been the sole double recipient in Africa of the John Templeton Prize awarded in recognition of excellence in public advocacy in support of the building of institutions in a free society.  We are known for specific and rigorous application of free-market solutions to an array of complex social problems.
Through seminars, policy programs, conferences and leadership development initiatives, IMANI and its international partners seek to promote non-partisan inquiry and an appreciation for open societies.
With your support, we can help Africans learn the keys to building successful economies and responsible leadership.

Franklin Cudjoe

Executive Director, IMANI

 

IMANI named Top Go-To Think Tank in Africa and Globally

In the January 2009 edition of the influential Foreign Policy magazine, IMANI was named the sixth most influential think tank in Africa. Please review here

John Templeton Prize for IMANI

IMANI is the only think tank to have been awarded the John Templeton Prize twice in Africa for Advancing Freedom.

This year, IMANI was the sole recipient in Africa of the Antony & Dorian Fisher Award (Out of 180 think-tanks globally) that recognise thinkanks playing a crucial role to ensure that public policy debates are not dominated by government insiders.

A judge on the Templeton Prize awarded to IMANI commented, "I give them [IMANI] the highest points for being most specific and rigorous in applying free-market solutions to an array of complex social problems. Their submission shows the importance of using rigorously derived, quantifiable research outputs to gain credibility in shaping the policy debate. Crisp, clear, compelling data is the most useful tool to provide to any media outlet, and it's easy for the media to use, without interpretation."

 

Atlas Fisher Venture Grant Awarded to IMANI

March 25, 2008 - The Atlas Economic Research Foundation announced fisherthat IMANI Center for Policy and Education (Accra, Ghana) is the only African think tank among its first class of recipients of Dorian & Antony Fisher Venture Grants. More than 180 think tanks competed for the grants in this program, but only nine were selected to receive up to $100,000 from Atlas over the next three years. Franklin Cudjoe, the founding director of IMANI Center for Policy and Education, remarked: "Receiving this grant from the Atlas Economic Research Foundation is another great vindication of the important work IMANI began 3 years ago. We are determined to see that public policy debate in Ghana and West Africa involve students who should be informed by principled, non-partisan viewpoints." Read more