Yes, this place really exists. It is a city in Burkina Faso. Yes, it is a real country. Burkina Faso is a land locked country in northwest Africa which shares a border with Ghana, Mali, Niger, Benin, Togo and Cote d’Ivoire. Still not convinced? Check it out on this map. I told you so.

Mahamadou Sinte, founder of the Centre des Affaires Humaines (an Ouagadougou-based market oriented think tank), found Atlas through Facebook last summer. Sinte attended a summer seminar last year at IMANI-Ghana and was inspired to hold similar seminars in his own country.

To learn more about Sinte, click here, and listen to his interview (in French) with Cato’s Emmanuel Martin about the social, economic and political situation in Africa .

Working toward abolishing intra-African trade barriers to facilitate the free flow of knowledge and goods has been a tireless quest for the think tanks in Atlas’s network, who are committed to advancing free markets in Africa.

We are excited to learn that this Saturday, fourteen Southern African countries will formally launch the Free Trade Area (FTA), thus facilitating the development of one of the largest free trade zones on the African continent. The FTA will exempt 85 percent of trade from tariffs with the aim to fully liberalize by 2012.

Increasing African entrepreneurs’ ability to trade and be competitive actors in the global market place is the key to the further economic growth and development of this region.

IMANI - Ghana’s award-winning think tank - just hosted a week long seminar for students and young professionals. 40 out of  250 applicants were selected to attend the second annual  Students and Young Professionals Leadership Academy . A range of topics were covered by speakers from Africa and the United States. For more information, visit the seminar website. This site also contains links to the program and a summary of each day’s highlights.

Local media was also present at the event. See the report at http://ghanaweb.com/public_agenda/article.php?ID=10587

For details on future participation, please email sandra@imanighana.com or sandra.cudjoe@gmail.com , or call +233 21 41 70 94

Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai was forced to withdraw from the election after a three-month campaign of violence and intimidation perpetrated by President Robert Mugabe and his supporters in the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF). As a result, the one-man election allowed Mugabe to clinch the presidency despite calls by the international community for a re-scheduling of the election. Thomas M. Woods and Brett D. Schaefer of the Heritage Foundation point out that a a peaceful resolution of the situation in Zimbabwe is impossible with Mugabe as president. They call for outside intervention and UN led, newly declared elections.

“The Security Council should also include, as urged by the U.S. and other nations in a council debate on June 23, a statement in the resolution declaring that “until there is a clearly free and fair second round of the presidential election, the only legitimate basis for the government of Zimbabwe is the outcome of” the March 29 election in which Tsvangirai won a plurality.7 As such, Mugabe and his representatives should be denied official credentials in the General Assembly and other U.N. bodies.”

Read the full article here.

The 6th African Resource Bank will take place in Nairobi, Kenya November 9-12, 2008. This annual event, which is hosted by IREN-Kenya, brings together freedom minded individuals from across Africa and the world. This year’s theme will be; “Commercializing Africa’s Resources to Promote Prosperity: How Africa can Utilize its Natural Resources to Raise the Living Standards of its People.”

For further details on participation, please e-mail  events -at-irenkenya.com, call 254-2027-31497, or  visit the African Resource Bank website.