Indonesians are widely dispersed on more than 6,000 islands, so spreading the ideas of liberty throughout the culture is most cost-effective online. For its proposal to fund a massive open online course (MOOC) devoted to teaching how free trade makes food affordable for the poor, Center for Indonesian Policy Studies (CIPS) won the $25,000 grand prize in Atlas Network’s 2016 Think Tank Shark Tank competition, held on Nov. 10 at the historic Capitale in New York City. This year’s edition, sponsored by the Smith Family Foundation, featured three contestants who pitched their projects before a panel of judges and an audience of hundreds of the world’s top freedom advocates, influencers, and supporters.
“The entire CIPS team is excited about winning this competition,” said Anthea Haryoko, CIPS manager for communications and fundraising. “Our Affordable Food for the Poor project will bring down trade barriers and benefit millions of poor families who struggle to put enough food on their tables. The money won from the Think Tank Shark Tank competition will be used to develop massive open online courses. They are part of the Affordable Food for the Poor project and a key tool to spreading expert knowledge about free trade to students and universities all across this vast archipelago. We want to thank the Smith Family Foundation for enabling us to do this and helping to unlock the huge potential for a prosperous Indonesia, as well as Atlas Network for setting up such a wonderful and exciting opportunity to present our ideas.”
Each year, the Think Tank Shark Tank competition showcases the worldwide freedom movement’s most exciting new project ideas from Atlas Leadership Academy graduates. The two other participants in this year’s competition were Kristina Rasmussen, president of Illinois Policy Institute, for a yearlong storytelling project; and Gabriel Calzada, executive president of Universidad Francisco Marroquín in Guatemala, for an idea to create an on-campus center for the production of video games.
Kristina Rasmussen, president of Illinois Policy Institute
Gabriel Calzada, executive president of Universidad Francisco Marroquín in Guatemala
In 2015, Admir Čavalić of Bosnia and Herzegovina-based Multi won the Think Tank Shark Tank competition for his “OPENFest” project proposal, and in 2014, Baladevan Rangaraju of New Delhi-based India Institute won for the “i-torney: a people’s pocket lawyer mobile app” project proposal.