Each year, Atlas Network’s Templeton Freedom Award Prize Program, generously sponsored by the Templeton Religion Trust, honors and rewards outstanding projects by our partners across the world through both the flagship Templeton Freedom Award and five Regional Liberty Awards. The latter each offer a prize of up to US$10,000 and recognition on stage at the applicable Regional Liberty Forum. IDEAS Lab (Costa Rica), Students for Liberty Brasil (Brazil), and Livres (Brazil), have been chosen as the finalists for the 2022 Latin America Liberty Award for their powerful work to expand individual freedom and economic choice. Read on to find out more about the exciting efforts for liberty that earned each of them spots as finalists.
Since 2019, IDEAS Lab has implemented its “Freedom to Work” project, offering solutions to eliminate institutional and regulatory obstacles to working in Costa Rica. The initiative leveraged a simple, yet powerful narrative surrounding economic freedom that communicated to the general public the importance of the individual, a creative advocacy campaign, and coalition-building efforts that brought together powerful stakeholders and grassroots participants to serve as a model for economic reform for Atlas Network partners worldwide.
That same year, Students For Liberty Brasil launched Brasil Empreende to bring specifically-tailored entrepreneurship courses to at-risk, impoverished youth. In addition, they have striven to reform property laws to enable low-income Brazilians to retain their property rights, shifting away from state ownership and the resulting evictions. With guaranteed property rights and individuals equipped with a new, hopeful vision of the world, this project will empower disadvantaged Brazilians to advocate for their own freedom, see their inherent dignity recognized, and pursue more fulfilling lives.
Livres spearheaded the introduction of the New Sanitation Framework Bill in 2019. This bill overhauled the framework of state-owned sewage and water-treatment companies—which led to many Brazilians living in unsanitary living conditions—in favor of market-informed private investment. By overcoming the obstacles presented by bureaucracy and special interests, the new regulatory framework allowing such private investment advances Brazil toward reaching its goals of providing access to drinking water to 99% of its population and sewage collection and treatment to 90% of its population by 2033.
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