Atlas Network

🌍 In less than two months, freedom champions from across Africa will gather in Accra, Ghana, for our Africa Liberty Forum.

Africa Liberty Forum brings together think tank leaders, entrepreneurs, policy advocates, philanthropists, and civil society innovators working to expand opportunity, strengthen institutions, and advance freedom across the continent.

Attendees will hear from leaders tackling the opportunities and challenges shaping Africa’s future, share practical solutions, and build connections with others committed to creating lasting change in their communities.

Africa Liberty Forum will also spotlight two exciting opportunities for organizations advancing freedom. Africa Liberty Award recognizes organizations achieving meaningful impact in their countries, while the Smart Bets Pitch Competition showcases innovative organizations with bold ideas to expand freedom and opportunity.

Last year’s honorees offer just a glimpse of the remarkable work being advanced across Africa. South Africa’s Institute of Race Relations received the 2025 Africa Liberty Award for its Champions for Growth Project, a thought leadership initiative focused on boosting economic growth, reducing unemployment, and advancing free-market reforms in South Africa.

Meanwhile, Kathya Berrada of the Arab Center for Research won the 2025 Africa Smart Bets Pitch Competition with a vision to launch Free Market Policy Bootcamps across universities, helping equip the next generation of leaders with the ideas and tools to advance freedom in their communities.

These leaders represent the creativity, courage, and determination driving progress across the continent—and this year’s Africa Liberty Forum will bring together many more.

Learn more: https://hubs.la/Q04jYRcW0

After attending Leader Lab last year, Rafael Moredo of Livres brought what he learned back to his team in Brazil.

“Since Leader Lab, I established some regular feedback meetings with my team,” Rafael shared. “Each month, we sit together, and I use what I learned to help them develop the best skills.”

Those leadership lessons became especially important when Rafael stepped into a larger challenge: coordinating the creation of Livres’ public policy handbook.

“For the first time, I had to coordinate the creation of our public policy handbook. It’s a very large project, and I had to talk to stakeholders and manage a large team, so what I learned was very helpful. I think we did a great job.”

This is the kind of capacity building that strengthens the freedom movement from the inside out. When leaders gain the tools to manage teams, coordinate stakeholders, and execute complex projects, their organizations are better equipped to advance liberty in their own countries.

Are you an aspiring leader or manager in your organization looking to strengthen your leadership skills?

Applications for Leader Lab close June 6. Learn more and apply at https://hubs.la/Q04jZ5hm0

For more than three decades, Rocío Guijarro has led the Venezuelan free-market think tank CEDICE Libertad through one of the most challenging periods in Venezuela’s history—defending individual liberty, property rights, and free markets when many independent institutions were silenced, dismantled, or forced into exile.

Today, we are proud to announce that Rocío will receive Atlas Network’s 2026 Sir Antony Fisher Achievement Award, our highest recognition for lifetime service to the cause of liberty.

As Venezuela’s most enduring voice for freedom, CEDICE Libertad never stopped teaching, publishing, convening, and advancing the ideas that make a freer future possible.

This award recognizes not only Rocío’s extraordinary leadership, but also a lifetime spent mentoring the next generation of freedom champions across Latin America and beyond. Rocío Guijarro will be presented with the Sir Antony Fisher Achievement Award at Freedom Dinner on November 12 at Cipriani 42nd Street in New York City.

Please join us in congratulating Rocío Guijarro on this well-deserved honor.

Read the announcement: https://hubs.la/Q04jpLSy0

🇻🇪 Durante más de tres décadas, Rocío Guijarro ha liderado a CEDICE Libertad, el centro de pensamiento pro libre mercado de Venezuela, a través de uno de los períodos más difíciles de la historia del país, defendiendo la libertad individual, los derechos de propiedad y los mercados libres cuando muchas instituciones independientes fueron silenciadas, desmanteladas o forzadas al exilio.

Hoy nos enorgullece anunciar que Rocío recibirá el Premio Sir Antony Fisher al Logro de Vida 2026 de Atlas Network, el más alto reconocimiento que otorgamos a quienes han dedicado su vida a la causa de la libertad.

Como una de las voces más firmes y perseverantes en favor de la libertad en Venezuela, CEDICE Libertad nunca dejó de educar, publicar investigaciones, reunir líderes y promover las ideas que hacen posible un futuro más libre.

Este reconocimiento honra no solo el extraordinario liderazgo de Rocío, sino también una vida dedicada a formar y acompañar a la próxima generación de defensores de la libertad en América Latina y alrededor del mundo.

Rocío Guijarro recibirá el Premio Sir Antony Fisher durante la Freedom Dinner el próximo 12 de noviembre en Cipriani 42nd Street, en la ciudad de Nueva York.

Acompáñanos a felicitar a Rocío Guijarro por este merecido reconocimiento. 🎉 Cedice Libertad

“This award reminds us that even when the work feels difficult and uncertain, it still matters,” said İsrafil Özkan, director of Freedom Research Association. “It tells us that we are seen, valued, and not alone.”

Freedom Research Association has been named the winner of the 2026 Europe Liberty Award 🏆

At a time when democratic institutions in Turkey face mounting pressure, Freedom Research Association has become one of the country’s leading independent voices defending the rule of law, constitutional government, and liberal reform.

Through its Promoting Structural Reforms in Turkey initiative, the organization has spent six years building one of the country’s most comprehensive roadmaps for institutional accountability and structural reform—shaping parliamentary debate, informing legislative proposals, and preserving space for principled advocacy in an increasingly difficult environment.

This recognition reflects more than a single achievement.

It represents the long-term work of courageous leaders willing to defend the institutions of a free society through serious research, public engagement, and principled persistence.

Through Atlas Network’s Coach, Compete, Celebrate!® model, we help freedom champions strengthen their leadership, pursue ambitious reforms, and inspire others across the worldwide freedom movement.

Congratulations to Freedom Research Association and to all of this year’s Europe Liberty Award finalists!

Learn more: https://hubs.la/Q04j6pwV0

Three rising organizations. Three bold ideas. One Smart Bets Pitch Competition in Berlin.

At Europe Liberty Forum 2026, these organizations will compete in Atlas Network’s Smart Bets Pitch Competition — an accelerator program supporting high-potential freedom champions with funding, mentorship, and long-term strategic support.

Meet this year’s Europe competitors:

🇹🇷 1984 Association (Turkey)
As democratic norms erode and polarization deepens in Turkey, 1984 Association is rebuilding the space for rational public debate. Through independent media, civic education, and leadership development, they are equipping a new generation of public intellectuals to strengthen democratic resilience and expand thoughtful public discourse.

🇦🇹 INPEA (Austria)
INPEA is strengthening civic education, independent analysis, and intellectual exchange for communities navigating censorship, fragmentation, and political pressure. Their work helps preserve the skills, networks, and ideas that free societies depend on.

🇩🇰 Alliance of Democracies Foundation (Denmark)
At a time when authoritarian governments are increasingly coordinated, Alliance of Democracies is convening global leaders, innovators, entrepreneurs, and activists to strengthen democratic cooperation and defend freedom around the world through initiatives like the Copenhagen Democracy Summit.

Why does Smart Bets matter?

Because the future of freedom depends on identifying courageous organizations early — before they become globally recognized institutions.

Smart Bets helps emerging organizations scale their impact through grants, mentorship, visibility, and strategic support. These finalists are tackling some of the world’s toughest challenges: democratic decline, censorship, disinformation, polarization, and institutional distrust.

For donors, this is an opportunity to support organizations while they are still in high-growth stages — when catalytic investment can dramatically accelerate long-term impact.

Who are you placing your bet on? 👀 Let us know below 👇

The Europe Liberty Award is more than recognition.

It is part of Atlas Network’s long-term strategy to strengthen the worldwide freedom movement by identifying high-performing organizations, investing in their growth, and elevating their achievements as models for others.

This year’s finalists are advancing freedom through institutional reform, economic freedom, and liberty-centered education:

🇹🇷 Freedom Research Association is defending democratic institutions and advancing structural reforms that strengthen accountability and the rule of law in Turkey.

🇪🇸 Institut Ostrom Catalunya is reducing government-imposed barriers to enterprise and helping create a freer environment for entrepreneurship and innovation.

🇱🇹 Lithuanian Free Market Institute is preparing the next generation to understand freedom not as an abstraction, but as lived responsibility and human agency.

Through our Coach, Compete, Celebrate® approach, Atlas Network helps freedom champions:
✔ grow as leaders
✔ pursue bigger opportunities
✔ learn from peers across countries
✔ turn local victories into lasting momentum

Freedom survives because people and institutions are willing to defend it, strengthen it, and pass it on to the next generation.

Learn more at https://hubs.la/Q04g9YSn0