The Mercatus Center at George Mason University Wins Templeton Foundation Award For 'What Works in Enterprise-Based Solutions to Poverty'.

CONSHOHOCKEN, Pa. -- The Mercatus Center at George Mason University has been selected as one of three recipients of $500,000 in John Templeton Foundation's "What Works in Enterprise-Based Solutions to Poverty" competition.

The Mercatus Center's award-winning proposal is a joint initiative, with the Free Market Foundation of South Africa and London-based Institute for Economic Affairs, for a project entitled, "Enterprise Africa," to document and communicate the successes of African entrepreneurs and small businesses, as well as the challenges and barriers they face.

The initiative, which is driven by the idea that entrepreneurship is the engine of economic and social prosperity, will focus on actual case histories in three categories;

--Entrepreneurial business development and community creation;

--Innovative public policies that encourage entrepreneurship; and

--Enterprise-based delivery of social services such as health care and education.

Dr. Anthony Woodlief, president of Mercatus Center, noted that "world leaders are being forced to confront the difficult truth that despite years of effort and more than $1 trillion in government-to-government aid, billions of human beings still languish in poverty."

"Leaders have a choice--continue to pump massive resources into failed programs, or pursue a strategy of fostering institutions that embody the principles of capitalism and allow entrepreneurs to find creative ways to solve problems," he said. "Enterprise Africa will make the latter option much clearer and more compelling than it has been to this point."

The Mercatus Center (www.mercatus.org), located at George Mason University's Arlington VA campus, is a research, education and outreach organization that works with scholars, policy experts and government officials to connect academic learning and real-world practice.

The John Templeton Foundation actively supports research and programs that encourage a greater understanding of the free enterprise system. The Foundation's "What Works in Enterprise-Based Solutions to Poverty" program is a new initiative created to promote public understanding of how entrepreneurship and market reforms could alleviate poverty and accelerate its disappearance in areas of the world where it has been most oppressive and endemic.

Founded in 1987, John Templeton Foundation annually provides more than $60 million in funding on behalf of work in human sciences and character development, science and theology research, as well as free enterprise programs and awards worldwide. For more information on the "What Works in Enterprise-Based Solutions to Poverty" awards: www.templeton.org/enterprisesolutions.