Freedom and Prosperity Center

Official account of @AtlanticCouncil's Freedom and Prosperity Center.
Exploring the relationship between freedom & prosperity in developing & developed nations

[Freedom and Prosperity Center @ACFPCenter]

📢 We are delighted to welcome Poppy Hendrickson to the Freedom and Prosperity Center as our summer 2026 Intern!

Poppy joins us with a BA in International Relations and French from Wheaton College, IL, alongside experience across the nonprofit, international relief, and advocacy sectors.

Most recently, Poppy lived and worked in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where she contributed to program development, grant writing, and stakeholder coordination to sustain humanitarian programming across the country.

We are excited to have her join us and look forward to the meaningful work ahead 🎉

[Freedom and Prosperity Center @ACFPCenter]

On April 9, the Atlantic Council’s Freedom and Prosperity Center hosted the second annual Global Prosperity Forum, bringing together policymakers, scholars, and private sector leaders to discuss global development, democracy, and shared prosperity.

The Forum featured an #ACFrontPage conversation with Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau, alongside discussions on development finance, democracy assistance, critical minerals, and country spotlights on Iran, Venezuela, Syria, and Tunisia.

We also launched the Entrepreneurship Policy Initiative and unveiled the third edition of the Atlas, featuring 11 country case studies and new insights from the Freedom and Prosperity Indexes.

▶️ Watch the sessions: https://t.co/AoqqEyWNa7

▶️ Learn about EPI: https://t.co/rN6YQhPUSb

▶️ Explore the data: https://t.co/I1iKjcyxSe

[Freedom and Prosperity Center @ACFPCenter]

🏆🔍❓Before the weekend hits, a trivia question for you...

Which country saw the biggest improvement in our Freedom Index this year?

💬 Drop your guess in the comments before checking the answer.

[Freedom and Prosperity Center @ACFPCenter]

📽️ WATCH | Nina Dannaoui-Johnson uses data from the Freedom and Prosperity Indexes to break down how freedom levels act as a determinant of borrower discouragement, and how to improve conditions for SMEs worldwide.

Explore the #FPIndexes ➡️ https://t.co/dFsEuG0wRU

[Atlantic Council @AtlanticCouncil]

LIVE NOW | Trade over aid: Prosperity for the US and the developing world https://t.co/aN5VJqxZdw

[Freedom and Prosperity Center @ACFPCenter]

📢 READ | Are liberal democracies better equipped to promote social and economic equality?

Find out what the data says by reading Yi Zhou's full piece in our Voices of the Future series ⬇️ https://t.co/WIYPDXNzcY

[Freedom and Prosperity Center @ACFPCenter]

📢 READ | How can information and communication technologies economically empower women in Senegal and across Sub-Saharan Africa?

Read the full piece by Aminata Niang in our Voices of the Future paper series ⬇️ https://t.co/99p9CDjBkm

[Freedom and Prosperity Center @ACFPCenter]

📢 NEW PAPER SERIES | We are excited to launch our Voices of the Future paper series, highlighting research on key global trends in freedom and prosperity from the next generation of policy leaders.

Explore the project and the first three papers⬇️ https://t.co/RR4AZga5pU

[Atlantic Council @AtlanticCouncil]

Earlier this month, the @ACFPCenter hosted the Global Prosperity Forum, bringing together policymakers and industry leaders to explore actionable solutions for global development.

Watch the key highlights ⤵️

[Freedom and Prosperity Center @ACFPCenter]

🇭🇺 📽️ WATCH | On April 12, Hungarians voted to oust Viktor Orbán after 16 years in power. Will Mortenson uses the Freedom and Prosperity Indexes to look at how Peter Magyar's new government can reverse democratic decline.

Explore the #FPIndexes data ➡️ https://t.co/jRbCNCM3TY

[Freedom and Prosperity Center @ACFPCenter]

📢 "Everybody can see that global instability is really expensive."

Click the link to hear more from UK Minister of State Rt. Honorable Baroness @JennyChapman in conversation with our Senior Director James Mazzarella, closing out the @AtlanticCouncil's IMF/World Bank Week programming — @ACGeoEcon — with a compelling case for why development investment is, above all, a strategic necessity.

➡️ https://t.co/DyBXurIFi8

[Freedom and Prosperity Center @ACFPCenter]

🌍 📽️ WATCH | @WorldBankGroup is launching a new indicator to measure the impact of its projects on job quality, as WBG Global Director for Fiscal Policy and Growth Manuela Francisco explains in an interview with the Atlantic Council's Will Mortenson.

[Freedom and Prosperity Center @ACFPCenter]

Sri Lanka ranks 92/164 on the #FreedomIndex and 105/164 on the #ProsperityIndex—underscoring the stakes of reform today.

Read the chapter➡️https://t.co/JGKaaUtOGK
2026 Atlas➡️https://t.co/QyZI2RrS0p

[Freedom and Prosperity Center @ACFPCenter]

Crisis exposed Sri Lanka’s weaknesses—but it also created an opportunity. The challenge now is clear: move beyond short-term fixes and build institutions that can deliver stability, resilience, and inclusive growth over the long run, writes Nishan de Mel from Verité Research in the Sri Lanka chapter of our 2026 Atlas of Freedom and Prosperity.

Read the chapter➡️https://t.co/EaHPgdXAKz
2026 Atlas➡️https://t.co/cfTBa9ayne

[Atlantic Council @AtlanticCouncil]

.@FDDAction’s @ConnorPfeiffer on non-kinetic ways to counter cartels:

“Going after their ability to move money effectively really raises the cost of doing business,” he tells @patrickwquirk at the @ACFPCenter Global Prosperity Forum.

[Atlantic Council @AtlanticCouncil]

“Development cooperation fills in a gap that countries cannot finance themselves, and that’s why the type of financing that a country gets depends on its level of development,” says @RaniaAlMashat at the @ACFPCenter Global Prosperity Forum.

[Atlantic Council @AtlanticCouncil]

“There’s a lot of conversations around development finance,” says @BrookingsInst’s @SongweVera at the @ACFPCenter Global Prosperity Forum.

“But unfortunately, development finance today is not financing development – it’s financing debt,” she explains.

[Atlantic Council @AtlanticCouncil]

“The US has to recognize that we have a competitor in China,” says @ACGlobalChina’s Melanie Hart at the Global Prosperity Forum.

“And if we want to be the partner of choice in Latin America, we can’t be flip-flopping policy back and forth,” she adds.

[Atlantic Council @AtlanticCouncil]

In Africa, there hasn’t been a damaging effect of people’s views of China vis-à-vis support for democracy, says @afrobarometer’s @joeasunka at the Global Prosperity Forum.

But the fear is that corruption, if left unchecked, will reduce people’s commitment to democracy, he adds.

[Atlantic Council @AtlanticCouncil]

Across 38 African countries we surveyed between 2024 and 2025, China is the country with the most positive influence on the continent, says @afrobarometer’s @joeasunka at the Global Prosperity Forum.

The US comes in at the 4th position, he tells @ACGeoEcon’s @jedmark888.