James Shikwati (born 1970) is a Kenyan

libertarian Libertarianism (from french: libertaire, "libertarian"; from la, libertas, "freedom") is a political philosophy that upholds liberty as a core value. Libertarians seek to maximize autonomy and political freedom, and minimize the state's e ...

economist An economist is a professional and practitioner in the social sciences, social science discipline of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy. Within this ...

and Director of the Inter Region Economic Network who promotes freedom of trade as the driving solution to

poverty in Africa Poverty in Africa is the lack of provision to satisfy the basic human needs of certain people in Africa. African nations typically fall toward the bottom of any list measuring small size economic activity, such as income per capita or GDP per c ...

. He has made comments which imply that aid towards Africa does more harm than good to their people, based on the central arguments that it is mainly used either by politicians as a tool to manipulate people and influence votes, or as a mechanism for dumping subsidised foreign agricultural products onto local markets at below cost making it nearly impossible for African farmers to compete.

Education

A graduate from the University of Nairobi (B.ED Arts 1994), attended Musingu High School (1989) and taught Kiptewit High School (1994–2001) in Kericho Rift Valley province in Kenya. He is a "self taught" economist.

Philosophy

Shikwati is a writer and a commentator on public policy with a special interest in development, environment, trade and agriculture related issues. He has written widely on a variety of subjects in Kenyan and international newspapers, magazines, such as ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'', ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'', ''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

'', ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'', ''The Sydney Morning Herald'', ''The Business News'', ''

The Daily Nation The ''Daily Nation'' is the highest circulation Kenyan independent newspaper with 170,000 copies. History The ''Daily Nation'' was started in the year 1958 as a Swahili weekly called ''Taifa'' by the Englishman Charles Hayes. It was bought ...

'', and ''

The East African Standard ''The Standard'' is one of the largest newspapers in Kenya with a 48% market share. It is the oldest newspaper in the country and is owned by The Standard Group, which also runs the Kenya Television Network (KTN), Radio Maisha, ''The Nairobian' ...

''. Shikwati was also featured in a November 18, 2006 article in the

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

Jeffrey D. Sachs Jeffrey David Sachs () (born 5 November 1954) is an American economist, academic, public policy analyst, and former director of The Earth Institute at Columbia University, where he holds the title of University Professor. He is known for his work ...

, a Columbia University professor who is a leading aid advocate, calls Shikwati’s criticisms of foreign assistance “shockingly misguided” and “amazingly wrong.” “This happens to be a matter of life and death for millions of people, so getting it wrong has huge consequences,” Sachs said. He has worked extensively with internationally acclaimed opinion leaders to promote ideas that improve productivity, and increase freedom to trade as a way to alleviate poverty. He facilitates several workshops every year throughout Africa geared towards promoting productivity and trade. He recently argued that development is the ability of individuals to understand the world and creatively respond to challenges that confront humanity in a manner that increases levels of human comfort on earth. He is the founder and Executive Director of the Inter Region Economic Network REN an independent and non-partisan think tank that promotes policies geared towards the creation of a free Africa. He is also the Country Director for Students In Free Enterprise IFE Kenyaand Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of an online business magazine ''

The African Executive ''The African Executive'' is a weekly opinion and business magazine published by the Inter Region Economic Network (IREN),

'' that is published weekly by IREN.

Awards and decorations

On 6 July 2007, Shikwati was named among top 100 most influential Kenyans in a study that was conducted by The Standard Group,
one of the Kenya’s leading media houses, he was described as one person whose decisions and actions are not motivated by the publicity they attract but by passion for what they do. On March 11, 2008, The World Economic Forum named Shikwati among the 250 Young Global Leaders of 2008.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shikwati, James 1970 births Living people Libertarian economists 21st-century Kenyan economists Member of the Mont Pelerin Society