Last evening, journalists from Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya in both the print and electronic media trooped in at the Pan Afric hotel for the 4^th East Africa Media Training meeting on Conquering Poverty through Business in Eastern Africa. Besides visiting Eastern province where farmers are employing business strategies to fight poverty, the journalists will explore ways in which the media and business can offer solutions to African problems through the expansion of markets for their products during the 3 days event. They will also focus on: product stewardship, ways of increasing the productivity of the African people and creating a One Market Africa. Unlike the ongoing debate on whether Africa needs more aid or debt relief that portrays Africa as a burden and a scar on the conscience of the world, IREN Kenya argues that use of business to fight poverty will redefine the African solution. This will entail East Africa nations opening up themselves to each other and nurturing a sound business environment.

The maiden East Africa Media Training Meeting in 2003 focused on World Trade. The second one in 2004 whose objectives included: creating media interest in promoting trade in East Africa and Africa in general, brainstorming on the negative effects of trade barriers, creating awareness on the importance of technology in promoting investments and commercialization and highlighting the existing investment opportunities in East Africa focused on Business and International Trade. The third event (2005) addressed Property Rights in the African Context, emphasizing the fact that the concept of property rights is not alien to Africans hence African elites and leaders should strategically employ the use of protection of property to spur economic growth in the continent.

The link between institutions and economic performance has preoccupied economists for many years. Economic change is as a result of change in three areas: the quantity and quality of human beings; the stock of human knowledge, particularly as it applies to the human command over nature and the institutional matrix that defines the incentive structure of society

Africa is getting poorer while the rest of the world gets richer. The East Africa Media Training, a yearly event geared at utilizing the power of the press to reach out to people with ideas that will facilitate concepts and strategies that will enhance economic freedom and wealth creation in Africa, was set up to address this phenomenon.