"The African Legal Support Facility (ALSF) is committed to work with the Pan-African Lawyers' Union (PALU) towards the creation of a better legal environment that creates an unquestionable stability necessary to attract national and foreign investments in Africa," said ALSF's CEO, Stephen Karangizi, as a prelude to a joint ALSF-PALU capacity building seminar that will be held from 24 to 26 January 2012, in Tunis. The seminar aims to enhance and develop law practices in the Northern Africa. It will be officially opened by AfDB's vice-president for finance, Charles Boamah and will attract many African law practitioners including Tunis Bâtonnier, Chawki Tabib and PALU's Deputy Secretary General, Bruce K. Kyerere.
"Building capacity of legal counsel in both public and private sectors gives the opportunity to develop certain skills or competences and upgrade performance ability which is one of the Facility main targets," Mr. Karangizi also stressed.
Designed to strengthen the skills of the participants (specialized legal counsels, lawyers and law practitioners) in creditor litigation and complex commercial transactions in the five Africa regions ( eastern, Western, central, Northern and Central), it will particularly help to build-up and update a database to rely on for future negotiations by the Governments.
Participants will gain from case studies on international commercial negotiations in the respective sub-region. Also on the agenda are African Development Bank's financial architecture, legal aspects of financing infrastructure projects from Multilateral Development Banks' perspective. It will also make an overview of international commercial negotiations in the sub-region especially in complex commercial transactions in the area of natural resources. Mining, energy, infrastructure development and agriculture are some of the areas that will benefit from the initiative.
The ALSF has committed itself to assist AfDB's regional members in the context of litigation brought against them by vulture funds which creates obstacles to obtaining the full benefits of debt relief available, by providing advice and training to law African practitioners.
PALU's mission is to work towards the development of law and legal profession, the rule of law, human rights and socio-economic developments in Africa, including through supporting the continent's integration.
As part of their continuing efforts to strengthen law systems across the entire continent, ALSF and PALU plan to extend this kind of seminar to all African countries, to create a truly regional dissemination, and knowledge-sharing system. This seminar is the third one after Kigali, Rwanda (14-16 February 2011) and Cape Town (25-27 May 2011).
