The African Legal Support Facility (ALSF) will hold a high-level conference on 22-23 September 2021 to celebrate its achievements and mark the renewal of its mandate for a further 14 years.
The theme of the event is Smart Legal Capacity for Africa: A New Phase for the African Legal Support Facility. Former South African President Thabo Mbeki, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Director-General of the World Trade Organization, and Dr. Amani Abou-Zeid, African Union Commissioner for infrastructure and energy, will deliver special statements at the event.
Dr. Akinwumi A. Adesina, President of the African Development Bank Group, will deliver the keynote speech. The Bank hosts the Facility.
The virtual conference will discuss practical ways to ensure the legal and technical capacity of African countries when undertaking sovereign transactions. The session will also galvanize support for the ALSF's future programs and activities.
Experts from regional member countries, partner institutions and international law firms will hold roundtables on sovereign debt, extractives and natural resources, energy, and infrastructure. They will also discuss the challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic, climate change, the fourth industrial revolution, and the asymmetry of legal and technical capacity.
About the African Legal Support Facility: Created by the African Development Bank in 2008, ALSF supports African governments in negotiating complex commercial transactions, providing legal and technical assistance in public-private partnership projects across the oil and gas, mining and energy sectors, and covering sovereign debt issues and related creditor litigation.
