TDB GROUP AND ALSF ORGANISE THE INAUGURAL ATTORNEYS GENERAL ROUNDTABLE MEETING
Media Contacts:
Trade and Development Bank Group
Anne-Marie Iskandar
Senior Communications Officer
Corporate Affairs and Investor Relations
Anne-Marie.Iskandar@tdbgroup.org
Eva Ehoura
Communications Officer
African Legal Support Facility
e.ehoura@afdb.org
Nairobi, 6 November 2024 – TDB Group, through the TDB Academy, in collaboration with the African Legal Support Facility (ALSF), hosted the first edition of “The African Attorneys General Roundtable Meeting”(the “Roundtable”), on 4-5 November at TDB Tower in Nairobi, Kenya.
The inaugural event brought together Attorneys General (AG) (or their representatives) from 24 countries across the Anglophone and Lusophone regional membership of TDB Group and ALSF.
Offices of Attorneys General drive the definition of policy, coordination and oversight with regard to various legal sector institutions and relevant ministries, and therefore possess a broader cross-cutting mandate to oversee the legal risks across various institutions in their respective countries. As such, they play a crucial role in the jurisdictions they serve, in bringing to fruition impactful projects that tackle sustainable development challenges such as infrastructure development, poverty alleviation, climate change, and sovereign debt management, amongst others.
The Roundtable provided participants with an opportunity to discuss the current responsibilities and functions of the Office of the Attorney General and identify challenges, concerns, capacity building gaps, and action points to address these. The Roundtable also explored opportunities for common approaches to legal risk management, and how the role of the Office of the Attorney General may evolve in the future, in its capacity as the focal point for sovereign legal risk management. In this context, topics such as risk analysis and its impact on decision-making in the management of key development areas, negotiation techniques and capacity building strategies were discussed, and the groundwork was layed for the creation of an AG network.
David Bamlamgo TDB Group Vice President, Deputy Managing Director and General Counsel said, “As promoters of the rule of law and defenders of the public interest, Offices of Attorneys General require the right resources, tools and appropriate skills to understand, negotiate, and execute the most complex commercial transactions and manage the legal risks faced by the governments they serve. Through our TDB Academy, and in close partnership with key institutions like ALSF, we are committed to delivering transformative capacity development programmes that empower talent within our Member States, ensuring they are prepared to tackle current challenges and capitalize on future opportunities.”
Olivier Pognon, ALSF Chief Executive Officer and Director said, “At the ALSF, we are honoured to co-host the inaugural African Attorneys General Roundtable Meeting in partnership with theTDB. This event underscores our shared commitment to empowering the continent’s Attorneys General with enhanced legal expertise to tackle the complexities of sovereign transactions, project negotiations, and legal risk management. With the establishment of a pan-African network, we aim to foster an ongoing platform for collaboration, peer learning, and capacity development that will ultimately strengthen governance frameworks and drive sustainable development across Africa.”
TDB Group and ALSF have been collaborating since 2021 on the development and delivery of capacity building training programmes for public sector lawyers in Africa. This is the third training organised by the institutions together. The first two were focused on sovereign debt and infrastructure, and power purchase agreements and legal frameworks for the energy sector.
About TDB
Established in 1985, the Eastern and Southern African Trade and Development Bank (TDB) is an investment-grade African regional development finance group, with the mandate to finance and foster trade, regional economic integration and sustainable development. With an asset base of USD 10 bn, TDB Group has 25 African member states, which alongside non-regional member countries and institutional investors from Africa, Europe and Asia, form TDB’s community of shareholders.
TDB Group counts several subsidiaries and strategic business units including Trade and Development Banking (TDB), TDB Group Asset Management, the Trade and Development Fund (TDF), TDB Captive Insurance Company (TCI), the ESATAL fund management company and TDB Academy.
The TDB Academy is the capacity building arm of TDB Group, offering training, seminars, conferences, study tours and other human and institutional capacity development interventions in the financial and investment segments of interest to TDB Group and its partners.
www.tdbgroup.org
About ALSF
Established by treaty in 2008, the African Legal Support Facility is an international organisation hosted by the African Development Bank (AfDB) Group, in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire dedicated to enhancing legal capacity by providing legal advice and technical assistance to African countries in the structuring and negotiation of complex commercial transactions in key sectors (energy, extractives and natural resources, infrastructure and sovereign finance), creditor litigation and other related sovereign transactions; and providing capacity building to enable countries derive maximum benefits from such transactions and avoid entering into contracts that lead to unsustainable debt.
The ALSF also develops and proposes innovative tools for capacity building (www.alsf.academy) and knowledge management (www.alsf.int/supported-online, www alsf.int/publications).
Membership to the ALSF is open to all sovereign nations and international organizations or institutions.
www.alsf.int
