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The African Development Bank has released $22 million to the Africa Legal Support Facility (ALSF) to assist fragile African countries with capacity building initiatives and legal advisory services.

The ALSF is an organization under the AfDB dedicated solely to providing legal advice and technical assistance to African countries to help strengthen their legal expertise and negotiating capacity in debt management and litigation, natural resources and extractive industries management and contracting, investment agreements, and related commercial and business transactions.

According to a statement released on Tuesday, the AfBD funding support will help the ALSF assist countries in fragile situations with technical assistance aimed at strengthening legal expertise in areas such as vulture fund litigation. The ALSF will also provide advisory services complemented by capacity-building interventions for states in transition.

“Strengthened institutions are a catalyst for strong resilient governments,” said Stephen Karangizi, ALSF’s Director. “We recognize that there is a great need in the extractive sector for countries in fragile situation to anchor governance related standards as well as incorporate the broader questions of technical capacity as a facilitator of good resource governance.”

The ALSF and the AfDB’s Transitional Support Department (ORTS) will work together to identify areas and points of collaboration.

“This joint initiative provides us with an opportunity to effectively deliver support required by our Regional Member Countries (RMCs),” said the ORTS Director, Sibry Tapsoba. “Through regular coordination of institutional work programs and activities, we are in a position to achieve high efficiency and impact to address the challenge of fragility on the continent.”

Part of the AfDB's goal is addressing fragility and building resilience and stability in its regional member countries.