Intelligent Aid invites you to demonstrate your research and advocacy skills on the topic of trade or aid in Africa. Here is some information about our work in Africa to inspire your ideas.

Africa is a place of phenomenal spirit and energy. Every day that energy is translated into deal-making and investment projects in countries across the continent. Clifford Chance has been helping to identify and make such opportunities in Africa a reality for more than 30 years.
Clifford Chance is to open an office in Casablanca by the end of 2011. This will be the firm's first office in Africa and a hub for clients across the wider North African and Sub Saharan Francophone region. The new office cements our capabilities and will be just one part of Clifford Chance's broader Africa offering.

Client experience in Africa | Pro bono activity in Africa

1. Client experience in Africa

In order to meet the diverse requirements of our clients in Africa, the Group is structured into sub-groups that are aligned with African regions. Furthermore, the Africa Group draws upon the firm’s industry-sector specialists to develop legal approaches and advice that take into account the strategic, competitive and market dynamics in which our clients operate.

Here is a just a selection of some our experience in Africa:

Mining & resources
Guinea Alumina, Guinea
Advised the lenders (including ECAs and DFIs) in connection with the USD 3.5 billion Guinea Alumina integrated bauxite mining, alumina refinery and associated facilities project in Guinea.

Banks & financial institutions
Standard Bank Strategic Alliance
Advised Standard Bank on its investment and strategic alliance with Troika Dialog, Russia’s second largest investment bank.

Oil & Gas
Kosmos, Ghana
Advising a group of lenders led by Standard Chartered Bank and including the International Finance Corporation (IFC) in connection with the USD 750 million project finance debt facilities for Kosmos Energy. The facilities are secured by shares of the subsidiary Kosmos Energy Ghana and its interest in the Jubilee oil field. The financing will fully fund phase-one development of the offshore Jubilee oil field, the world’s largest oil find in 2007 and one of the most significant oil discoveries offshore West Africa in the last decade.

Power
Kipevu II IPP, Kenya
Advised IFC, DEG, and CDC Group plc in relation to the construction of a 74MW BOO diesel-engine, heavy fuel-oil fired electricity generating plant located near Mombassa in Kenya; the first IPP to be built in Eastern Africa.

Renewables
Cape Verde Wind Power Plants, Cape Verde
Advised on the financing for the development, construction and operation of a 28 MW installed wind farm in Cape Verde. The Project is being spearheaded by InfraCo as lead developer, together with the national power and utilities company, Electra and the Government of Cape Verde.

2. Pro bono activity in Africa

Investment in Africa’s long term development, in communities where we can and do make a difference, is an integral part of the work we do.
A lot of our pro bono activity in Africa features sustainable education and training ventures for a new generation of African lawyers, strengthening our legal experience on the ground and improving the quality of legal services more generally in the regions in which they are based. However, not all of our programmes focus explicitly on improving legal skill sets and governance in Africa. The initiatives we are involved in address a broader, related, aim: to improve access to the basic necessities of life for people in Africa.

In total, we have supported 28 initiatives and donated more than £500,000 to Africa-based projects and charities in the past two years through the Clifford Chance Foundation.

Notably, a programme in Sudan received – following 100 quality entries and a rigorous judging process – the inaugural Clifford Chance Access to Justice Award of £50,000 and 500 pro bono hours.

Every programme matters. Below are just a few further examples of the breadth of work we do in Africa:

Malaika Kids, Tanzania
Malaika Kids is a charity helping the lives of orphaned children in the Dar es Salaam area of Tanzania by ensuring access to education and skills training that will enable these children to become self-supporting adults, breaking the cycle of poverty, illiteracy and often, abuse. The Clifford Chance Foundation provided funds for the construction of a school building comprising two classrooms at the children’s village in Mkuranga in Tanzania.

HOPEHIV, Kenya
HOPEHIV has been receiving pro bono legal support from the London office of Clifford Chance for the last six years. The Clifford Chance Foundation has also provided funding to extend an existing partnership with ANPPCAN (African Network for the Prevention and Protection against Child Abuse and Neglect) in Kenya to two new locations. Since 2007, HOPEHIV has been partnering with ANPPCAN to raise awareness of child rights and help establish sustainable child protection structures using a model of school-based Child Rights Clubs.

Access to Justice Award, Sudan
In 2010, we awarded our “Access to Justice Award” to the People’s Legal Aid Centre (PLACE) in Khartoum, Sudan. PLACE provides legal aid and advice to displaced women and children in the Darfur region of Sudan, focusing on cases involving violation of human rights. PLACE received a donation of £50,000 from the Foundation and 500 pro bono and volunteering hours from people across our firm. Since winning the inaugural Award, PLACE has used some of its 500 pro bono hours in developing a comprehensive set of implementation guidelines for Sudan's new Child Rights Act 2010.

Launch of the Africa Book Aid Programme
Working in collaboration with the international Law Book Facility, we collected a large number of legal textbooks in English, French and Portuguese to send to universities in Africa. To date, we donated legal textbooks to universities located in Angola, Benin, Senegal, the Ivory Coast, Morocco and South Africa.

Training lawyers at the School of Law, Tanganyika
We delivered a 4-day legal training programme to approximately 50 Tanzanian lawyers in Arusha, Tanzania on ADR, negotiation, mediation and advocacy as well as in Dar es Salaam, at the School of Law in Tanganyika as part of the International Lawyers Project. The Clifford Chance Foundation supports an extended three year programme of training for Tanzanian lawyers in conjunction with the International Lawyers Project.

Establishment of the Centre for Legal Studies, Malawi
We assisted in the creation of the Centre for Legal Studies in Malawi, which provides post-academic legal education to Malawian lawyers, with a focus on commercial law. The firm’s lawyers have been assisting in the delivery of the Centre’s transaction-based programme.

Secondments for African lawyers to the firm
We support the International Lawyers for Africa (“ILFA”) programme, which provides leading young African lawyers with work experience at international law firms.

As part of the programme, we have hosted Ugandan and Tanzanian lawyers on secondment for three months, and are about to host a Sudanese lawyer.

Providing free legal representation and advice
We undertook, in conjunction with the International Senior Lawyers Project, legal analysis of several international treaties for an African country to assist them in the process of deciding whether to ratify the treaties. Members have also been involved in helping to raise finance for Mercy Ships International, a charity providing free ship based medical services, and in advising on a range of legal issues affecting the charity in Liberia.

Okula Primary School, Uganda
We are investing, through the Clifford Chance Foundation, in Build Africa's  construction of three new classrooms and an administration office at Okula Primary School in the Kumi District of Uganda.

The feedback we receive can be humbling.

"Financing my studies was the best gift that you could have given me, which is why I held on to it so tightly," says Agostinho Madjedje, one of 25 students from rural areas of southern Mozambique to receive Clifford Chance Foundation-funded scholarships for higher education. The Fundación Mozambique Sur students were selected based on their strong performance in secondary school and their socio-economic deprivation.
Agostinho continues, "I have overcome various obstacles, but despite this, words like "quit" or "back down" were never part of my vocabulary. What I want most is to continue to be able to go to school, but at a more advanced level… and one day be able to do with others what you have done for me."