CALL FOR CANDIDATES FOR THE AFRICAN MINING LEGISLATION ATLAS (AMLA) LEGAL RESEARCH TEAM (LRT)
1. African Mining Legislation Atlas Project Description
The African Mining Legislation Atlas Project (“AMLA”) is a legislation gathering, organization, dissemination, capacity building and capacity utilization Project with three main activities: (i) the creation of the AMLA platform, a free online one-stop resource for Africa’s mining legal framework (mining code, regulations and related legislation) with interactive features to provide comparative data; (ii) production of the guiding template, an annotated document that outlines a menu of legislative solutions to assist countries in the preparation or revision of their mining laws; and (iii) capacity building through training (on-ground and remotely) of African legal professionals in the use of the online platform and on overall issues in mining law. The objective of the project is to support African countries in maximizing mineral resource benefits through: (i) promoting transparency, accessibility and comparison of Africa’s
mining laws; (ii) facilitating the preparation, revision and implementation of mining laws; (iii) providing a living database that will catalyze research and policy debates on legal and regulatory issues; and (iv) promote the development of local legal expertise on African mining laws. The AMLA project was initiated by the World Bank Group who transferred it to the AMLA Secretariat in 2017 with a department dedicated to the project within the
African Legal Support Facility (“ALSF”).
2. Description of the ALSF
The African Legal Support Facility (“ALSF” or “Facility”) is a public international institution hosted by the African Development Bank (“AfDB”) Group. The Facility is dedicated to (i)providing legal advice and technical assistance to African countries in the negotiation of complex commercial transactions (especially in the area of infrastructure, extractive industry sector and natural resources); (ii) providing legal advice to African countries on vulture fund litigation and related sovereign transactions; and (iii) building legal capacity in the continent and developing and proposing innovative tools for capacity building and knowledge management. The Facility’s main mission is to achieve sustainable legal capacity for Africa. Membership to the ALSF is open to all sovereign nations and
international organizations or institutions African Mining Legislation Atlas
3. Purpose of the Call for Candidates
The AMLA platform is a free one-stop resource for African mining legislation that provides the public with all 53 existing mining codes of the continent in an easily readable, searchable and downloadable format. The platform is constantly updated with amendments to the mining codes, mining regulations and related legislation. Since its
inception in 2014, the AMLA platform has been populated each year with the most recent legislation. What remains is to maintain the existing database by uploading newly enacted legislation or amendments and updating the country-to-country comparison feature. The ongoing task of populating the AMLA platform is undertaken by the AMLA Legal Research Team (LRT) who are advanced law students shortlisted by their universities and selected by the AMLA Secretariat. The LRT will undergo a two-stage training program which include: (i) the annual workshop training on mining legislative frameworks and the use of the online platform and; (ii) the second will occur remotely over a longer time span (one year) whereby the LRTs will analyze mining legislation, enabling them to populate the AMLA platform and to have a deepened knowledge on the legislative frameworks. The purpose of this call for candidates is to initiate the competitive selection process whereby a new cohort of African law students will join the LRT. Students shortlisted by their own African law schools or faculties as a result of this call for candidates will undergo two additional selection steps (see paragraph 7 below). Those who will succeed will be offered the possibility of joining the LRT upon confirmation of support from their respective law school or faculty. The AMLA Secretariat is committed to provide an equal opportunity to all qualified candidates regardless of their gender, race, and regional affiliation.
4. Prospective Duties and Responsibilities of an LRT
In order to identify the best candidates who will compete for joining the LRT, those responsible for the first students’ shortlisting occurring at law school or faculty level should keep in mind prospective LRT’s duties and responsibilities, which are as follows:
• Conduct research to compile platform relevant information, which includes (i) mining sector contextual information and (ii) mining laws, mining regulations and related legislative and regulatory documents of different African countries;
• Categorize located legislation and analyze the provisions of the mining laws and regulations against the common taxonomy used by the platform to populate the country to country comparison feature of the legislation database;
• Deliver assignments as described above (or any other as directed) in due time over a period of at least one year; each LRT is to provide a minimum of 6 working hours/week per assignment, which is compensated on a performance basis as opposed to an hourly basis;
• Attend at least once, a 7-day training workshop at a specified location in Africa usually held during the month of December. The other elements that should guide the shortlisting process at law school or faculty level are described in paragraph 5 and 6 below.
5. Qualifications of Successful Candidate
Eligible candidates for LRT membership must satisfy the following qualifications:
Enrolled in good standing in a law degree (BA or Masters) with an African University until December 2023 or longer;
Possess commendable research skills;
Ability to travel for a one-week training course;
Fluency in English.
Candidates are required to disclose any ongoing engagements.
Familiarity with/interest in extractives law is highly desirable, but not required.
6. Competencies of Successful Candidate
Candidates with the highest chance of advancing in the competitive selection process
are those who:
Work effectively and efficiently without much oversight;
Set high standards for quality of work and consistently achieve set goals;
Are able to work effectively in a multi-cultural environment;
Analyze and integrate potentially conflicting data from a number of sources.
African Mining Legislation Atlas
7. Application and Selection Process
The AMLA Secretariat would like to invite universities to make the first selection of potential candidates who will be invited to participate in our 2022 AMLA workshop to be held through 2022. Universities are invited to respond to the current call for candidates by submitting resumes and Curriculum Vitae (CVs) of three (3) potential candidates who should be enrolled at the university until December 2023.
Each applicant should at the minimum provide the following on their CV:
Gender;
Nationality;
Proficiency of languages spoken;
Level of the applicant’s study (Bachelors or Masters);
Expected year of completion of the applicant’s studies;
Engagement of any research related activities;
Ongoing engagement in any form of employment
Upon receipt of the CVs by the AMLA Secretariat, an assessment of the candidates’ eligibility will be carried out and selected candidates will be invited to participate in the upcoming 2022 AMLA workshop which will be held virtually. Only the top performers will be offered to become part of the LRT upon confirmation of support from their law school or faculty. The AMLA Secretariat is committed to providing equal opportunity to all qualified candidates regardless of gender, race, language or country of origin.
Please submit your applications to seic@strathmore.edu and copy feedbackmla.org. The deadline for submissions is 25th April 2022 at 5:00PM EAT.
Should you have any questions, please feel free to contact the AMLA Secretariat at feedback@a-mla.org
