Africa must build its legal infrastructure to unlock looming trade and investment revolution, says new Yamalé Alliance

While the future is Africa, the infrastructure the continent needs in order to properly harness its huge potential and create development is not merely physical, but legal and institutional, says Meghan Waters, the co-founder and CEO of Yamalé Alliance. 

“True African development will be built on intra-African trade and business,” says Waters, who has previously worked as a law lecturer and founder of the West African Law Institute in The Gambia, a Foreign Consultant at GENI & KEBE Lawyers in Senegal, and most recently as a Deputy Office Director for USAID in Uganda. 

The Yamalé Alliance, a Dakar-based organisation launched yesterday, has a mission to put African governments, businesses, and communities on equal footing to international counterparts by strengthening legal systems, representing nations in critical negotiations, and making law accessible through free tools and expert support. ‘Yamalé’ means "equal footing" in the Wolof language of West Africa.

“When the negotiating table isn't level, Africa pays the price,” shared Waters on LinkedIn this morning, noting contracts for major investment deals, infrastructure partnerships, and natural resource agreements can shape African nations for decades, yet too often, African governments face counterparts with deeper resources, larger legal teams, and decades of experience structuring deals in their favour. This can result in agreements “that look good in press releases but quietly limit fiscal flexibility, erode sovereignty, and constrain long-term development”. 

A legal and advisory organisation rooted in African expertise, the Yamalé Alliance will work alongside African governments and businesses to strengthen the systems, contracts, and frameworks that turn policy into practice, and help build the legal and institutional infrastructure Africa needs to lead its own transformation. 

“When African governments negotiate from positions of strength, backed by world-class African legal expertise, investment becomes a catalyst for growth, not a constraint on it,” says Waters, who as a lawyer and in her role at USAID watched many businesses and NGOs struggle with complex frameworks that hindered their growth. “I watched governments sign on to agreements and promise intra-African collaboration, demonstrating great hope for future growth, yet fragmented laws and regulations continued to hinder the possibilities of those agreements. Africa’s law and legal infrastructure was continuing to impede development.”

The Yamalé Alliance aims to face such challenges head-on, and work at every level where law shapes Africa's future, offering a range of services and support including: 

• Government representation in complex, high-stakes negotiations, and international arbitration, ensuring mining concessions, energy partnerships, infrastructure projects, and investment agreements protect sovereignty while enabling sustainable development;

• Helping African governments design and implement the legal and institutional frameworks that make policy work — from health procurement to agricultural regulation, from PPP governance to judicial modernisation; 

• Advancing community rights in development; 

• An AfCFTA Compliance Passport that provides businesses and regulators with harmonised checklists, model contracts, and step-by-step guides that translate complex regulatory requirements into clear, actionable resources; nd

• Practical legal resources for businesses: ready-to-use contract templates and concise legal guides tailored specifically to African business realities — covering corporate structure, employment, taxation, environmental compliance, and more. 

The Alliance will also be building a Yamalé Library of resources, to bring together its publications, research, and practical tools in one place; from thought leadership to ready-to-use contract templates, reflecting its commitment to making law more accessible, understandable, and actionable for everyone working across Africa.