Our Work

We work with communities to design their own sustainable development plans and advocate to achieve those plans.  ACA builds networks of lawyers and other experts to help the communities’ plans come to fruition.

ACA works in nine West African states – Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, and Sierra Leone – to promote public interest law and help threatened communities achieve a future worth fighting for.

With just ten full-time staff and one part-time employee, ACA has an out-sized impact through its partnerships with leading public interest lawyers and legal advocacy organizations in West Africa.  ACA’s work is divided into three streams:

Community-driven development projects, in which we support communities that are resisting destructive investment projects through community-driven development visioning, legal strategies, and technical support;

The Public Interest Lawyering Initiative for West Africa, which is building a regional movement of lawyers driven by social justice to serve threatened communities; and

Case-based legal support, in which ACA directly intervenes to represent or otherwise support West African communities facing serious threats to their human rights, natural environment, or land and livelihoods.