Accelerating Global Policy: A Decade of Partnership with CLDP and ALSF
For over a decade, the African Legal Support Facility (ALSF) and the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Commercial Law Development Program (CLDP) have partnered with Book Sprints to transform international policy-making with a dozen Book Sprints.
What began in 2014 with the highly successful Understanding Series, downloaded over 100,000 times globally, has evolved into a collaboration that tackles the world’s most complex legal and economic challenges by bringing together top global minds.
In the past 12 months alone, this rapid-publishing model has produced five comprehensive reference handbooks on high-stakes international topics.
Recent Publications
Challenge and Solution
- The Diversity of Opinions: Traditional drafting involves endless debates and overlapping edits. Reaching consensus among international lawyers and economists can take years, stalling critical capacity-building efforts.
- Scheduling Elite Experts: Securing long-term commitments from world-renowned professionals is nearly impossible due to their demanding schedules.
- Transcreating Complex Knowledge: It is not enough to adopt Western frameworks; dense legal theory must be culturally adapted for emerging economies.
- Hyper-Collaborative Drafting: Book Sprints facilitate a carefully curated, diverse group of global experts in one room for five days of intense, facilitated writing.
- Time-Boxed Focus: The accelerated, five-day process secures the undivided attention of otherwise unreachable experts, eliminating asynchronous delays.
- Simultaneous Co-Creation: By having everyone in one room, the process encourages open group discussion and allows fast-moving revision cycles.
What the Experts Say
None of my colleagues thought that was possible. We work in a world where there is a cacophony of voices. There is almost never consensus that’s easily found. Yet in five days we knocked this thing out.
The Impact Beyond the Page
These handbooks do not just sit on desks, they are actively deployed globally in high-level capacity-building workshops, international forums, and training events to equip governments with actionable frameworks.
Rather than a single government or bank dictating policy, these books represent a hard-won consensus among diverse global experts. This collective authority gives the books immense credibility, helping to level the playing field for developing nations.
The immersive five-day experience fosters deep, cross-border connections. The collaborative environment builds lifelong friendships and creates a global community of practice that endures long after the Sprint ends.