For more than a decade, the African Procurement Law Unit (APLU) has worked to promote: research on public procurement regulation on the African continent; training in public procurement regulation; discussion of public procurement issues within the African context; building of networks in Africa and with similar units elsewhere. The unit provides a permanent platform for in-depth research in an area of law that is critical to development in Africa, but currently largely neglected. APLU maintains a continental footprint by means of associated researchers based in a number of African countries and beyond.