The overarching objective of the course is to contribute to the development of a critical mass of highly skilled middle and senior policy officials and decision makers who will be suitably or better equipped to design and manage mining policy for the development of their countries, sub-regions and the continent. A robust mining policy must necessarily be built on a clear developmental vision; such a vision must also inform the contractual negotiations that are held, so that in this way, vision, policy and negotiations are properly interfaced to achieve desired outcomes. In addition to policy issues, therefore, the course will also provide training on mining contract negotiations, doing so primarily on the basis of the African mining vision as the framing standard which African leaders have adopted under the auspices of the AU to ensure that African countries get the best benefits from their mineral resources for the purpose of advancing their national development agendas and the welfare of their citizens.IDEP strongly encourages and supports the participation of suitably qualified female officials in its capacity development and training programme DEADLINE FOR APPLICATIONS AND NOMINATIONS: Friday 16 August, 2013