Dr. Elifuraha Laltaika

Dr. Elifuraha Laltaika is a Natural Resources Law specialist at Leyrand, with extensive experience in mining, oil and gas, environmental law, and Indigenous Peoples' rights. He combines strong academic grounding with hands-on advisory experience, working with governments, multilateral institutions, and private sector clients across Africa.

He is a Senior Lecturer in Law at the Faculty of Law, Tumaini University Makumira, and previously served as a Visiting Researcher at Harvard Law School. A Fulbright Scholar, Dr. Laltaika's expertise spans international law, constitutional law, jurisprudence, natural resources law, mining, oil and gas law, and Indigenous Peoples' rights, informed by comparative and interdisciplinary approaches to complex legal and policy issues in investment and development contexts.

He has advised governments, lenders, United Nations agencies, the World Bank Group, IFAD, and multinational companies on Indigenous Peoples and on environmental and social standards for major investment projects across Africa. His work has focused on the practical application of international frameworks such as the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, IFC Performance Standard 7, and the World Bank Environmental and Social Standard 7, contributing to the negotiation of Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) agreements and the development of Indigenous Peoples Planning Frameworks in multiple jurisdictions.

He has held visiting scholar positions at the University of British Columbia (as an Outstanding Global South Visiting Scholar), the University of Bayreuth in Germany, and the Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study in South Africa, and has guest lectured and presented research at universities in Africa, Asia, Europe, and North America.

From 2017 to 2019, he served as an expert member of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, following appointment by the President of the UN Economic and Social Council. He previously worked as a Senior Fellow at the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva. An Advocate of the High Court of Tanzania since 2010, his expertise has been recognised by the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights, including in the Ogiek Indigenous Peoples of Kenya reparations case. In 2022, he received the Svitlana Kravchenko Environmental Rights Award in Oregon, United States, in recognition of his contribution to environmental justice and community rights.

Dr. Laltaika currently chairs the Community of Practice, a regional think tank bringing together practitioners and scholars from Eastern Africa and the Horn of Africa who work on customary land tenure and the protection of traditional livelihoods.