Togo

 Togo Nation Information Official Name Togolese Republic Capital Lomé President Faure Gnassingbé GDP 8.9 billion USD Currency West African CFA Franc Population 6 100 000 Members Current Player Rican Former Players

Togo is generally considered to be a minor, relatively insignificant country in Superpower: Classic.

=Nation Information=

Togo, officially the Togolese Republic, is a country in West Africa bordering Ghana in the west, Benin in the east and Burkina Faso in the north. In the south, it has a short Gulf of Guinea coast, on which the capital Lomé is located.

=Togo in Round Eleven=

See also: Round 11

=Togo in Round Twelve=

See also: Round 12

Domestic Policy
See also: Togolese Economic Miracle

The aim of Togolese domestic policy was to weed out corruption and develop a robust economy in order to make the country an attractive centre for foreign investment. The newly-elected President, Faure Gnassingbé, conducted meetings with rival political leaders with a view to ending the political strife which had plighted Togo since the 1990s. Several opposition leaders were elected to the government including Yawovi Agboyibo who became Prime Minister.

Economic Policy
There was large investment in redeveloping Lomé's oil refinery in an effort to increase the capacity and attract oil imports from Angola, Cameroon, Chad and Ghana whilst mining contracts were sold to Anglo American for works in the Pagala zinc deposits in central Togo and tenders went out for oil exploration rights in the Gulf of Guinea.

The greatest and most radical reforms, however, were the result of anti-corruption legislation put forward by the government. For the first time in Togo's history, a landmark statute on 14th November 2007 made land-grabs by the state illegal and recognised an individual's property. This coherence with a United Nations recommendation signalled a concerted move towards a liberalised, anti-corrupt government in Togo.

Education Policy
There was liberalisation of the education sector, too, with financial control of schools and universities being handed over to school boards as opposed to the centralised government department responsible for schools. The less bureaucratic regulations were made law under the Academics Freedom code of 2007 and came into force in November. There was also the introduction of a national curriculum providing guidelines as to what subjects and to what level students should be taught.

As a sign of Togo's increasing will to participate in the international arena, President Gnassingbé sent out a personal invitation to Volunteer Services Overseas, a large charity organisation, to send teachers to Togo to help out in schools. Since the project's inception, over 50 teachers from France and the United Kingdom have taken placements in Togolese schools.

Foreign Policy
Since the 1950s, Togo had been something of an internalised nation with very little foreign influence or cooperation. However, the government of Faure Gnassingbé sought to embrace international cooperation and welcomed talks with Europe and North America as well as Togo's neighbours in West Africa as he aimed to consolidate Togo's place at the forefront of African democracy.