INFRAFRICA – A comparative study of foreign-financed and foreign-built infrastructure in Africa: perspective from Ethiopia and Angola

Project Information

INFRAFRICA

Grant agreement ID: 101105757

DOI

10.3030/101105757

Project terminated on 31 December 2025

EC signature date 21 April 2023

Start date 1 September 2023

End date 30 April 2026

Funded under

• Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)

Total cost

No data

EU contribution

€ 188 068,74

Coordinated by

EUROPEAN UNIVERSITY INSTITUTE
Italy

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - INFRAFRICA (INFRAFRICA – A comparative study of foreign-financed and foreign-built infrastructure in Africa: perspective from Ethiopia and Angola)

Reporting period: 2023-09-01 to 2026-04-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

INFRAFRICA investigated how foreign‑financed and foreign‑built infrastructure projects shaped economic, political, and social development in Africa. Against the backdrop of intensifying global competition—particularly among China, the EU, the US, and Japan—the project examined why similar infrastructure investments produced different development outcomes and how African actors negotiated and adapted to external engagement.
The project’s overarching objective was to develop a comparative analytical framework explaining how external actors’ financing models, governance arrangements, and firm strategies interacted with host‑country institutions, regulatory capacities, and political contexts. It conceptualized infrastructure—both physical and digital—not merely as a technical asset but as a space of negotiation, contestation, and adaptation. Over time, the research expanded into digital domains, analysing AI/cloud ecosystems, digital trade, and mineral‑digital linkages as these became central to Africa’s evolving development trajectory.
By integrating political economy, development studies, and broader social sciences, the project highlighted the diversity and distributed nature of African agency. It showed how institutional conditions and regulatory capabilities shaped local linkages, value distribution, and the developmental effects of external engagement. The findings held significant relevance for policymakers, especially those involved in infrastructure finance and digital strategy within European institutions. They contributed to debates surrounding initiatives such as the EU’s Global Gateway and to EU priorities on digital transformation, global partnerships, and equitable economic development.
Through academic publications, policy engagement, and interdisciplinary dialogue, INFRAFRICA strengthened understanding of how Africa’s physical and digital infrastructures were embedded in shifting geopolitical and economic environments. Its results provided a foundation for more context‑sensitive and effective strategies aimed at promoting sustainable and inclusive development across the continent.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

The project carried out a comprehensive, multi‑method investigation into how foreign‑financed and foreign‑built infrastructure shaped development outcomes in Africa. Research activities included extensive desktop mapping, targeted qualitative scoping, fieldwork in Belgium and Japan, and iterative analysis of sectoral and country‑specific cases. Although large‑scale firm and worker surveys proved unfeasible, the project redirected efforts toward deeper comparative and theoretical analysis, strengthening empirical grounding through interviews and secondary data. Key achievements included: advancing theory on African agency as relational and context‑specific; producing a major comparative study of China–EU infrastructure financing strategies; and extending the framework to digital domains, including AI/cloud ecosystems and mineral‑digital linkages. The project delivered high‑quality academic outputs, strengthened the evidence base on infrastructure governance, and generated new insights into how financing models, governance arrangements and firm strategies shape local developmental effects across physical and digital infrastructure sectors

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The INFRAFRICA project delivered a robust comparative framework for analysing how diverse external actors—initially China and the EU, later also the U.S. and Japan—shape infrastructure outcomes in Africa through financing models, governance mechanisms and firm practices. The research advanced understanding of African agency, conceptualising it as relational and context‑specific, and demonstrated how institutional conditions and regulatory capacity influence development outcomes across both physical and digital infrastructures. A major achievement was the project’s expansion into digital domains, including digital connectivity, mineral–digital linkages and AI/cloud ecosystems, positioning the work at the intersection of development studies and digital political economy.
The results have significant policy relevance, informing debates on European infrastructure strategies, the Global Gateway initiative, and digital governance. Outputs include high‑quality journal submissions, a book chapter, and ongoing research that broadens the comparative scope. The fellowship also had strong career impact, enabling new collaborations, competitive grants, and preparation for an ERC proposal.
Further uptake and long‑term success would benefit from: improved access to comparable project‑level data; additional field‑based research; enhanced engagement with policymakers; support for internationalisation and cross‑regional comparisons; and frameworks facilitating interdisciplinary research on digital infrastructure, standards, and AI ecosystems.