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

Informations projet

INFRAFRICA

N° de convention de subvention: 101105757

DOI

10.3030/101105757

Projet clôturé le 31 Decembre 2025

Date de signature de la CE 21 Avril 2023

Date de début 1 Septembre 2023

Date de fin 30 Avril 2026

Financé au titre de

• Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)

Coût total

Aucune donnée

Contribution de l’UE

€ 188 068,74

Coordonné par

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)

Période du rapport: 2023-09-01 au 2026-04-30

Résumé du contexte et des objectifs généraux du projet

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.

Travail effectué depuis le début du projet jusqu’à la fin de la période considérée dans le rapport et principaux résultats atteints jusqu’à présent

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

Progrès au-delà de l’état des connaissances et impact potentiel prévu (y compris l’impact socio-économique et les conséquences sociétales plus larges du projet jusqu’à présent)

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.