Infrastructure and Innovation: Emerging Priorities of EU and Chinese Aid in Africa

The international development cooperation system has long revolved around the notion of a North-South divide and reflected much of the systemic imbalances in global economic relations. It aimed mostly at increasing official development assistance rather than tackling other key development issues like priority infrastructure and innovation capacity. Over the past decade, Africa has experienced rapid growth and rising global prominence, which has profound implications for global development cooperation on the continent. The European Union and China, two major contributors to African development, have increasingly felt the need to put infrastructure development and innovation capacity at the core of their aid policies toward Africa. Recently, important factors, such as growing competition within the international development cooperation regime, search for new markets, increasing role of regional regimes, persistent poverty, the need to stabilize the world economy, and the responsibility to support international peace and stability are shaping Europe’s and China’s aid policies toward Africa. Priority infrastructure like highways, railways, energy, and technological innovation in pillar sectors such as agriculture and textile have been prioritized in Africa’s development cooperation with China and Europe. Although Brussels and Beijing have maintained a visible level of traditional development cooperation policies, this new form of cooperation is causing an embryonic policy shift from aid to investment within their development and cooperation policies.