Infrastructure Projects In Africa Research Articles

Theoretical frameworks for ICT for development: Impact assessment of telecommunication infrastructure projects in Africa and the U.S

This review paper examines the theoretical frameworks for assessing the impact of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) on development, focusing on telecommunication infrastructure projects in Africa and the U.S. A comparative analysis highlights the socio-economic and technological disparities between these regions and their implications for telecommunication development. The paper discusses various theoretical frameworks, such as the Digital Divide Theory, Technology Acceptance Model, and Capability Approach, and their applicability to evaluating telecommunication projects. It emphasizes the importance of context-specific strategies, digital literacy, and cross-regional collaboration to enhance the developmental impact of telecommunication infrastructure. The paper concludes with recommendations for policymakers and suggests areas for further research, particularly in developing adaptable frameworks that address regional challenges and opportunities in telecommunication development.

Improving the collection, governance and use of spatial data for infrastructure in Africa

Current project experience in Africa points to spatial data as a key area for improvement across the continent. This paper focuses on practical implementation of spatial data governance on infrastructure projects in Africa, using examples from ongoing projects in Kenya and Malawi, where challenges have been met and solutions found. The experience gained on these projects provides an insight into three key goals to make data work for projects: maximise value from the data available, preserve that value for future users and identify data gaps, both for work now and work in the future.

Changing Realities: China-Africa Infrastructure Development

Changing Realities:China-Africa Infrastructure Development Mandira Bagwandeen (bio) Through an extensive portfolio of infrastructure investments, China has played a crucial role in helping Africa reduce deficits in its infrastructure. Over the past decade and a half, Chinese state-owned or state-aligned construction and engineering companies have strategically entered African markets with assistance from the Chinese government. Under China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), Chinese companies took on mega-infrastructure projects, especially in the energy and transport sectors, that could aid African countries with achieving higher levels of development. However, these mega-BRI projects came with hefty price tags that have contributed to compounding the debt stress of several African nations. In this regard, many international (and especially Western) actors have accused China of predatory lending practices and debt-trap diplomacy. This narrative has been further amplified amid the Covid-19 pandemic, which has had significant ramifications for BRI projects in Africa and around the world. The pandemic has created some doubt about whether Chinese-funded and–built infrastructure projects can be completed and, more importantly, whether African states have the fiscal capacity to repay these development loans. With reduced revenues available to African governments, the risk of defaulting on loan repayments is high. Moreover, because of the burden of loan repayments, African states are handicapped in their response measures to Covid-19 and its economic consequences. The Eighth Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) in November 2021 demonstrated that due to changing realities—including China's domestic economic concerns, U.S.-China trade tensions, the global economic impact of Covid-19, and Africa's pandemic-induced debt stress—Beijing seems to have realized that it cannot continue to be Africa's go-to bank for financing infrastructure development. This essay outlines that China may not be as willing as it was in past years to finance infrastructure development projects in Africa. It explores the impact of Covid-19 on the development of BRI infrastructure projects in Africa and briefly assesses the validity of the debt-trap and predatory lending accusations leveled against China. Additionally, the essay addresses [End Page 18] the Eighth FOCAC summit, which indicated that China is likely to reduce its focus on development financing for hard infrastructure in its cooperation with African countries. China's Belt and Road Infrastructure in Africa and Covid-19 As of 2019, China was the single-largest source of finance for African infrastructure, having "finance[d] one in five projects and construct[ed] one in three."1 Although the continent's enormous infrastructural investment gap cannot solely be met by Chinese financing, Beijing's role in contributing to the development of the region's infrastructure has been crucial. The China-Africa infrastructure partnership was strengthened under the impetus of BRI, which was introduced in 2013. The initiative closely centers on the Chinese proverb that "if you want to get rich, build a road first" and the argument that "infrastructure investments presuppose economic growth and enhance quality of life."2 This logic is particularly appealing to African states that are desperate to reduce their deficits in infrastructure. Several African scholars have opined that BRI could play a critical role in Africa's industrialization and infrastructure development through the building of synergies between Agenda 2063, the pan-African development plan of the African Union (AU), and BRI.3 Even individual African leaders and the AU welcomed China's infrastructural drive on the continent motivated by BRI. In January 2015, China and the AU signed a memorandum of understanding to cooperate on developing major transport infrastructure networks (high-speed railways, aviation, and highways) and industrialization infrastructure. With the ambition to connect all 54 African states through transport infrastructure projects, this memorandum complements and aligns with Agenda 2063, which in turn aims to accelerate continental integration through the development of transport infrastructure and industrialization. Massive national and regional projects worth billions of dollars, mostly in the transport and [End Page 19] energy sectors, began to pop up across the continent. As of April 2019, China had BRI projects in 42 different African countries,4 and by January 2021 a total of 46 out of 54 African countries had signed on to become official...

A Sentiment Based Text Analysis of the Perception of Chinese Infrastructure Development in Africa: Cases from Nigeria and Ethiopia

This paper investigates the perceptions of Africans on Chinese infrastructure development in Nigeria and Ethiopia. Using a sentiment-based text analysis methodology, this paper attempts to understand the perceptions and sentiments of Nigerians and Ethiopians on Chinese infrastructure projects. For this purpose, we choose Nigeria and Ethiopia as important destinations of Chinese investment in Africa. Africa is not only rich in natural resources; it also possesses a young population that makes the bulk of the working force. Despite its rapid GDP growth and growing urbanization, the continent is still entangled in the midst of underdevelopment, poverty and an acute lack of infrastructure to stimulate and sustain this economic development. China’s investment in the continent is trying to tackle this infrastructure bottleneck by investing in the building of infrastructures such as roads, railways, ports and highways. The results show some overall positive popular sentiments towards Chinese infrastructure projects from both countries. To conclude, we argue for a need of more scrutiny from the parts of the leadership in Africa given the potential issues related to Chinese infrastructure projects in Africa.

China’s Grand Strategy through Infrastructure Projects in Africa

Abstract China’s intention to go global has been clear since Xi Jinping assumed power, displaying its grand strategy. Infrastructure projects supporting physical connectivity reveal China’s policies to expand its actions beyond the regional environment and consolidate its power projection. The Going Out policy has been the tool to back up Chinese investments in infrastructure, and African countries have offered a good opportunity to show what can be done in an almost bare terrain. Nigeria and Kenya are good examples to empirically demonstrate China’s intentions, as they have railway remodelling or construction projects underway.

The Economic Implications of Belt and Road Initiative in the Development of Railway Transport Infrastructure in Africa: The Case of the Standard Gauge Railway in Kenya

Abstract The purpose of this paper is to examine the potential economic benefits the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) project under Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) may bring to Kenya. This will contribute to the ongoing debate on whether Chinese investments on BRI infrastructure projects in Africa are mutually beneficial or not. The key issues discussed include the economic benefits of SGR in Kenya, the economic risks or challenges of SGR given the emergent issues of debt burden in Kenya and how China and Kenya would engage in the future to deepen Sino-Africa relations in BRI projects especially transport infrastructure. The paper relies on secondary information from available published literature on railway transport infrastructure in Africa with specific reference to SGR in Kenya. Information from key informants drawn from the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure and the United States University based in Nairobi was used to enrich literature review. The main findings of the paper are: (1) SGR will lead to socio-economic development of the country (2) it will contribute revenue to the Government through the railway development levy levied on containerized transportation from the port of Mombasa, and (3) will boost trade and regional integration through better rail connectivity. To make BRI projects more transparent, it is recommended that there is need for more stakeholder engagement in these projects. It is also recommended that the funding mechanism should be reviewed to make borrowing more affordable.

Improving transport infrastructure in strategies to attract foreign investors to Africa

The paper discusses the most recent African initiatives to attract foreign direct investment (FDI) through improving institutional environment and economy’s competitiveness in the context of regional transport infrastructure modernizing. The FDI role in public-private partnerships and implementation of large infrastructure projects in Africa, such as railways’ and seaports’ construction and modernization, is also considered. The author analyzes the prospects of increasing FDI inflows in Africa through regional transportation development (namely, through seaports and railway networks).

Examining the importance of the Sino-Africa swap formula in creating backward and forward linkages

African nations are trying to diversify their economies in order to induce industrialization that will help them eradicate poverty and create employment for their young workforce. One of the continent’s key challenges continues to be the shortage of physical infrastructure. Therefore, finding ways to overcome this problem has become of large importance. China has identified this and has thus enhanced its involvement in Africa primarily via its swap formula. The formula enables the financing and development of infrastructure that African nations critically need by depending on their resource wealth. However, the mounting involvement of the formula has continued to stimulate questions on its impact regarding creating backward and forward linkages. As such, one of the significant aims of this article is to identify linkages that emerge from the Chinese swap formula that involve long-term concessionary loans from China’s Exim Bank to finance major infrastructure projects in Africa. It examines whether the swap formula is creating backward and forward linkages in Africa, and what the infrastructure leads to concerning creating novel opportunities for the continent, by theoretically answering this question: “Can China’s swap formula create backward and forward linkages?” Furthermore, the article theoretically identifies the benefits and linkages of the formula via a case study – that of Abuja-Kaduna railway. Arguably, the article discovers that the formula has multiple benefits and linkages for Africa. It is also seen by the Chinese government as a way of fulfilling its strategic goals in Africa.

Zheng He Remains in Africa

In recent years, China has sought to extend its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) from Central Asia and Southeast Asia to Africa. This article argues that Chinese officials, aided by Chinese maritime archaeologists, journalists and researchers, have used discourses of heritage and history as a form of soft padding to justify China's infrastructure projects in Africa. Zheng He, a Ming dynasty admiral, who had allegedly visited East Africa in four of his seven famous voyages across the Indian Ocean, is particularly important in China's narrative of its historical relations with Africa. The details of Zheng He's engagement with Africa remain contested by historians, especially those in Western academia. The Chinese government thus supports 'sub-initiatives' of heritage and history construction, namely maritime archaeology, travel journalism and student fellowships, to substantiate the legacy of Zheng He in Africa. By suggesting that China and Africa also share the legacy of having been exploited, humiliated and victimized by European colonial powers, Chinese intellectuals have fashioned the BRI into an anti-imperialist discourse for acceptance by their African counterparts.

Neo-colonial Continuities in the Mediterranean Infrastructure Projects of Atlantropa and Desertec

Herman Sörgel’s gigantic project “Atlantropa” is a prominent European project in terms of infrastructure and territory in the first half of the 20th century. It is an example of a modernity that is necessarily believing in progress through technology – as will be shown the first section of this essay, but it is also profitable in that it historically locates Europe’s current energy policy infrastructure projects in Africa, to which the second section of the essay is dedicated. The vision pursued under the name Destertec envisages the large-scale implementation of renewable energy power plants, especially solar thermal power plants in Northern Africa. Both projects share an unshakeable belief in ecomodernist ideas, meaning the solution of socio-economic and ecological challenges through technology (Gall, 2014). Furthermore, argumentation patterns of the 1920s based in colonial ideology of a Pan-Europa or Eurafrica still serve to advertise development programs in the 21st century. The historical perspective with an overview about “Atlantropa” thus serves as a mean to question justifications of recent European energy projects in Northern Africa.

The Belt and Road Initiative: Opportunities and Risks for Africa’s Connectivity

This article examines the implications of the Chinese-led Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) for Africa’s connectivity. The BRI seeks to rebuild the ancient Silk Road trade route with the overall goal of opening global markets, thus creating a trade and investment network involving three continents: Africa, Asia, and Europe. Using secondary data, this article assesses the opportunities and potential challenges of the BRI for Africa with a special focus on various BRI national projects. It concludes that China’s involvement in infrastructure projects in Africa and the BRI’s vision for increased connectivity among beneficiary countries can lead to integrated and streamlined economic and infrastructure development in Africa, while improving China’s corporate and product image, generating mutual benefits to both China and Africa. This article also argues that for those BRI-based benefits to materialize, certain challenges need to be dealt with, particularly security risks and corruption, which could increase the long-term costs of infrastructure projects for countries involved.

Solar energy's potential to mitigate political risks: The case of an optimised Africa-wide network

Electricity generation expansion planning in Africa has focused almost exclusively on minimising costs. Yet infrastructure projects in Africa have been frequently shown to fail because planners have neglected their socio-political realm. Using the social science literature, this paper derives six political factors that are crucial for African electrification, and incorporates them into a linear, renewable-energy focused bi-criteria optimisation planning model of the African electricity network. The results reveal a significant degree of preventable political risk in the network if the only optimisation criterion is cost minimisation. This cost-minimal solution highly depends on large-scale exports from some of Africa's most politically volatile countries, such as hydroelectric energy from the Democratic Republic of Congo and wind energy from Sudan, Somalia, Chad and Mauritania. However, the model demonstrates that raising the levelised cost of electrification in 2030 by 4% allows to cut preventable political risks of the network by 50%. Crucially, the optimal, most cost-effective risk mitigation strategy is to gradually replace large-scale exports with domestic solar energy abundant in most African countries. High solar energy shares increase national energy sovereignty, meet international climate commitments, and decrease the network's dependence on politically unstable and/or inefficacious countries for generation and transmission.

Public private partnerships: A possible alternative for delivery of infrastructure projects in Africa

It is estimated that Africa needs $93 billion annually until 2020 in order to bridge its infrastructure deficit. It is through significant investment in infrastructure development that economic growth and poverty alleviation can be enhanced. However central to all construction projects is an effective and sustainable procurement system. There is a notable shift by some African governments to turn to the private sector to design, build, finance and operate infrastructure facilities previously provided by the public sector in the form of Public Private Partnerships (PPP’s). As an innovative financing model, PPPs present an opportunity to governments to improve service delivery. Accordingly, this paper focuses on assessing international best practices as to how some developing nations tap into the resources of the private sector in implementing their infrastructure projects. The study is a result of critical review, synthesis and contextualization of relevant academic literature, conference and journal publications. A thorough document review method was employed to assess how some developing countries have institutionalized PPP as part of their development strategy. The paper will be of significant value to senior government officialsasunderstanding the concept and dynamics of PPP will resultin accelerated and effective service delivery.

Safeguards, financing, and employment in Chinese infrastructure projects in Africa: the case of Ghana’s Bui Dam

Chinese players are now Africa’s key partner for its infrastructure sector (including water supply projects), providing approximately two-thirds of investments since 2007. The social impacts of these engagements during the construction phase are mostly portrayed in an alarmist tone within the popular press. Meanwhile, scholarly literature investigating them remains scarce. We draw on the Bui Dam, a major dam in Ghana, financed by China Exim Bank (CEB), the largest financier of infrastructure in Africa, and constructed by Sinohydro, the largest dam developer worldwide, as a case study to explore social impacts of Chinese engagements in the African water sector. We particularly examine social safeguards policies from the perspective of Chinese players, the financing modalities, and the dam’s impacts on the local labour market. We find that social safeguards policies were not within the responsibility of Sinohydro. Furthermore, financing modalities were largely favourable from a Ghanaian perspective, comparable to World Bank conditions, partly due to the successful negotiations (from the Ghanaian standpoint) during the planning and design phase of the project. Most likely, the project would not have been implemented if CEB had not stepped in to provide funding. Lastly, we find that most workers employed during construction were Ghanaian, paid significantly above the country’s minimum wage. Nevertheless, working conditions overall were questionable. This case study highlights how Chinese engagement in construction of water infrastructure may help develop projects otherwise stuck in the planning and design phase. However, labour conditions during the construction phase of these projects need to be carefully managed.

Is the ecosystem service concept improving impact assessment? Evidence from recent international practice

Considering ecosystem services (ES) could foster innovation and improve environmental and social impact assessment (ESIA) practice, but is the potential being fulfilled? In order to investigate how ES have been treated in recent international practice, three questions are asked: (i) were the tasks of an ES analysis carried out? (ii) how is such analysis integrated with other analysis presented in the ESIA? (iii) does ES analysis result in additional or improved mitigation or enhancement measures? These research questions were unfolded into 15 auxiliary questions for reviewing five ESIA reports prepared for mining, hydroelectric and transportation infrastructure projects in Africa, Asia and South America. All cases incorporated ES into ESIA to meet a requirement of the International Finance Corporation's Performance Standards on Environmental and Social Sustainability. It was found that: (i) in only three cases most tasks recommended by current guidance were adopted (ii) all reports feature a dedicated ES chapter or section, but in three of them no evidence was found that the ES analysis was integrated within impact assessment (iii) in the two ESIAs that followed guidance, ES analysis resulted in specific mitigation measures. Few evidence was found that the ES concept is improving current ESIA practice. Key challenges are: (i) integrating ES analysis in such a way that it does not duplicate other analysis; (ii) adequately characterizing the beneficiaries of ES; and (iii) quantifying ES supply for impact prediction.