In January this year, at the first ever Italy-Africa Summit in Rome, the Italian Prime Minister
Giorgia Meloni revealed the Mattei Plan – an ambitious $5.95 billion project that aims to
shape Italy’s strategy for Africa in the years to come.

The Summit was attended by 21 African heads of state from countries such as Tunisia,
Senegal, Kenya, the Republic of Congo, Morocco, Zimbabwe, and Somalia. In addition, foreign
ministers and top representatives of the European Union, World Bank, the International
Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
(OECD), among others, were also in attendance.

The summit is the latest in a wave of world-wide efforts to fortify trade, political, and
economic links with Africa. There have been similar summits, such as those between the
United States and Africa, Russia and Africa, the European Union and Africa, India and Africa,
and China and Africa.

However, key questions remain: are African countries genuinely involved in the formulation
and execution of these initiatives? What is the nature of these partnerships? The question of
how the African voice fits into a network of the plans formulated by global powers must be
asked given the context of these countries’ intense struggle in Africa, as well as the increasing
attention that the world is paying to the continent.

What is in the Mattei Plan?

The Mattei Plan is essentially an investment in economic development with energy
cooperation as a key area. Italy has chosen five areas of priority: education and training,
health, agriculture, water and energy. It has also chosen the few nations to begin with before
gradually extending the initiative incrementally.

The plan will initially consist of nine pilot projects in Algeria, Democratic Republic of Congo,
Egypt, Ethiopia, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Morocco, Mozambique and Tunisia, focusing on five
priority areas.

According to Meloni, the plan is designed to be a policy platform that is open to sharing and
cooperation with African nations. It seeks to build a new form of partnership with African
countries, through an “incremental approach” where parties co-operate as equals and key
goals and targets are co-designed.

The head of the African Union Commission (AUC), Moussa Faki, in his speech, however,
bemoaned the lack of consultation from Italy and pointed out that two principles should
govern the partnership; freedom, and mutual benefits.

What partnering with Africa should look like

When addressing African agency in such initiatives, we must ask: who sets the agenda, and
for who? It is unfortunate that Italy did not collaborate with the AUC in the development of
its plan. The Mattei Plan lacks the voice of Africa, as is typical of many of these conferences
purportedly aimed at building connections with the continent. Italy took a top-down
approach, which contradicts the goal of building a new alliance based on equal collaboration
and a different way of doing things. It makes no sense for the AU to be welcomed as a guest
to a relationship in which it has no involvement.

The objective of developing a new approach with Africa would have required collaboration
from the start. In the lack of it, the partnership still smacks of the standard Eurocentric
approach, in which plans for Africa are established without input from the continent and
Africans are supposed to adapt and fit in.

It is unclear whether there were bilateral consultations with Italy and the particular nations
where the individual initiatives are to be launched, and if so, what amount of input the
respective African countries may have provided. The response from the AUC, however,
highlights the reality that the Commission still has a long way to go in establishing and
clarifying shared African viewpoints in areas where they are most needed, such as this.

Based on the AUC Chairperson’s remarks about the lack of consultation, it is apparent that
national interests will nearly always prevail above continental ones. Therefore, the problem
is a lack of co-ordination between the two.

It is vital to determine whether Africa had any specific agenda items for this summit and what
its perspectives are on the projects under consideration — particularly the proposed energy
hub connecting Africa and Europe.

Going forward

While consultation may have been lacking in the formulation of the Mattei Plan, as alluded to
by AUC Chairperson, project plans going forward must be developed in consultation with
Africa. In fact, the continent must take ownership when it comes designing the projects and
all implementation modalities, based on its interests.

Africa should not just have a say, but should also be able to determine by itself what the
priority areas are, and the targets thereof. The countries where the various initial projects are
to begin as part of the Mattei Plan must identify their own priorities for the projects. This is
very important for African agency and priority setting. Italy is well aware of its main
motivation (energy insecurity and the effects of African migration) for this strategy. So should
Africa.

By Kabaso Kabwe, research fellow at the African Centre for the Study of the United States, at
Wits University.