Italy reaches out to Africa

The Italy-Africa summit, held on January 28-29, followed Prime Minister Meloni’s Mattei Plan for greater engagement with Africa and the Global South. It gives Italy’s ongoing G7 presidency an edge and a means of addressing immediate concerns like energy and illegal migration. Italy must now follow through on its commitments by coordinating with partner countries, organisations and private sector.

BY Ambassador Gurjit Singh
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As soon as Italy assumed its chairmanship of the G7 this year, it held a summit with Africa. The 28-29 January summit, postponed from last year, became an important landmark for Italy and brought it to the forefront of European countries like France and Germany which have African policies of longer standing.

The Italy-Africa Summit convened representatives from 46 African nations, along with representatives from the European Union and international organisations like the United Nations and the African Development Bank.[1]

This showed that Africa despite all its assertions to reordering its partnership summits, continues to have ad hoc summits as it often suits its partners. The summits with Russia and Saudi Arabia, and now with Italy are in the former category, whereas the Arab-African Summit and those with India and France  have not been held since 2013, 2015 and 2021 respectively.

This is also partly because the consultative process with the African Union (AU) is difficult and extremely process-driven. Italy held its meeting independently, without consulting the AU. Saudi Arabia invited members suspended from the AU. The AU Commission chairperson Moussa Faki Mahamat complained that they were not consulted in drawing up the plans[2]  – but they attended nevertheless.

Italy appears to be following the Mattei Plan established some years ago to consult partners and its own domestic constituency, to engage more with Africa in clearer ways. Named after Enrico Mattei, the ENI head behind the 1950s cooperation plan with North African countries, it was announced by PM Giorgia Meloni when she assumed office in October 2022.[3]  Its five pillars are education and training, agriculture, health, energy and water. The three central ones for Meloni are  energy, migration and skill-building.

The Mattei Plan positions Italy as an energy hub, transporting natural gas from Africa to Europe and diminishing reliance on Russian supplies. Africa provides energy sources which Italy and Europe can tap into for stability. This takes Italy beyond its traditional partnerships with North African countries like Libya which produce oil, into West Africa and particularly into a relationship with Mozambique, which was, along with Congo, consulted in the backdrop of the Mattei Plan announcement.

A second objective is the vexed problem of illegal migration. Italy more than others is the landing point where many African illegal migrants arrive and then tries to disperse them to other European countries – without major success. Between January and August 2023, about 115,000 irregular migrants arrived in Italy via the Mediterranean from North Africa, almost double from 2022.[4] The Plan intends to persuade countries of origin to sign re-admittance agreements for those refused permission to stay in Italy.

Like the EU and others, Italy too believes that this problem is better dealt with if opportunities in African countries improve, generating employment at home. Germany’ had a similar motivation when it had launched the Compact for Africa[5] or the Merkel Plan[6], during its G7 presidency in 2017. That was limited to certain countries and has had limited success[7].

Through the Mattei Plan, Italy is now trying its hand at it. It intends to contribute €5.5 billion ($5.95 billion) over four years, emphasizing support for Africa across diverse sectors, including education, health, agriculture, water, and digitalization. The Rome Process Financing Facility will provide €100 million ($ 108 million) (90% of which is concessional financing) towards support for infrastructure in Africa, mainly for renewable energy, energy efficiency projects, water and sanitation, and agriculture initiatives, as well as vocational training and employment[8]. Meloni linked the Mattei Plan not only to hydrocarbons but to environmental protection. She announced the use of € 3 billion ($ 3.24 billion) from Italy’s climate fund, (approximately 70% of its gross total), to support African initiatives.

The third aspect is the development of skills among African youth to make them employment-worthy. Africa seeks more trade and investment rather than aid. It has a large youth population with a median age of 18.8, which needs to be skilled.

Meloni, had pledged to curb migration during her election campaign. She articulated a “non-predatory” approach to foster African economic prosperity and create opportunities for youth. This emphasised mutual respect and equal partnership, a commitment to a collaborative and non-exploitative approach, focusing on economic development, sustainable investments and infrastructure.

This was her turning point for Africa. From all angles, it appears that Meloni wanted to give Italy’s G7 presidency an edge by reaching out to the Global South, now the flavour de jure after India’s G20 presidency, and use it to redress some of its immediate concerns like energy and illegal migration.

In retrospect, the Summit outcome could have been better had there been multiple consultations, as with the EU, the AU, the African diaspora in Italy and the private sector.

The European Union was present in strength at the Italy-Africa summit but what it will bring to the table and contribute financially remains unclear. Its  role in crafting the new Mattei plan is hazy. But without EU contributions, the Mattei Plan is weak. Will Italy be able to leverage the Global Gateway promised by the EU for the skill development component besides infrastructure development?[9]

Italy’s large migrant immigrant population of African descent is organised into the Federation of African Diasporas in Italy (Fedai). They felt they had not been consulted, else they could have provided inputs into the plan. [10]  In an interview with the Dire Godwin agency, Chukwu, president of the Federation said bluntly that Italy sought to “contain the immigration of people and increase gas imports”.[11]

Did Italy consult its private sector enough? Without private sector investments, the implementation of the Mattei plan will be limited. Such investment must expand beyond energy giant ENI which seems to have led the engagement with the African countries while drafting the plan.

The AU Commission chairperson was clear that it should they have been better consulted in crafting the plan, and  not seen as begging for assistance but treated as partners in economic development. It is true that the African countries want to be equal partners and not receivers of aid, but their absorption capacities and provision of the right environment  for more FDI and projects with hybrid financing, is a challenge. This practical problem was not directly heard in any of the speeches made by the leaders[12].

Italy is willing to take steps towards fulfilling goals for which it has committed itself – to its own people and to the EU. However, the Mattei Plan remains an idea with limited financing and to truly succeed needs serious consultation with partner countries in Africa, the EU, international organizations and Italy’s own private sector.

The Africans have heard all this before and are clear – they want implementation of promises rather than recycling of the same. On their part, they must not encourage the ad hoc holding of African summits, which hinders their own efforts to streamline engagement with partner countries. A sincere coordination between Italy and the AU in achieving the goals of the Mattei Plan, will be a good start to setting the right example for these necessary partnerships.

Gurjit Singh is a former Indian Ambassador to Germany. He is currently promoting the impact investment movement for implementing SDGs in Africa.

This article was exclusively written for Gateway House: Indian Council on Global Relations. You can read more exclusive content here.

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References

[1] Italia-Africa. A bridge for common growth, Italian Government, 29 January 2024, https://www.governo.it/en/articolo/italia-africa-bridge-common-growth/24853

[2] Speech by H.E. Moussa Faki Mahamat, Chairperson of the African Union Commission, at the Italy – Africa Summit: A Bridge for Common Growth, AU, 29 January 2024, https://au.int/en/speeches/20240129/he-moussa-faki-mahamat-italy-africa-summit-speech

[3] Italian PM reveals “Mattei Plan” for African development ahead of Italy-Africa Summit, Africa News, 27 January 2024, https://www.africanews.com/2024/01/27/italian-pm-reveals-mattei-plan-for-african-development-ahead-of-italy-africa-summit//.

[4] Mediterranean: crossings of African migrants have almost doubled, Africa News, 15 September 2023, https://www.africanews.com/2023/09/15/mediterranean-crossings-of-african-migrants-have-almost-doubled//.

[5] Compact with Africa, g20 Compact with Africa, https://www.compactwithafrica.org/content/compactwithafrica/home.html

[6] J. Peter Pham, ‘Germany’s ‘Marshall Plan’ for Africa,’ Atlantic Council, 23 January 2017, https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/new-atlanticist/germany-s-marshall-plan-for-africa/.

[7] Mohamed Chtatou, ‘The Time Has Come For A Real And Genuine Marshall Plan For Africa – Analysis,’ Eurasia Review, 25 July 2022, https://www.eurasiareview.com/25072022-the-time-has-come-for-a-real-and-genuine-marshall-plan-for-africa-analysis/.

[8] Italy announces $6 billion plan to strengthen partnership with Africa at Italy-Africa Summit, AfDB, 31 January 2024, https://www.afdb.org/en/news-and-events/press-releases/italy-announces-6-billion-plan-strengthen-partnership-africa-italy-africa-summit-68347

[9] Speech by President von der Leyen at the Italy-Africa Summit, European Commission, 29 January 2024, https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/speech_24_502

[10]  Vincenzo Giardina, Piano Mattei, a project in which the “Africa” chapter is missing, República, 1 November 2023, https://www.repubblica.it/solidarieta/cooperazione/2023/11/01/news/piano_mattei_un_progetto_nel_quale_manca_il_capitolo_africa-419342085/

[11] ibid

[12] African Union did not follow its own Banjul format  for this Summit with a single country. 46 African countries 25 at high level and 11 at level of Foreign Ministers participated. The outgoing Chair, President of Comoros attended despite a recent contentious election. Among the Big countries S Africa deputy FM, Egypt and Algeria Ministers, Kenyan President, Ethiopian PM and Morocco Head of Govt were there. Nigeria was absent. Mozambique and Congo which were consulted prior to the Summit had their presidents present.