Balanced HE partnerships for sustainable development
Italy is reaching out to African countries to build strategic and balanced educational and scientific research partnerships through implementing the Mattei Plan for Africa.
Experts see this as a bid to build sustainable and development-focused relationships, as well as being part of a broader Italian strategy of science and academic diplomacy, or soft power, aimed at building cooperation for Africa’s higher education development and regional alliances to serve Italy’s political, cultural and economic agendas.
Speaking at the second Italy-Africa summit held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in February – the first time the biennial Italy-Africa meeting has been held on the African continent since the 2024 Mattei Plan was launched in Rome – Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said: “A common thread clearly runs through each Mattei Plan project, which is the focus on education and training, because our goal is, not to create new dependencies, but rather to support African peoples [to play a key role], and to build opportunities for empowerment. And this is only possible if the development of human capital is placed at the heart of efforts, right from the early years of schooling.”
The Mattei Plan is named after Enrico Mattei, the founder of Italy’s energy giant Eni, which, in the 1950s and 1960s, pursued a policy of more equal cooperation and revenue-sharing with the countries in which it operated.
“We have confirmed our commitment to strengthening the main pillars underpinning the plan’s framework: energy; water; agriculture and food security; culture; education and training; health; physical as well as digital infrastructure; technological innovation; artificial intelligence; space,” Meloni said.
“We will focus even more on education and training, because we need to start from the development and enhancement of human capital to offer opportunities and build free and prosperous societies that can live in peace.
“We never envisioned this initiative as a package of projects to be pre-established and imposed from above, but rather as projects to be born from dialogue, discussion and the ability to understand the real needs of the regions involved.
“We made a clear commitment: to change the approach in the relationship between Europe and Africa, to move beyond past and very often ineffective paradigms, and to build a new cooperation model among equals, based on common interests, shared responsibilities and verifiable results. Respect and concreteness were, and are, our two watchwords,” Meloni said about the plan that involves 14 countries in Africa.
She added: “Cooperation between equals, far from any predatory temptations and from the paternalistic approach which, for a long time, distorted relations between Africa and Europe and the West and has often prevented our nations from understanding the extraordinary unique characteristics, and above all the extraordinary potential, of African peoples.”
Examples for higher education initiatives
Several initiatives were launched under the Mattei Plan for Africa. They aim at building a balanced partnership with African countries based on co-investment and sustainable development.
For example, Algeria, in cooperation with Italy, is establishing an advanced training and research centre dedicated to agriculture and emerging technologies for food security in Africa, and aiming to act as a regional hub for research, innovation and technology transfer.
Located in the administrative area of the Sidi-Bel-Abbès province, the Enrico Mattei Center for Agricultural Technologies (Centre Enrico Mattei pour les technologies agricoles) is aimed at strengthening cooperation between Algeria, Italy, and a few other African partners by fostering knowledge exchange, collaborative research and innovation in the agricultural sector.
As a platform of excellence, it seeks to support innovative projects, promote specialised training, and facilitate technology transfer to address agricultural and food challenges in the African context.
Italy and Egypt are creating an artificial intelligence (AI) centre in Cairo to serve as a hub for Africa, focused on training, research and AI application development.
The centre will advance AI in key sectors, enhance computing power for innovators, and align with the 2024 African Union’s Continental Artificial Intelligence Strategy.
The initiative includes the plans of 14 African nations to build a collaborative ecosystem for green computing, data, and talent. They are: Algeria, Angola, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, Kenya, Mauritania, Morocco, Mozambique, the Republic of the Congo, Senegal, Tanzania and Tunisia.
In addition, a 2025 report titled, Italy-Africa Digital Partnership under the Mattei Plan, noted that “enhancing digital governance frameworks and investing in targeted capacity-building initiatives, the Italy-Africa digital partnership under the Mattei Plan can serve as a catalyst for strengthening African agency”.
For example, structured programmes between Italian and African tertiary institutions such as joint research initiatives, virtual fellowships and peer-to-peer mentoring between tech entrepreneurs and creatives can serve as powerful vehicles for fostering intercontinental collaboration.
“These platforms can accelerate the transfer of critical skills in emerging fields such as AI, data science, digital design and ethical innovation, while also strengthening innovation ecosystems across both regions,” the report pointed out.
Furthermore, an aspect of the Mattei Plan of Italy is boosting educational collaboration with Africa through scholarship programmes.
Italy offers some fully funded 2025-26 academic year opportunities to African students across various educational levels, from undergraduate degrees to doctoral studies.
For example, the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore Africa Scholarship Programme and the TWAS-SISSA Lincei Research Cooperation Programme provide African students with opportunities to excel in fields such as biotechnology, renewable energy and materials science.
TWAS is the world academy of sciences for the advancement of science in developing countries and SISSA is the Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati, which means the international school for advanced studies.
According to the latest statistics of 2021-22 by Italy’s Ministry of University and Research, out of the total number of international students (109,720) at Italian universities, 15,917 international students are from Africa, which represents 14.5% of the total international students. The number of African students in 2021-22 represents a significant increase of 53% from 2015-16 and 8% from the previous year (2020-21).
Morocco (3,705), Egypt (2,389) and Cameroon (2,173) are among the top 15 countries of origin for international students in Italy.
Building capacity in quality education and impactful research
Professor Mohamed Hassan, president of the Sudanese National Academy of Sciences and the former head of the World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) in Italy, told University World News: “The Mattei Plan for Africa is crucial for building capacity in quality education and impactful research.
“Its initiative to establish centres of excellence – for renewable energy in Morocco, agricultural technologies in Algeria, and digital technologies in Egypt, serving scientists across the African continent – should be expanded to more countries, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa, and to other key fields such as science, technology, engineering and mathematics,” Hassan said.
“The Trieste system of international organisations (including the International Centre for Theoretical Physics, or ICTP; the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, or ICGEB; the World Academy of Sciences; the Organisation for Women in Science for the Developing World, or OWSD; and the InterAcademy Partnership, the global network of science, engineering and medical academies), generously funded by the Italian government, already supports hundreds of African postgraduate students and researchers each year to pursue studies in Trieste and abroad. Strengthening this unique Trieste system would enable it to assist even more African scientists and their institutions,” Hassan said.
“Equally important is a strategy to enhance teaching and research capacities at national universities in Sub-Saharan Africa.
“This could be achieved through partnerships between a consortium of selected Italian universities and universities in key African countries, particularly Least Developed Countries,” Hassan pointed out.
Science diplomacy
He added: “Italy’s approach to higher education and research in Africa under the Mattei Plan is best described as science diplomacy anchored in institutional partnerships.
“By assisting African universities in establishing centres of excellence in critical areas such as renewable energy, agriculture and food security, AI and digital technologies, Italy invests in training a network of talented, home-grown scientists and engineers.
“These professionals are encouraged to remain in Africa and build strong partnerships with their Italian counterparts, positioning Italy as the preferred partner in developing and scaling transformative technologies,” Hassan said.
Echoing Hassan’s view, Professor Eugenio Gaudio, the president of the Italian Higher Education with Africa Foundation (IHEA), told University World News: “The main motivations of the Italian government in promoting academic cooperation between Italian and African higher education institutions are both to help African countries to build better management and governance capabilities with a view to improving the quality of life which, in turn, is expected to reduce both legal and illegal migration from Africa to Europe, and using science diplomacy as a means of enhancing the quality and quantity of political international relationships between Italy and African countries.”
“A priority for Meloni in exchange for helping African economies to prosper is stemming the flow of migrants from Africa, an election pledge she has, so far, failed to fulfil,” Gaudio said.
Italy’s soft power
Dr Abdennasser Naji, a former adviser to Morocco’s minister of higher education and president of the Amaquen Institute, an education think tank in Morocco, told University World News: “In the context of higher education and scientific research, the Mattei Plan functions as a sophisticated platform for ‘soft power’ that aims to align African academic output with Italian strategic needs.
“By integrating African universities into the ‘Italy System’, Rome ensures that the next generation of African scientists and policy-makers are trained on Italian standards, using Italian technology.
“This serves a long-term economic agenda by making Italy the partner of choice for future infrastructure and energy projects,” Naji said.
The Global Soft Power Index (GSPI) in 2026, which evaluated soft-power strength based on higher education and science capabilities, among other indicators, ranked Italy in position nine out of 193 countries worldwide.
According to Naji, by offering joint doctoral programmes and virtual mobility, Italy fosters a pro-Italian academic elite, which is a classic form of cultural and academic diplomacy.
“For African countries to ensure they aren’t just ‘passive recipients’, their universities and governments must define research agendas locally, enforce technology transfer, and leverage the ‘Italian Competition’ to negotiate better terms for scholarships, faculty exchanges, and infrastructure funding,” Naji said.
Engineer Walid Gashout, the president of the Higher Education Students Foundation in Libya, which was an Italian colony from 1911 to 1943, told University World News: “Italy’s engagement with Africa under the Mattei Plan combines developmental ambition with strategic calculation.
“While partnerships in higher education and research can genuinely strengthen African human capital, they also align with Italy’s interests in energy security, geopolitical positioning and African migration management under Giorgia Meloni,” Gashout pointed out.
Gashout’s view is supported by a November 2025 report titled, The Mattei Plan for Africa: From Aid to Partnership? Recommendations for the 2026 Italy-Africa Summit, which stated: “The Mattei Plan already has a deep impact on Italy’s development cooperation approach to Africa, from a low-profile, fragmented, aid-focused function into a high-level, strategically centralised, blended finance initiative geared toward mutually beneficial economic and geopolitical outcomes.”
Gashout said: “The main challenge will be avoiding asymmetrical agenda-setting and ensuring long-term, co-designed institutional cooperation rather than short-term political optics.
“For a true win-win outcome, African countries must articulate clear research priorities and negotiate partnerships that align with their national and regional development strategies.”
Limited transformative impact
Dr Harris Andoh, a higher education policy evaluation expert at the Science and Technology Policy Research Institute of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research in Ghana, told University World News: “The Mattei Plan is not entirely new to the African higher education landscape. Over roughly the past two decades, European engagement with African universities has largely taken the form of mobility programmes such as Erasmus+, institutional capacity-building projects, and broader strategic cooperation frameworks under the European Union-Africa partnership.
“More recently, these efforts have expanded to include initiatives focused on employability, innovation ecosystems, and system-level reforms.
“Yet, despite their breadth, such interventions have often failed to address the core structural nexus challenges confronting African higher education,” Andoh said.
“Contrary to common assumptions, massification is not the primary concern in many lower-middle-income African countries.
“Rather, the pressing issues include the production of inadequately trained graduates, persistent skills gaps, weak linkages between university education and the world of work, and limited opportunities for lifelong learning among the skilled workforce,” Andoh pointed out.
“While the Mattei Plan’s emphasis on training Africans in emerging sectors is commendable, it may not sufficiently confront these underlying systemic constraints and, therefore, risks having limited transformative impact.
“Furthermore, the plan does not clearly articulate robust accountability mechanisms for grant funding, a longstanding governance challenge within many African higher education systems,” Andoh added.