Quality Infrastructure in 21st Century Africa : Prioritising, accelerating, and scaling up in the context of PIDA (2021-30)

Africa is facing a monumental task to prioritise, accelerate and scale up quality infrastructure development. It can take several decades for an infrastructure project to go from idea to operation, but with 28 African countries having doubled their population in the 25 years between 1990 and 2015, the UN projects that another 26 countries will double their population between 2017 and 2050. The status quo will clearly not suffice to meet Africa’s demographic challenges and its development objectives, as enshrined in the African Union (AU)’s Agenda 2063. With this background, this report identifies the impediments to progress as well as emerging new practices and sets out strategic recommendations for the way ahead. It draws on recent analyses and entrepreneurial initiatives, case studies and high-level expert meetings. While the report is independent, it is also inspired by and supports the innovative infrastructure business models being developed by the AUC and the AU Development Agency-New Partnership for Economic Development (AUDA-NEPAD) in the context of the Programme for Infrastructure Development in Africa (PIDA) for building up integrated regional economic corridors.