France and Italy’s Africa strategies overlap far more than you think Italy’s Mattei Plan and France’s Africa Forward share a striking number of priority countries across the continent, many marked in pink on the map as “Both” Energy / energy transition dominates both: 46% of Italy’s Mattei Plan flows vs 27% of France’s Africa Forward. Infrastructure & digital economy: Italy 17%, France 21%. Agriculture: Italy 16%, France 12%. Italy puts significant weight on water (14%) while France has none listed in that category. France focuses more on banking/financial sectors (16%) and blue economy (14%), areas where Italy shows 0%. South Africa receives Mattei Plan funds even though it is not an official priority country. The geographic and sectoral overlap is clear, two European powers targeting many of the same African partners with heavily overlapping investment priorities. Source: @ecfr by @madprocopio and Suzanne Tisserand