Description
This article analyses how the European Union’s (EU) development policy is being reshaped through the financialisation of aid in response to geopolitical competition and the green transition’s demand for critical raw materials. While the EU’s 2021 reform of the European Financial Architecture for Development (EFAD) and the Global Gateway strategy institutionalise private capital mobilisation, the extent to which this paradigm has transformed EU instruments and Africa strategy remains contested. The article develops a tripartite framework: strategy, instruments, and practice, that renders financialisation in development policy analytically operationalisable and empirically traceable. Drawing on 200+ policy documents, 40+ elite interviews, and lending data on 281 European Investment Bank (EIB) projects in Africa, the analysis shows deep rhetorical and institutional commitments to financialisation, yet constrained outcomes in practice due to risk aversion, institutional rivalries, and competing mandates. Rather than displacing older forms of dominance, financialisation often reproduces colonial hierarchies through market-based instruments and risk mitigation that privilege European actors over African priorities. The paper argues that while the EU has embraced financialised development rhetorically and institutionally, the gap between strategy and practice creates a critical space for contestation over the purposes, priorities, and politics of European development cooperation.
