Multi-method study · Africa & Europe
A study of how European and Dutch development partnerships are perceived across the continent — and what those perceptions mean for policy.
About the study
Development cooperation is not only assessed by what it delivers. It is assessed by how it is experienced and interpreted within wider narratives about power, history and global economic relations.
This study examines those perceptions through five interconnected elements, combining large-scale survey data, continental dialogue, digital listening, rigorous literature synthesis and in-depth country fieldwork. It is led by the INCLUDE Knowledge Platform in partnership with research teams across Africa.
What a partnership means is decided long before a project is designed.
Method
Each element reaches a different kind of evidence — measured at scale, spoken in institutions, said online, and lived locally. Read together, they show where perceptions agree and where they split.
A comprehensive review of academic literature, policy documents, evaluation reports and African institutional perspectives on how European and Dutch cooperation is understood across the continent.
A structured survey capturing perceptions across African countries at scale, providing a broad quantitative foundation for the study's findings.
A high-level dialogue convened with the African Union and continental stakeholders to ground the research in institutional African perspectives and validate emerging findings.
Systematic analysis of narratives on TikTok, X, Meta, Youtube and Reddit, capturing how African publics discuss European and Dutch cooperation in real time, in spaces that formal research rarely reaches.
In-depth qualitative research across Kenya, Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa and Senegal, combining interviews, focus groups and local stakeholder engagement to produce rich country-level findings.
Framework
Perceptions are not formed at the level of individual projects. They emerge from the interaction between direct experience and deeper structural and historical narratives.
The structural and historical layers consistently dominate.
A programme is rarely read on its own terms. It is read through what people already understand about trade, debt, migration policy and the history of the relationship — which means a technically sound intervention can still be received as evidence of an unequal arrangement.
Understanding this is essential for designing cooperation that is credible, not just technically effective.
Outputs
Seven outputs make up the study. The Evidence Synthesis Report is available now; the rest follow as fieldwork and analysis conclude.
Contact
For enquiries about the study, data access or collaboration, write to the research team.
victoria@includeplatform.net anika@includeplatform.net