The article comes ahead of a sequence of key milestones, starting with the Nairobi AI Forum 2026 (9–10 February), the first real operational test of this AI-for-Africa vision. This will be followed by the Italy–Africa Summit on 13 February in Addis Ababa and the African Union’s annual Assembly, where Rome aims to consolidate its role as the West’s strategic gateway to the continent.
Why it matters: “In the age of AI, the design of partnerships is not a secondary consideration. It is the central determinant of whether innovation translates into inclusive, sustainable development.”
- Against this backdrop, the inclusion of AI within the Mattei Plan framework—as an enabling infrastructure for sovereignty and equal partnerships—can reinforce Africa’s development ambitions.
The op-ed: In the article published by The Standard, a leading Kenyan newspaper, three institutional voices—Italian, African, and multilateral—outline a shared vision for AI adoption in Africa, shifting the debate from abstract principles to concrete, investable systems.
Who’s behind it: This is not an academic commentary, but a political and operational positioning.
- Vincenzo Del Monaco, Italy’s Ambassador to Kenya
- Philip Thigo, Kenya’s Special Envoy on Technology
- Keyzom Ngodup Massally, Director of the AI Hub for Sustainable Development (UNDP)
The big picture: Much of the global discussion focuses on the risk of Africa being left behind by the AI revolution. The authors raise a different point: without fundamentally redesigned partnerships, AI will not scale and will fail to deliver real impact.
- This is where the Mattei Plan comes into play. The article explicitly links the AI Hub for Sustainable Development — launched under Italy’s G7 Presidency and implemented by UNDP with the support of the Ministry of Enterprises and Made in Italy — to a non-ODA, market-based, execution-oriented cooperation model.
Zoom in – Nairobi AI Forum: The Nairobi Forum is presented as a turning point: not a traditional conference, but an intensive working session structured around three operational pillars:
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- AI infrastructure in the African context;
- cross-border partnerships;
- access to and mobilisation of finance.
- The goal is to translate technological ambition into scalable systems, overcoming the fragmentation of pilot projects.
What’s different: The authors challenge the dominant AI infrastructure model imported from advanced economies. Hyperscale data centres—energy-intensive and capital-heavy—are often misaligned with African realities, proving costly, underutilised, and weakly connected to local innovation ecosystems.
- The proposed alternative is “right-sized” AI ecosystems: modular, distributed infrastructure aligned with local energy availability, actual compute needs, and existing talent pools. This approach also leverages Africa’s potential in renewables and critical minerals.
Sovereignty angle: AI sovereignty is framed as the ability to control critical layers of the value chain—data, compute, skills, and governance—while remaining interoperable with global markets and standards.
- Without this balance, the authors warn, countries risk outsourcing not only infrastructure but decision-making capacity itself.
From vision to deployment: The article points to concrete examples to show how context-driven partnerships between Africa and Europe can accelerate real-world AI adoption in key sectors, from agriculture and climate resilience to healthcare and public financial management.
- Here, innovation follows real demand, and investment follows use cases—not the other way around.
What we’re watching: As the world gathers in New Delhi this February for the AI Impact Summit—the first major global AI meeting hosted in the Global South—the Nairobi AI Forum stands out as a critical precursor.
- Not a parallel event, but a preparatory step that shifts the global debate from aspiration to execution, and from broad principles to concrete systems: what to build, how to build it, and with whom.
Why now: The op-ed lands in a precise political window. On 13 February, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni will be in Addis Ababa for the Italy–Africa Summit, followed by participation in the African Union Assembly.
- In this context, AI emerges as one of the pillars through which the Mattei Plan seeks to demonstrate its operational nature.
Bottom line: Italy, Kenya, and UNDP are exploring, on the ground, a model of technological cooperation focused on the practical application of AI in development contexts.
