Azerbaijan's Africa strategy: New blueprint for South-South cooperation

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Over the past two years, Azerbaijan's engagement with Africa has evolved from promising diplomatic overtures into substantive, results-driven partnerships that are already delivering tangible benefits.

 A new paradigm of international cooperation is taking shape: one that prioritises knowledge transfer, institutional innovation, and long-term human capital development.

This approach represents more than bilateral diplomacy; it offers a compelling blueprint for how emerging economies can collaborate to accelerate development, strengthen institutions, and build prosperity without replicating the asymmetries that have characterised traditional North-South relationships. Azerbaijan's Africa strategy demonstrates that effective partnership requires neither colonial history nor superpower resources - just relevant expertise, genuine commitment, and a willingness to share lessons learned from one's own development journey.

From Addis Ababa, where Ethiopian citizens access streamlined government services through the newly established MESOB Center, to classrooms in Baku, where 365 students from 35 African countries gain expertise in engineering, energy, and agriculture.

The success of Azerbaijan's ASAN public service model has become the cornerstone of this transformation. The MESOB Service Center, which opened in Addis Ababa in June 2025, exemplifies collaborative innovation at its best. Rather than imposing a foreign system, Azerbaijani experts worked alongside Ethiopian counterparts for nearly two years, adapting the model to local needs. The result is a center delivering more than 120 integrated services from nearly 20 institutions, transforming how Ethiopian citizens interact with their government.

Ethiopian officials say they're so encouraged that they've announced plans to establish additional centres by year's end, while both Guinea-Bissau and Somalia have embraced similar governance partnerships following high-level visits and agreements in early 2025.

This governance cooperation flows naturally from Azerbaijan's profound commitment to education, the most transformative aspect of its Africa strategy. The Heydar Aliyev Scholarship Program, launched in 2022, offers tuition-free education to students from the Global South, with African nations representing the largest beneficiary group. Unlike infrastructure projects that may age or resource partnerships that fluctuate with commodity prices, education creates enduring networks of professionally trained leaders who understand both their home countries' needs and Azerbaijan's capabilities.

When Guinea-Bissau's Minister of Environment, himself an alumnus of Azerbaijani universities, visited Baku in June 2025 to sign agricultural cooperation agreements, he brought deep understanding of both nations' capacities. For Somalia, scholarship slots have increased to at least ten students with further expansion planned, while the June 2025 memorandum with Guinea-Bissau includes specialized scholarships at Azerbaijan's State Agrarian University.

Energy cooperation

Azerbaijan's balanced approach to energy development offers another crucial dimension of partnership. Successfully managing both traditional hydrocarbon production and ambitious renewable energy investments in solar, wind, and green hydrogen, Azerbaijan provides African nations a pragmatic roadmap for their own energy transitions. The February 2025 green energy agreement with Somalia encompasses renewable development, port infrastructure modernization, and oil and gas cooperation, acknowledging that energy security and sustainability must advance together.

Similar partnerships with Guinea and Ethiopia reflect Azerbaijan's understanding that effective energy cooperation must address the full development spectrum, from grid expansion to governance frameworks. Azerbaijan's commitment to dispatching expert delegations to assess specific needs ensures that cooperation will be tailored to local realities rather than imposed according to predetermined templates.

The rapidly deepening relationship with Somalia demonstrates South-South cooperation's potential for post-conflict reconstruction.

Collaborative approach

President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud's February 2025 visit to Baku, the first by a Somali head of state, produced four landmark agreements spanning defence cooperation, renewable energy, education, and governance modernisation. Azerbaijan committed expert delegations to co-develop investment projects in infrastructure, port facilities, agriculture, and fisheries. This hands-on, collaborative approach ensures projects reflect Somali priorities while benefiting from Azerbaijani technical expertise, demonstrating respect for Somali agency while building solid foundations for cooperation.

The Azerbaijan-Ethiopia partnership has similarly evolved into one of the most multifaceted relationships in Azerbaijan's Africa portfolio. Following the May 2024 ASAN-Ethiopian Civil Service Commission memorandum, cooperation has expanded to encompass trade facilitation, agricultural development, and strategic economic cooperation. The February 2025 memorandum between Azerbaijan Investment Holding and Ethiopian Investment Holding creates institutional architecture for joint initiatives in investment governance and technology exchange, while the November 2025 Ethiopia-Azerbaijan Business Forum in Addis Ababa identified concrete investment opportunities and strengthened private-sector cooperation. The third round of political consultations in January 2025 demonstrated Azerbaijan's whole-of-government approach, with delegations including representatives from SOCAR, AZPROMO, and multiple ministries advancing cooperation across foreign policy, education, agriculture, and tourism.

West African partnerships with Guinea and Guinea-Bissau have deepened with equal momentum. Guinea's engagement gained significant traction following the April 2025 high-level Azerbaijani visit led by Deputy Foreign Minister Yalchin Rafiyev, which expanded cooperation across political, economic, and technical domains. Meetings with Guinea's ministries of Foreign Affairs, Agriculture, Labor, and Civil Service, plus the national oil company SONAP, addressed trade, investment, and the development of comprehensive legal frameworks for long-term partnership.

Guinea-Bissau's even more comprehensive cooperation was catalysed by President Embaló's historic February 2025 visit to Baku, leading to agreements spanning agriculture, energy, education, and healthcare. The June 2025 agricultural cooperation memorandum provides for technical training and specialised scholarships, while energy consultations produced a joint roadmap for investment in grid expansion and renewable energy. December 2025 saw the ratification of a visa-free regime for diplomatic and service passport holders, facilitating the high-level exchanges that will deepen cooperation further.

Taken together, Azerbaijan’s Africa engagement offers persuasive evidence that South–South cooperation can deliver meaningful results when anchored in mutual respect, practical expertise, and long-term commitment. Its advantages are the absence of political conditionality, a focus on capacity building rather than dependency, and reliance on recent development experience that resonates with African realities. Education, in particular, stands out as a strategic investment in Africa’s future workforce and institutional resilience, while governance transfers such as the ASAN model strengthen state legitimacy and administrative efficiency.

Implications extend beyond bilateral ties

In a multipolar international system increasingly dissatisfied with legacy development paradigms, Azerbaijan says it demonstrates that cooperation can be horizontal rather than hierarchical, centered on institutions rather than projects, and oriented toward long-term human capital rather than short-term extraction. This model holds relevance not only for Azerbaijan–Africa relations but for South–South cooperation globally.

Early outcomes

Public services in Addis Ababa have improved, African students are acquiring high-value skills in Azerbaijani universities, energy projects are moving toward implementation, and security partnerships are enhancing Somalia’s state capacity.

As these partnerships deepen, they generate lessons that can inform a broader rethinking of development cooperation. Azerbaijan’s experience underscores a simple but often ignored reality: meaningful international partnership does not require superpower status or vast financial reserves. It requires relevant knowledge, shared honestly; experience, transferred pragmatically; and a genuine commitment to partners’ success.

If sustained, this approach may well mature into one of the most credible South–South cooperation models of the coming decade.

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