Constructing a sustainable Africa

Sammanfattning: This master’s thesis analysed sustainable development policies in China’s 11th Five-Year Plan and sustainable development considerations at the building of the Bui Dam in Ghana. The theory section discusses and defines sustainable development, and in the method section, ‘ideal-types’ of economic, social and environmental development were developed. These ideal-types were then used as reference points for the author’s analysis of the level of sustainable development in China’s 11th Five-Year Plan. The Bui Dam project in Ghana was analysed with a number of economic, social and environmental sustainability indicators for infrastructure projects. The Bui Dam was constructed by the Chinese state-owned company ‘Sinohydro’, and by analysing both policy and project level, it was possible to compare the two analysis levels and see if they corresponded. Furthermore, ‘trade-offs’ have been a central concept of this master’s thesis: the empirical section and its analysis have tried to identify if trade-offs between the economic, social and environmental sustainability sectors have occurred, both on the policy level and on the project level. The methods that were used to achieve this were the qualitative text analysis and the qualitative source analysis. The results show that sustainable development has become increasingly important for China as a means for building a ‘harmonious society’. Some trade-offs were nonetheless identified both at policy and project level. Furthermore, China’s actions regarding its overseas investments are context-specific and can be traced back to its non-interference policy and its pragmatic foreign policy.