Strategic Autonomy and Local Development in Africa: A Bidirectional Framework from Global South Development Experiences

The COVID-19 pandemic, geopolitical fragmentation and the emergence of a more multipolar international order have renewed debates on development strategies, resilience and policy space across the Global South. Despite the ambitions of Agenda 2063 and the Sustainable Development Goals, many African economies continue to face challenges related to industrialisation, commodity dependence, limited innovation capacity and uneven local development. This article examines how strategic autonomy can contribute to strengthening local development in Africa and what lessons can be drawn from Global South experiences. The study adopts a post-positivist explanatory perspective and combines an integrative literature review with comparative benchmarking across Africa, East Asia and Latin America. A Strategic Autonomy Index is used as an illustrative framework based on four dimensions: industrial capacity, export diversification, regional integration and innovation capacity. The findings suggest that strategic autonomy becomes development-oriented when it expands policy space, supports productive diversification, deepens regional markets and strengthens local productive capabilities. East Asian and Latin American experiences are used as comparative references rather than models for replication. The article contributes by proposing a bidirectional framework in which strategic autonomy supports local transformation, while stronger local productive capabilities reinforce resilience and strategic autonomy.