Visiting Fellow
Energy, investment, economic reforms, fragile contexts, eastern and southern Africa
English (fluent), Swahili (conversational)
Sarah Logan is a visiting fellow in the Africa programme at the European Council on Foreign Relations. Her main research interests are in energy and investment in Africa, with a focus on more fragile settings. She is an economist and lawyer with significant experience working with governments of countries experiencing fragility and conflict.
Logan has worked as a consultant on a range of projects, including with governments on economic reforms and organisations advancing peace finance initiatives in Africa. Previously, she was head of the State Fragility initiative at the International Growth Centre (IGC) at the London School of Economics (LSE), where she worked closely with governments of fragile states on various economic policy reform, notably the transitional government of Sudan and the internationally recognised government in Yemen. She has also been involved with several key state fragility topics, including development finance and scaling up solar mini-grids in fragile contexts. Prior to joining IGC, Logan worked for Radon Law Offices in New York, providing legal and policy advice to developing national governments on natural resource governance issues.
She holds an MPA from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, and an LLB from the University of Cape Town. She is an admitted attorney and member of the New York State Bar, American Bar Association, and Law Society of the Northern Provinces (South Africa).
Africa’s energy landscape is rapidly transforming as countries pursue industrial growth and broader energy access, while leveraging different partners—from China to the US, the Gulf and more—to achieve their energy transition objectives. This structural hedging complicates Europe’s preferred model of stable long-term partnerships. This public online event will launch ECFR’s policy brief “Carbon…
Europeans must adapt their approach to supporting Africa’s energy transitions—or risk losing out to China and other competitors
Europe has explicitly committed to supporting more mineral processing and value addition taking place in African mineral-rich countries, including as part of the mineral strategic partnerships that the EU has signed with Namibia, Zambia, the DRC, and Rwanda. African governments aim to leverage growing interest in critical minerals to unlock more domestic value addition, which…
After decades of extractive mining, the industrialisation of resource-rich African countries has fallen short of expectations. To change this—and give Europe a secure, diversified source of minerals—European and African countries should work together to keep more stages of mineral processing and manufacturing in Africa
The EU’s high ESG standards are strangling investment in Africa’s mining sector. A phased, realistic approach could unlock much-needed resources
Europe has positioned its high environmental, social, and governance (ESG) standards as central to its global partnerships, particularly in efforts to develop sustainable critical raw materials (CRM) value chains with mineral-rich African countries such as Namibia, Zambia, the DRC, and Rwanda. With Africa home to around a third of the world’s known mineral reserves, these…
As Europe endeavours to reduce its reliance on China for critical raw materials and the technologies they enable, efforts to boost European investment in mining and value addition in African countries are getting increased attention. However, a number of factors pose challenges to Europe realising these projects. The public discussion marks the launch of recent…
The EU faces a massive uphill struggle to secure critical raw material supply chains – and its efforts may even be undermining the bloc’s de-risking objectives by indirectly helping Chinese companies
Europeans must adapt their approach to supporting Africa’s energy transitions—or risk losing out to China and other competitors
After decades of extractive mining, the industrialisation of resource-rich African countries has fallen short of expectations. To change this—and give Europe a secure, diversified source of minerals—European and African countries should work together to keep more stages of mineral processing and manufacturing in Africa
The EU’s high ESG standards are strangling investment in Africa’s mining sector. A phased, realistic approach could unlock much-needed resources
The EU faces a massive uphill struggle to secure critical raw material supply chains – and its efforts may even be undermining the bloc’s de-risking objectives by indirectly helping Chinese companies
Africa’s energy landscape is rapidly transforming as countries pursue industrial growth and broader energy access, while leveraging different partners—from China to the US, the Gulf and more—to achieve their energy transition objectives. This structural hedging complicates Europe’s preferred model of stable long-term partnerships. This public online event will launch ECFR’s policy brief “Carbon…
Europe has explicitly committed to supporting more mineral processing and value addition taking place in African mineral-rich countries, including as part of the mineral strategic partnerships that the EU has signed with Namibia, Zambia, the DRC, and Rwanda. African governments aim to leverage growing interest in critical minerals to unlock more domestic value addition, which…
Europe has positioned its high environmental, social, and governance (ESG) standards as central to its global partnerships, particularly in efforts to develop sustainable critical raw materials (CRM) value chains with mineral-rich African countries such as Namibia, Zambia, the DRC, and Rwanda. With Africa home to around a third of the world’s known mineral reserves, these…
As Europe endeavours to reduce its reliance on China for critical raw materials and the technologies they enable, efforts to boost European investment in mining and value addition in African countries are getting increased attention. However, a number of factors pose challenges to Europe realising these projects. The public discussion marks the launch of recent…
In her piece, Sarah Logan argues that Europe struggles to match China’s influence in Africa’s critical minerals sector