Application of Soft Project Management Practices in African Infrastructure Projects: A Systematic Review

Africa's infrastructure projects are often delayed, cost more, and yield unsound outcomes, even with improvements in technical project management. Though soft project management practices are known to enhance project performance worldwide, stakeholder engagement, leadership, communication, and conflict management are not well investigated in the African context. This review aimed to systematise the findings on the applications, mechanisms of implementation, and effects of soft project management practices in African infrastructure projects. The search was made in Scopus, Web of Science, ProQuest, Google Scholar, AJOL and institutional repositories and enhanced with grey literature and citation chasing. The paper included 16 peerreviewed studies according to PRISMA 2020, published between 2015 and 2025. A piloted PICOS-based form was used to extract data and descriptive mapping, thematic analysis and configurational logic to synthesise data to determine patterns of practise and context-specific outcomes. The results show that good soft PM practises, such as participatory planning, formal stakeholder interactions, culturally responsive communication, and leadership, have a positive impact on the project performance in terms of cost, schedule, quality, stakeholder satisfaction, and sustainability. Contextual enablers and barriers, including the quality of governance, political interference, the availability of resources, and cultural norms, are also evident in the context, and they mediate the effectiveness of soft practises. Notably, effective projects tend to use both formal and informal networks and community involvement to maximise the levels of acceptance and delivery of results. This review builds upon the stakeholder theory and views of relational governance by demonstrating how African socio-cultural and institutional contexts inform the adoption and effects of soft PM practise. The paper suggests the institutionalisation of soft practises, managerial capacity development, utilising local networks, and policy alignment to enhance infrastructure project delivery on the continent.

African infrastructure projects; project performance; soft project management; stakeholder engagement; sustainability

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