Policy Updates

On July 9, 2024, the OECD published the conclusions and recommendations for France’s development cooperation policies as reviewed by its peers.

The peer review report is published every five years. The review of French development policy took place between September 2023 and May 2024 and was led by Belgium and Japan, accompanied by the OECD Secretariat. The report was jointly managed by the Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs, the Directorate General of the Treasury, and the AFD.

The report stated that France has embarked on an ambitious reform of its development co-operation in institutional, strategic and financial terms. It noted that in addition to substantially increasing ODA resources and a strengthening its crisis response instruments, France has championed the linkages between green and social agendas as well as the mobilization of the private sector.

The report makes several recommendations, including:

• Strengthening harmonization between technical assistance and other instruments;
• Taking greater account of poverty and inequality in Proparco’s portfolio;
• Increasing ODA to reach the targets of 0.7% of ODA/GNI and 50% financial effort for LDCs;
• Equipping steering bodies to monitor the overall coherence of development cooperation;
• Using local development councils to coordinate Team France around policy objectives and common results defined at country level; and
• Optimizing the integration of social and green agendas for the AFD Group by taking greater account of cross-cutting dimensions of sustainable development, including long-term objectives, and measuring ex-post performance to inform steering.

On June 20, 2024, UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron attended the Gavi Investment Opportunity and AVMA launch in Paris, France, and pledged to reallocate GBP49 million (US$58 million) to Gavi’s newly launched AVMA through reallocated COVID-19 funding already committed to Gavi.

Co-hosted by Gavi, the African Union, and France, the event saw Gavi lay out its investment case for 2026 and 2030 and call for US$9 billion in new donor funding.

The UK did not make an early pledge to Gavi’s new replenishment, unlike the US, France, Spain, and some philanthropic providers, which committed a total of US$2.4 billion. Gavi is set to engage in an intense period of fundraising with a view to hosting a final pledging event in 7 to 12 months.

Since the creation of Gavi, the UK has invested GBP5.5 billion (US$7 billion) in the organization, helping to vaccinate over a billion children and save millions of lives.

The UK did not provide an early pledge to Gavi's 2026-2030 replenishment.

On June 20, 2024, France hosted Gavi's investment case launch for 2026-2030 in Paris, where France pledged EUR100 million (US$107 million) to AVMA and stated that France would match its previous core funding pledge to Gavi.

The event in Paris marked the launch of the AVMA. France also pledged to provide EUR10 million (US$11 million) to support South African production of a cholera vaccine.

Gavi supports vaccine access for more than half of the world’s children against 20 infectious diseases. This mechanism will financially support regional vaccine production on the African continent by providing up to US$1 billion over ten years.

French civil society came in strong in support of mobilization for AVMA and Gavi, including Focus 2030, which published a special edition report explaining the objectives of AVMA, including past achievements and targets for the upcoming replenishment cycle.

On June 17, 2024, French Secretary of State for Development and International Partnerships Chrysoula Zacharopoulou launched France's new international strategy for basic education, spanning through 2024-2028, during a high-level event at UNESCO dedicated to the midterm review of the 2022 Education Transformation Summit.

An annual contribution of EUR350 million (US$375 million) was included in support of education systems in French-speaking Africa, in accordance with the commitments of the French Language and Multilingualism Plan. An immediate contribution was also announced for ECW to support education in crisis and emergency situations.

France noted that it would maintain its position among the leading providers of voluntary funding to UNESCO’s education sector and the GPE from 2024-2028 and would contribute to the governance bodies of the organizations.

French agencies, particularly the AFD, will also earmark an average of EUR500 million (US$535 million) annually to the education sector, particularly through delegated funds from the GPE and the EU.

On May 29, 2024, the French Ministers of Economy, Ecological Transition, Europe and Foreign Affairs as well as the Secretary of State in Charge of Development and International Partnerships jointly announced that France overachieved its climate finance target for 2022.

The announcement was based on data released by the OECD's for 2022. The data showed that, in 2022, France provided EUR7.6 billion (US$8.2 billion) in climate financing, of which EUR2.6 billion (US$2.8 billion) was for adaptation. The ministers stated that this represents an excess of approximately 25% of the EUR6 billion climate finance target set by the French presidency in 2020.

The statement noted that France is one of the main contributing countries to the financing of climate action in low- and middle-income countries, and that its contribution goes beyond its proportional share of responsibility.

On May 23-25, 2024, the G7 Ministers of Finance met at a summit in Stresa, Italy, where the ministers voiced support for contributions to the IDA, WHO, Gavi, and the Global Fund in the resulting communiqué.

The G7 ministers supported efforts towards a successful 21^st replenishment of the IDA by the end of 2024 through an ambitious policy and financing package. Notably, they did not give a concrete signal that the critical US$100 billion threshold requested by the World Bank will be crossed, nor any indication of the US$120 billion expected by African leaders.

The ministers reaffirmed their dedication to strengthening the governance and finance of the global health architecture and voiced support for refinancing processes of several GHIs, such as Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, the WHO, and the Global Fund, and expressed support for the Pandemic Fund. The communiqué called on the donor community to coordinate efforts and increase investments in global health in line with their capacities to ensure sustainable funding and maximize the impact of available resources.

Following the summit, the C7 pointed out the G7's lack of ambition and financial commitment to international development, including climate adaptation. International civil society organizations criticized the lack of any reference to allocating SDRs to global solidarity.

On May 21, 2024, at the occasion of the World Water Forum, French President Emmanuel Macron announced that France would be hosting the One Water Summit on September 23, 2024, in the margins of UNGA79.

The summit will be organized in close collaboration with Kazakhstan, the President of the World Bank, the UN, and many other partners. The objectives will be to build a major international alliance on water, bringing together governments, local authorities, industry, the private sector, associations, and NGOs to invest in the new water economy.

The summit aims to contribute to the ongoing UN discussions and process to enhance global water governance, accelerate action on UN SDG #6 on water and sanitation, and act as an incubator for solutions, in preparation for the next UN Water Conference in 2026. The French presidency also stated that it will place the issue of water at the heart of the agenda of the 4P, launched June 2023 in France, with the aim of reconciling the agendas of combating poverty and protecting the environment.

On May 14-15, 2024, the C7 summit was held at the UN FAO headquarters in Rome, Italy, organized by the Italian Civil Society Coalition that led, coordinated, and moderated the C7 2024 process.

Approximately 400 global representatives took part in the event, as well as international decision-makers, including FAO Director-General Qu Dongyu, Italian G7 sherpa Ambassador Elisabetta Belloni, Cardinal, President of the Italian Episcopal Conference, Pope’s envoy for the Russian-Ukrainian conflict Matteo Maria Zuppi, and Director of the UN SDG Action Campaign Marina Ponti.

The official C7 communiqué that listed the international civil society recommendation to the G7’s Leaders around seven key issues was released at the event, which included:

• Economic justice and transformation;
• Climate, energy transformation, and environmental justice;
• Global health;
• Principled humanitarian assistance;
• Peace, common security, and nuclear disarmament;
• Human mobility and migration; and
• Food justice and food systems transformation.

On May 14, 2024, the AFD published its annual results, which indicated that in 2023, the AFD committed EUR13.5 billion (US$14.6 billion) in new financing, amounting to a 10% increase compared to 2022.

The report noted that 52% of commitments benefitted non-sovereign actors, including civil society, communities, private sector, public companies and banks.

EUR7.5 billion (US$8.1 billion) was committed by the group to fight against climate change and its effects, including EUR3 billion (US$3.3 billion) for adaptation and EUR1 billion (US$1.1 billion) was committed for biodiversity, already exceeding the funding goal set for 2025.

The report stated that funded projects have enabled 70 million people to have better access to health care, the creation or rehabilitation of 4,000 kilometers of land routes, and the conservation of 33 million hectares of biodiversity.

AFD Director General Rémy Rioux published a supplementary commentary with the Center for Global Development on a renewed vision of international cooperation for development.

On May 10, 2024, USAID joined the AU Commissioner and 14 other partners in a statement of support for the African Fertilizer and Soil Health Action Plan at an AU-led soil health summit.

The US also announced US$40 million for the Space in Place approach, which is meant to support farmers with geospatial data and knowledge to ensure the best use of fertilizer for more nutritious foods.

Others joining the statement included the ADB, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, France, the World Bank, France, Canada, the EU, Germany, the Netherlands, the Rockefeller Foundation, Germany, and the UK. Commitments included improved investment policies, more access to fertilizers, enhancing soil inputs and interventions, and building capacity for soil health and fertilizer management.