Publication of France’s official development assistance figures for 2017

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Joint press statement of Jean-Yves Le Drian, Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs, and Bruno Le Maire, Minister of the Economy and Finance

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has just published preliminary data on official development assistance (ODA) for 2017 [1]. ODA decreased slightly to $147 million, down 0.6%, compared to 2016.

At €10.1 billion - or 0.43% of the Gross National Income (GNI) - France’s ODA posted the highest increase (+16%) [2], up from €8.7 billion, or 0.38% of GNI, in 2016.

This increase concerns both multilateral (+19%) and bilateral (+14%) assistance. The increase in multilateral assistance in 2017 is mainly linked to the contributions to the Green Climate Fund, supporting the implementation of the Paris Agreement. Bilateral assistance is buoyed by the increase in activity, especially with regard to soft loans from the Agence Française de Développement (AFD).

France retains its fifth position among global aid providers, behind the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom and Japan. In proportion to GNI, France’s growing ODA is considerably higher than the average, which is 0.31%.

This growth is set to continue along the trajectory towards the goal of 0.55% of the GNI by 2022, which was announced by President Macron and detailed by the Interministerial Committee on International Cooperation and Development (CICID) on 8 February 2018.

In 2019, the authorizations of AFD’s grant commitments will be increased by €1 billion to strengthen bilateral assistance, particularly in our priority geographic areas.

This strengthened assistance will be better managed, more effective and closer to the beneficiaries with the various measures announced by the CICID. They include creating a Development Council chaired by the President of the Republic and bolstering governance of ODA aims, regular meetings of the CICID and the Strategic Steering Committee of the AFD, establishing strategic investment plans by sector and creating an observatory of assistance costs, for example.

For further information:

[1] Data published by the OECD on the donor members of its Development Assistance Committee (DAC: 29 States and the European Union, and on some States that are not members of the CAD, but do provide their data to the OECD (for example, Russia, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates).

[2] In euros; +15% in dollars.