OECD Development Co-operation Peer Reviews: France 2018

OECD

• Publisher: OECD
• Year: 2018
• eBook ISBN: 9789264304376
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Sociology
• Index: Social Sciences

Secretariat’s Report

Chapter 1. France’s global efforts for sustainable development

France is a leading player on the global stage for promoting international stability and sustainable development. Since 2015, the country has strongly supported efforts to promote, implement and encourage accession to the Paris Agreement. However, France still does not possess a mechanism or the means to guarantee policy coherence. In the economic field, France has made progress in the fight against corruption and illicit capital flows: the 2016 law known as “Sapin II” requires large businesses, including financing bodies such as the French Development Agency (AFD), to adopt a mechanism for preventing corruption. Resources for and means of raising public development awareness are meagre in comparison with other countries, and there is still work to be done if all stakeholders are to take development co-operation priorities and outcomes on board and communicate them clearly.

Efforts to support global sustainable development

Peer review indicator: The member plays an active role in contributing to global norms, frameworks and public goods that benefit developing countries

France plays a leading role on the global stage in promoting international stability and sustainable development. This was demonstrated in its Voluntary National Review at the first High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development in July 2016. Since its adoption in December 2015, France strongly supports efforts to promote, implement and encourage accession to the Paris Agreement and has increased its finance to combat climate change.

The Orientation and Programming Law on Development and International Solidarity Policy (LOP-DSI), approved on 7 July 2014, makes sustainable development the cornerstone of French development policy. The policy’s three key components are economic, social and environmental. On the world stage, France promotes international stability, climate, education, gender equality and health. In his speech to the World Economic Forum in Davos in January 2018, the French President, Emmanuel Macron, emphasised that “France is back at the core of Europe because there can be no French success without European success” (Macron, 2018). He called for a European strategy on migration, digital technology, defence, development, finance and investment. France also views its international co-operation responsibilities from this European perspective.

France sets a good example on sustainable development and international stability

France made a strong commitment to sustainable development at the four main summits held in 2015. At the UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction in Sendai in March 2015, France played an important role by linking those risks to climate change adjustment policies. At the 2015 UN Conference on Financing for Development in Addis Ababa, it put forward a modern view of development financing. At the United Nations Summit for Sustainable Development, France endorsed this convergence of agendas of development and protection of the planet by adopting the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Finally, it achieved a major diplomatic success with the adoption of the Paris Agreement on climate change in December 2015 (MEAE, 2017).

France undertook a voluntary national review of its implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at the first High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development in July 2016 (MEAE, 2016). The review highlighted French strengths, and in particular the high standard of living and quality of life, inclusive social security systems, implementation of the Paris Agreement, green growth and increased political transparency. However, the review also highlighted the challenges facing France in reducing social, educational and gender inequalities. France is currently drawing up a roadmap for implementing the SDGs. This is to be piloted by the Interministerial Representative for Sustainable Development under the authority of the Prime Minister, and is expected to be finalised in 2019.

France has been a pillar of United Nations peacekeeping operations. In 2016 and 2017, it was among the top five financial donors and made the second most important European contribution in terms of personnel, mostly through its participation in the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) (UNDPKO, 2017). The strong link between development and security is reinforced in the crisis zones where France intervenes. For example, France has spearheaded the fight to prevent terrorism and maintain security in the Sahel region and has a total of 4 000-strong force on the ground in Mali, Chad, Niger, Mauritania and Burkina Faso as part of Operation Barkhane (Ministry of the Armed Forces, 2018). However, although France is a committed donor in terms of alleviating crises and maintaining stability, its focus on preventing crises and reducing vulnerabilities is weaker.

France prioritises funding for climate issues, the environment and biodiversity

France has used all its efforts, actors and policies to promote climate-related funding as a central element of its development activities. Since 2015, it has played a major role in promoting, implementing and encouraging accession to the Paris Agreement. Rémy Rioux, the Chief Executive Officer of AFD (the French Development Agency), has been appointed Chairperson of the International Development Finance Club (IDFC). This club brings together 23 national, regional, and international development banks to debate important issues, including climate change, so they can speak with one voice at international development and climate fora1 (see Box 5.1 in Chapter 5). The Energy Transition for Green Growth Act, adopted in April 2015, set a target to increase the share of renewables to 32% of France’s final energy consumption by 2030. It aims to reduce that share to 50% of 2012 levels by 2050. This makes France a legitimate bearer of the universal message of the Paris Agreement (JORF, 2015).2

The conclusions of the CICID (Interministerial Committee on International Co-operation and Development), issued in February 2018, confirmed that AFD’s activities would be “100% compatible with the Paris Agreement” (MEAE, 2018a). They stressed that France would only support low-carbon development projects through funding and support for public policies which speed up ecological transition and end reliance on fossil fuels. At the One Planet Summit held in Paris in December 2017, France reiterated its commitment to allocating EUR 5 billion by 2020 to combating climate change, which includes increasing the share of financing dedicated to climate change adaptation to EUR 1.5 billion.3 France also committed to unlocking EUR 700 million for promoting solar energy in developing countries through the International Solar Alliance (Laborde and Imbach, 2018).

France is one of the first OECD countries to have developed a dedicated biodiversity co-operation strategy. Set up in 2010, the National Biodiversity Observatory is now incorporated into the new French Biodiversity Agency. France has also tripled its official development assistance (ODA) earmarked for biodiversity, especially in the context of major water transport and sanitation projects funded by AFD. In addition, France has been working to conduct an ambitious review of the Aichi Biodiversity Targets and to ensure greater funding for projects that reflect the joint aims of combating climate change and protecting biodiversity.4

Policy coherence for sustainable development

Peer review indicator: Domestic policies support or do not harm developing countries

The international challenges and commitments that are likely to be affected by national laws and policies are taken on board and are well co-ordinated at interministerial level, especially financing climate change action. However, France still does not have a mechanism in place to ensure policy coherence. In the economic field, France has made progress in combating corruption and illicit capital flows: the 2016 law, known as “Sapin II”, requires large enterprises, including funding bodies such as AFD, to adopt a mechanism for preventing corruption.

Policy coherence for development is central to legislation, but there is no body which ensures policy coherence for sustainable development

Since 2010, France has adopted six policy coherence priorities enshrined in the 2009 European Consensus: trade, migration, foreign investment, food security, social protection and climate change. The General Secretariat for European Affairs has been striving to ensure the coherence of French policies at the European level and the coherence of European policies as a whole.

Article 3 of the LOP-DSI of 2014 explicitly refers to the importance that France attaches to the coherence of its development policies, a...

Table of contents

• Title page
• Legal and rights
• Conducting the peer review
• Abbreviations and acronyms
• France’s aid at a glance
• Context of the peer review of France
• The DAC’s main findings and recommendations
• Secretariat’s Report
• Annex A. Progress made in implementing the recommendations of the 2013 peer review
• Annex B. OECD/DAC standard suite of tables
• Annex C. Field visits to Morocco and Niger
• Annex D. Organisational charts
• About the OECD