Despite ambitious goals, France is struggling to get its development aid to the poorest countries as well as for gender-equality programmes, according to an assessment by the OECD. EURACTIV.fr reports. The OECD has examined French development aid. In a summary of its report, which will be available in September, the OECD’s development aid committee (CAD) highlights a number of successes but also points to weaknesses in France’s cooperation policy for the period 2013-2018. The assessment, of which EURACTIV obtained a copy, points to the “successive decreases” in French aid since the last OECD evaluation in 2013. Indeed, between 2012 and 2016, France’s public aid dropped from 0.45% of national wealth to 0.38%, a €850 million decrease. France engaged itself to allocate 0.55% of GNI to development aid by 2022. In order to fulfil this ambitious goal, the government will have to find €6 billion more than in 2016. This might prove to be challenging as Paris just came out of the excessive deficit procedure it was locked in for 10 years. “France’s commitment to increase its development aid by 2022 is positively received after a period of significant declines, but its implementation will require immediate action,” stated the report. “It will have to authorise the commitments needed to reach this objective, by 2020 at the latest.”
Source: EURACTIV
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