Development

Over the last two decades, along with globalization has come tremendous economic progress. Still, inequalities between countries have increased, as well as inequalities between individuals within each country. New factors of crisis and tensions have appeared and made it clear that the potential benefits of globalization are hampered by a deficit of governance and collective actions.

In this context, the development policy of France is willing to pursue four horizontal objectives : sustainable and shared growth ; fight against poverty and inequalities ; stability and the rule of law. These priorities fall within the framework of objectives set out by the international community, and especially the Millenium Development Goals, drawn from the Millennium Declaration adopted in 2000. In the pursuit of these goals, France has defined food safety, water, health, education and energy as the main guidelines for its action.)

While the Millenium Goals are expiring in 2015, the imperative need to revise the framework for development policies has been reminded at the Rio+20 Conference, for development is not sustainable unless the environmental dimension (be it climate change, fight against desertification or the protection of biodiversity) is taken into account.

France is thus deeply involved in the process of defining the future Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and with the ambition to manage to have them be at the core of the up-coming consensus on the post-2015 agenda.

To achieve these objectives, France promotes a comprehensive approach to financing for development. While the public development aid remains irreplaceable, the extent and nature of the needs related to transfers of solidarity and preservation of global public goods imply a change of scale of public funding and the development of new international resources, and especially of innovative financing which allows the activities that are benefiting the most from globalization to contribute to the financing for development.

France also takes into account the profound and rapid changes that have reshaped the context in which unfolds its policy of cooperation, stressing the need to define rules that are more collective and to build renewed relationships with the major emerging countries. These changes must be accompanied by new forms of partnership. France promotes this goal within the United Nations and, in a complementary way, within the G20 and the OECD with the view to enhance the effectiveness of aid.

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