France's public institutions make a shared commitment to sustainable development and international cooperation

Institutional news 9 January 2025
For the first time, AFD group organized a workshop during its annual meetings, in the presence of Laurent Saint-Martin, Minister attached to the French Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs with special responsibility for Overseas Trade and French Nationals Abroad, to bring together the heads of more than 30 French public institutions. The intention was to reaffirm their shared commitment to supporting public policy on sustainable aid investment. The workshop culminated in a joint declaration of which CIRAD CEO Élisabeth Claverie de Saint Martin was one of the signatories.
© Alexandre Sallé de Chou, AFD

The heads of more than 30 French public institutions, brought together by AFD group, have signed a joint declaration © Alexandre Sallé de Chou, AFD

The challenges surrounding sustainable development call for a long-term shared commitment. Be it agroecological transition, climate change mitigation or One Health, every day brings further grassroots proof of the impact of our alliances and scientific progress on international cooperation. CIRAD intends to continue to step up this type of collaboration with its partners in France, Europe and elsewhere.
Elisabeth Claverie de Saint Martin
CIRAD CEO

The joint declaration reflects the ambition to link the national and international levels, with the dual aim of establishing trust-based peer-to-peer dialogue between public institutions in France and elsewhere and facilitating change within France thanks to innovations being developed worldwide to tackle global challenges.

Eight priority lines of work for international action

This initiative is intended to boost France's role in international cooperation, centring on eight priorities set out in the CICID (French interministerial committee for international cooperation and development) guidelines: ecological transition, digital inclusion, the fight against inequalities, food security, education, biodiversity preservation, global health and peacebuilding.

Through the declaration, the institutions concerned commit to:
●    Bolster France's international influence by means of appropriate collective action
●    Promote a mutual cooperation model based on innovation and sustainability
●    Support equitable partnerships mindful of local specificities
●    Contribute to various aspects of French diplomacy operations: expertise, science, culture and economics.

A number of avenues of work have been pinpointed, regarding the following: funding, including from the EU and elsewhere; human resources (training, staff exchanges, volunteering, etc); communication and advocacy operations; property; and work on the international dimension in the history of each of the institutions.

The strength of the initiative lies in the diversity of the French public-sector ecosystem, which combines research, expertise, innovation and engineering on every level. AFD group, along with its two subsidiaries Expertise France and Proparco, is there to support other French public organizations. 

Between 2019 and 2024, actioning French public-sector expertise within the framework of AFD group's operations mobilized 160 million euros of investment in 54 projects involving French public institutions. This new impetus in terms of actioning that expertise reflects a desire to work together effectively to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals laid out in the 2030 Agenda.

Source: AFD press release (in French)

Read the declaration (in French)

See also