Today's Date:

Communiqué issued by the Council of Ministers – Statement by Xavier Darcos, Minister Delegate for Cooperation, Development and Francophony, on official development assistance

Paris, April 13, 2005

The Minister Delegate for Cooperation, Development and Francophony made a statement on official development assistance (ODA).

During 2005, several important international meetings will tackle the development issue, in particular the G8 Summit in July, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria Replenishment Conference under the UN Secretary-General’s chairmanship, and the New York Millennium Summit in September.

France intends reaffirming her full support for the Millennium Development Goals which aim to halve world poverty by 2015. She also intends highlighting the objectives she is championing:

- to release additional resources for financing development, in particular by the introduction of international taxation;

- to give priority to Africa both in terms of aid and its integration into the world economy;

- to promote a global approach to development, in particular by regulated use of global public goods (like water, air, biological diversity, etc.).

Against this background, France has decided to increase her ODA in 2006 to 0.47% of her gross national income, compared to 0.32% in 2001. President Chirac has pledged to increase this to 0.5% of gross national income in 2007, with a view to attaining the target of 0.7% in 2012. France will make significant commitments on both bilateral aid (rise in approved expenditure from 2006) and multilateral aid (higher French contributions to the United Nations and World Bank).

To strengthen the coherence and management of our aid, the main instruments provided by the institutional Act on the Finance Acts of 1 August 2001 (creation of an “official development assistance” interministerial task force, horizontal policy document) will be implemented under the coordination of the Minister for Cooperation. France has also decided to improve the governance of her bilateral aid system, in accordance with the conclusions of the Interministerial Committee for International Cooperation and Development (ICICD) of 20 July 2004. Finally, country and sector-specific strategies are being drawn up./.