AFD Group's partnerships around the world

Partnerships account for a large portion of AFD’s operations. Whether they take the form of delegations, direct funding, or co-financing, partnerships are fundamental to the Group’s activity. Below is a review of this teamwork for development.

AFD’s activity cannot be fully understood without considering its partnerships. This work covers a wide range of sectors, such as infrastructure, water, sanitation, biodiversity, and healthcare. Our projects aim to meet the needs of populations in all countries having recourse to public development aid.

“Partnerships account for almost half of AFD’s projects,” says Céline Boulay, Deputy Head of AFD’s Partnerships Department. This amounts to €3 billion per year.

Moving forward together

There are two distinct financing options: on the one hand, there is the direct granting of funds to civil society organizations (CSOs), such as non-governmental organizations (NGOs), trade unions, public or private foundations, or even cooperatives; on the other hand, there is co-financing, i.e. when two donors are funding the same project.

Between 2017 and 2020, the Group (AFD and Proparco) tripled the financing granted to operational activities with CSOs, which increased to €422 million in 2020, a new record. In that same year, the total amount of co-financing with other donors amounted to €2.825 billion, i.e. 39% of AFD’s loan commitments.

“For certain projects, we have managed to unite coalitions of donors around a common, a global issue. For the first time, five international donors – Australia, Canada, France, New Zealand, and the European Union – have mobilized their resources to support the Pacific island states and territories in finding common solutions to climate change,” says Céline Boulay.

Adapting to crises

2020 was marked by the pandemic, and in developing countries, the situation was compounded by crisis upon crisis, whether economic, social, or security-related. In order to address these issues, 30% of the co-financed projects were focused on combating Covid-19, and 40% of these involved AFD’s Africa Department. €10 million was released for 17 projects to help mitigate the health crisis.

Partnerships are synonymous with responsiveness. From the start of the pandemic, AFD has been mobilized in the fight against Covid-19 and its repercussions. The Health in Common initiative was thus launched in April 2020, with grants and concessional loans being released to mainly African countries. The objective is to strengthen their health care systems, support medical research, and build their capacities for screening and treating patients.

“The Health in Common initiative is just one example of AFD’s close relations with civil society organizations,” says Céline Boulay.

In the wake of the double explosion in the port of Beirut, an unprecedented partnership was established between the Fondation de France and AFD. The aim was to help the Lebanese people, who had already been experiencing a profound social and economic crisis. AFD, therefore, decided to double every donation made to the Fondation de France. This operation, known as Solidarité Liban, enabled the disbursement of funds to local stakeholders on the ground, providing support for social and psychosocial initiatives, local economic stimulus, and housing, as a priority.

Based on these actions, AFD has been expanding its partnership operations year upon year. Establishing a dialogue with stakeholders in the field has proven to be an effective strategy in the midst of such crises. Consequently, these programs have become better and better at meeting the needs of communities, and at doing so more quickly.

International and European partnerships, a driver of development

Common objectives require common solutions. AFD and the European Union share a number of common challenges and have thus been consolidating their partnership in recent years. In 2020, AFD committed €363 million in financing from EU resources. The year 2020 was also noteworthy for the continued implementation of the External Investment Plan (EIP): as part of the European Fund for Sustainable Development, the first two guarantee agreements between AFD and the European Commission were signed.

With regard to AFD’s response to the Covid-19 crisis, according to an initial estimate, 85% of the external financial resources – including loans and grants –have come from multilateral actors (multilateral development banks, the EU and the Global Partnership for Education). In 2021, the Group will continue to work in partnership on a European and international scale, with the deployment of new instruments that will benefit civil society.