France

Summary

ODA Spending

How much ODA does France contribute?

France was the 5^th largest DAC donor country in 2023, with total ODA amounting to US$15.1 billion.

When ranked by prioritization of development, France was the 11^th largest donor, spending 0.5% of its GNI on ODA in 2023.

How is French ODA changing?

Until 2023, France’s ODA had been growing steadily. The increases in absolute and relative ODA were largely in line with France’s goal of reaching an ODA/GNI ratio of 0.7% in 2025. That goal was pledged by President Macron in 2017, and later enshrined in the landmark Programming Law for Solidarity-based Development and the Fight Against Global Inequalities adopted in 2021.

With fiscal tightening, that target of 0.7% ODA / GNI has been delayed; the July 2023 CICID extended the 0.7% target until 2030. Most recently, the target was not mentioned in the communiqué of the Presidential Council for International Partnerships, which took place in April 2025.

France's US$15.1 billion of ODA in 2023 was 0.48% of GNI, compared to 0.56% in 2022. According to ONE, this is the biggest decrease in volume since 2007.

France has pioneered innovative financing mechanisms, such as the FTT and an airline tax, to fund multilateral development priorities, namely health and climate organizations. Revenues raised by both the FTT and the airline tax mobilize EUR738 million ( US$777 million) every year for multilateral assistance, disbursed through the Solidarity Fund. France has also taken the lead in advocating for the use of SDRs to increase overall ODA, committing to redirect 30% of its SDR allocation to the African continent. However, the 2025 budget cancelled the link between the Development Solidarity Fund and revenues from the financial transaction tax and the airline tax, as this revenue is increasing and the government sought to keep it for the general budget. There is now a program called the Solidarity Fund with a fixed budget to fund Gavi, via IFFM, the Global Fund, and UNITAID.

Macron is dedicated to pushing through the legacy of the 4Ps, which was held in June 2023. The agenda is closely linked to reforms to the international financial architecture.

Macron has been a champion for the G20 goal of reallocating US$100 billion in SDRs from HICs to LICs and MICs, a goal which had been surpassed, totaling US$108 billion. France has reallocated 40% of its SDRs, or approximately US$7.5 billion.

During his second term, Macron has continued to promote multilateralism and engage France on global issues, while taking steps to renew the nature and modalities of France’s partnership with the African continent. With the Russian war in Ukraine dominating the political agenda, France will likely focus multilateral engagement on increased defense and security cooperation, energy independence, as well as humanitarian assistance, including to countries affected by the global food supply crisis.

France continues to strongly engage on the international scene, including an increased focus on defending French and EU interests abroad. France hosted the Gavi investment case on June 20, 2024, a major initiative for children during the Olympic Games in July 2024, and hosted the AI Action Summit in February 2025 and the Nutrition for Growth Summit in March 2025.

Defense has been an increasing priority, with strong continued commitment to Ukraine and an emphasis on industrial, food, and energy independence. In a solemn speech to the French people in March, Macron warned Europe to prepare for reduced US support and a potential Russian threat beyond Ukraine, and called for a budgetary reform to boost military spending amid rising threats. He called for a target of 3% of GDP for defense spending. The allocated budget would thus rise from EUR60 ( US$63 billion) to EUR88 ( US$93 billion).

Where is French ODA allocated?

According to the 2021 development law, bilateral ODA is set to represent 65% of France’s total ODA on average between 2022-2025. This effectively introduces a cap on multilateral spending and may result in a larger budget for France’s implementing agencies, particularly the AFD. In practice, this is not being applied. In 2023, 43% of ODA was multilateral.

Bilateral Spending

Since 2016, an increasing proportion of French bilateral ODA has been allocated to IDRCs. In 2023, education received the largest share of France's bilateral ODA.

France’s approach to ODA is differentiated by the recipient country’s income level, with loans primarily extended to emerging economies and grants to LICs. In 2024, and following tensions in the Sahel, France stopped implementing its previous priority country list (which had counted 19 countries, mostly francophone), withdrawing its bilateral funding from the Sahel. The 2021 Development Law had dictated that by 2025, priority countries should receive 25% of French bilateral ODA and at least half of all grants.

The April 2025 Presidential Council for International Partnerships introduced an objective of allocation of 60% to vulnerable countries and LICs. The allocation will hence not only depend on income levels, as it did previously, but also vulnerability, as measured according to dimensions of climate and debt vulnerability. This approach is linked to the MVI led by the UN.

The government had committed to increasing the share of grants within its ODA, with the 2021 Development Law stipulating that grants should make up 70% of bilateral ODA over the 2022-2025 period. The top recipients of grant funding in 2022 were Côte d'Ivoire, Morocco, and Cameroon. Overall, the top 5 recipients of bilateral funding in 2022 (including both grants and loans), included Morocco, Côte d’Ivoire, Ukraine, South Africa and Egypt.

Historically, France places a strategic focus on countries on the African continent. In 2022, France allocated 30% of bilateral ODA to SSA. Most recently, the Presidential Council for Partnerships emphasized the importance of partnerships as geopolitical alliances and stated that Ukraine is a first order priority, followed by the neighborhood and the African continent as a whole.

Multilateral Spending and Commitments

The 2021 development law, which has not been fully implemented, had stated a cap on multilateral ODA (at 35% on average over 2022-2025). France is a strong supporter of many multilateral organizations, with core multilateral ODA amounting to 35% in 2022. France’s largest recipient, the EU, receives almost half of France’s multilateral ODA, followed by IDA, the World Bank's Fund for LICs. Additionally, health is a key sector of France’s multilateral engagement, particularly when it comes to vertical funds. It is a strong supporter of the Global Fund, Unitaid, and Gavi.

The strategy and priorities on and for multilateral assistance will be reviewed during the CICID, which is expected to take place in June 2025. The Presidential Council for International Partnerships, which took place in April 2025, mentioned the following objectives:

• Rationalizing multilateral instruments and tools in order to prioritize impact per euro invested;
• Increased influence of France within multilateral organizations; and
• Increased multilateral alignment with France’s development objectives.

This is in line with a report published in September 2024 by the Court of Auditors. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, France has been a strong supporter of the WHO and its central position in the global health architecture. This strategic focus is likely to continue, also via France’s support for the WHO Academy, opened in Lyon in December 2024. France's strategy for multilateral ODA (2017-2021) has not been revised.

Politics & Priorities

What is the current state of French politics?

France is a unitary, semi-presidential constitutional republic. Elections take place every five years. There are five main parties represented in the French Parliament: Renaissance, the Republicans, the Socialist Party, La France Insoumise, and the National Rally.

Emmanuel Macron of the Renaissance party has been in power since May 2017. Macron won reelection in April 2022 in a runoff against Marine Le Pen of the National Rally, a far-right populist party that saw a surge in popularity. President Macron leads the country’s high-level international priorities, while the Prime Minister focuses on domestic affairs.

Following massive success by the National Rally in the June 2024 EU parliamentary elections, Macron called a snap election to be held in July 2024. In a shock result, the left-wing alliance New Popular Front won a plurality of seats, with the Macron-supporting alliance Ensemble coming in second and the National Rally placing third. No party obtained the 289 seats needed for an overall majority, with France facing a hung parliament. Passing legislation and building consensus is difficult under the highly fragmented conditions.

In September 2024, Macron appointed Michel Barnier of the Republicans as Prime Minister. After a vote of no confidence in late 2024, Barnier was replaced by centrist François Bayrou, with a new government established in January 2025.

A ruling in April barred Marine Le Pen, leader of the far-right party from running for office, following an investigation linked to misuse of EU funding. The appeals court has said they will aim to finalize the appeals procedure by summer 2026, in time for the 2027 presidential election.

Who is responsible for allocating French ODA?

What are France's development priorities?

On April 4, 2025, Macron chaired a Presidential Council on International Partnerships, in the presence of the Ministry of Economy and Finance, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Prime Minister, and the AFD group. The strategic orientations of this council will be detailed in June 2025 during a CICID. The council was organized to take an honest look at the last two years since the latest council which took place in June 2023, and to take into account the current shift in development policy.

The communiqué states that “any official reference and designation must favor the notion of international partnerships or refer to one of its components (solidarity, sustainable investments, and alliances)" rather than to the terminology of “official development assistance.” Linked to this, efforts on data will also continue to be supported at the OECD. In the same way, an objective is set to rename the AFD.

The council sets out three types of partnerships:

• Policies of solidarity, particularly to respond to crises;
• Policies of investment, to respond to the major challenges facing our planet; and
• Policies of alliances, combining diplomatic and economic interests and those of partners.

There is a stated objective of 60% allocation of ODA to vulnerable countries and least advanced countries.

The ten development objectives remain the same as in 2023:

1. To accelerate the exit from coal and finance renewable energy in developing and emerging countries to limit global warming to 1.5 °C;
2. To protect carbon storage and global reserves of biodiversity, including forests and oceans;
3. To invest in youth by supporting education and teacher training in developing countries;
4. To invest in primary health systems and to support the training of health care providers in fragile countries;
5. To promote innovation and entrepreneurship in Africa;
6. To mobilize expertise and private and public funding for strategic, quality and sustainable infrastructures in developing countries;
7. To strengthen food sovereignty, notably in Africa;
8. To support human rights and democracy and fight disinformation;
9. To promote women's rights and gender equality, in particular by supporting women's organizations and institutions promoting women's rights; and
10. To help developing countries fight illegal immigration networks.

Each embassy is tasked to develop a country strategy in which they will have to choose three out of the ten objectives to focus on, implying the increased political nature of prioritization. Impact measures are also expected to be linked to these strategies.

For the first time, development policy as partnerships is also recognized as a policy of economic interests. In April 2025, a ministerial level meeting, led by Minister for Francophonie and Partnerships Thani Mohamed-Soilihi, co-led by the French Treasury and the AFD, was held with the main French companies that bid for procurement contracts for development projects supported by France. The objective is for them to position themselves on foreign markets, financed by France and other donors.

READ MORE ON FRANCE'S ODA ACROSS PRIORITY AREAS:

Climate Change

Education

Gender Equality

Global Health

By issue

France maintains a high level of interest in global health and took an active part in the COVID-19 pandemic response, increasing its financial contributions to the sector, notably to the Global Fund, COVAX AMC, WHO, Unitaid, and the Pandemic Fund.

France hosted the 4Ps from June 22-23, 2023. The summit aimed to define concrete actions to support the most vulnerable countries and reform the international financial architecture to accelerate an equitable global transition towards net-zero emissions and the development of LICs.

The summit sought to reform the global financial architecture including the reform of multilateral development banks, the mobilization of the private sector, the mobilization of resources for climate change, the effective allocation of SDRs, the design and support for new taxes to fund global public goods and debt solutions for the most vulnerable countries. The 4Ps Secretariat responsible for the implementation of various work streams following the Summit is now hosted by the OECD.

France is increasingly committed to addressing the climate transition and environmental issues, such as the protection of biodiversity and transitioning food systems.

France also focuses on projects at the intersection of humanitarian assistance and development. By 2022, the government had planned to dedicate EUR500 million ( US$560 million) per year to urgent humanitarian action and post-crisis stabilization. France has recently emphasized food security as part of its humanitarian efforts.

By region

The 2021 Development Law reaffirmed France’s geographical priorities with a focus on the African continent as a whole, and the ‘Mediterranean zone.’ The Presidential Council for International Partnerships, which took place in April 2025 emphasized that Ukraine is the first order priority for France, alongside France’s neighborhood.

France’s focus on the African continent has been accompanied by attempts to reshape the relationship with Africa and build a new partnership narrative. Examples of these efforts include high-level events such as the New Africa-France Summit in October 2021, as well as the February 2022 AU - EU Summit that France led as part of the French Presidency of the European Council.

There is a perceived sense from African partners that implementation of a change in the France-Africa partnership and reframing of ODA has been slow. The latter had been promised by Macron and called upon by the diaspora and African countries since the France-Africa summit in Ouagadougou in 2017. In 2023, Macron had outlined France’s revised strategy for Africa presenting a new partnership with the continent, a new era in economic and cultural terms and less in military ones. There will be an Africa-France Summit in Kenya in 2026, which may be the opportunity to update strategy and reflect on shifting relationships and priorities.

In November 2024, during Macron’s visit to Brazil for the G20 Summit, both leaders agreed to make climate and the protection of Oceans a strategic joint priority, in preparation for the third UNOC in France (June 2025) and COP30 in Belém.

In February 2025, Macron visited Djibouti and Ethiopia, reaffirming France's defense partnership and likely discussing regional security issues. These visits align with Macron's broader strategy, announced in 2023, to transform French military bases in Africa into academies or jointly managed facilities, except the base in Djibouti, which remains focused on Indo-Pacific Strategy. However, France has faced challenges in maintaining its military presence in some African countries, with Chad and Senegal both expressing desires to end long-standing defense agreements with France, indicating a shifting dynamic in Franco-African military cooperation. Relationships with the Sahel have been tense since military coups took place there in 2024. As a result, France stopped its priority country list (which had previously counted 19 mostly French-speaking countries, withdrawing its bilateral funding from the Sahel.

Like most EU countries, France has been providing substantial political and financial support to Ukraine since the full-scale invasion by Russia in February 2022.

Visit our Ukraine ODA Tracker for more details

Budget

The 2025 Budget is an austerity budget, which includes a historical cut to the ODA budget worth EUR2.1 billion ( US$2.2 billion), one of the largest in the draft 2025 budget. This cut represents a 37% decrease in the core ODA mission compared to 2024.

These cuts are spread evenly between the Ministry of Finance and Economy and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs budgets. MEF’s budget includes IDA and France announced that its contribution for the current replenishment will decrease by 14%. MFA’s budget includes AFD grants and multilateral organizations (UN organizations, WHO, Gavi, Global Fund). The 2025 Budget also puts an end to the allocation of earmarked innovative taxes to ODA, in place since 2006. The 2025 Budget Law was approved exceptionally late (in February 2025) and there is not yet public documentation detailing how the cuts to the ODA programs will be spread across the various priorities.

What are the sources of France's ODA budget?

French ODA now stems mainly from the general budget. Within the main budget, the MEAE funds 39.8% of ODA. It decides on budget lines, including Program 209 and sets development priorities and strategies in coordination with other ministries as part of the CICID. The CICID Secretariat in turn oversees AFD priorities.

The MEF contributes 35.7% of ODA. It sets general budget orientations, decides on budget lines, including Program 110, and sets development priorities and strategies in coordination with other ministries as part of the CICID. The Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation is the third-largest source of ODA, managing 16.8% of the ODA budget in 2024, an 18.6% increase compared to 2023. The Ministry of Home Affairs finances IDRC, amounting to 7.3% of programmable ODA in 2024, which is a decrease compared to the previous 2023 budget. Other programs, managed by Ministry of Defense, Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Health and Ministry of Sport, make up 0.4% of ODA.

The so-called ODA Mission is composed of the two largest ODA programs in the general budget: Program 110 of the MEF and Program 209 of the MEAE.

What are the steps and timelines for France's ODA budget approval?

The French fiscal year corresponds to the calendar year.