European Cooperation

AFD has been building numerous partnerships at the international level for several years now. The European Commission is one of our most important partners and AFD has a Representation Office to European Institutions in Brussels, which works with a division dedicated to European cooperation at AFD’s headquarters.

In recent years, major impetus has been given to scaling up our relations with the European Commission, along with other bilateral European agencies and the European Investment Bank (EIB), while ensuring that AFD is fully part of the French mechanism for European relations on ODA.

The objectives of our European strategy are based on two cornerstones:

To establish sustainable relations for cooperation and operational partnerships between AFD and European institutions (Commission, Parliament, EIB);
To contribute to building an operational network of actors of European aid with the Commission and other bilateral donors.

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News

AFD-EUDN 2012 Conference: Evaluation and its discontents, do we learn from experience in development? March 26th 2012, Paris

01/02/2012

Our societies’ demand for the evaluation of economic policies has been evolving alongside a growing desire for transparency and accountability of decision-makers . This is within a context where persistent doubts exist regarding the efficiency of public spending. In the development sector, this is particularly apparent as development assistance has been heavily criticized due to its limited efficiency. The increasing budget constraints faced by many donors have also exacerbated the complexity of the task.

Nevertheless, the issue of evaluating public policies is neither a new idea, nor a novel practice. It becomes increasingly essential, however, to determine whether the evaluation task is properly conducted. We need to discuss whether the way evaluations are undertaken produces an accumulation of knowledge that is accessible to decision makers, or whether the context in which development policies are implemented severely reduces the usefulness of past experiences for designing future projects.
Can we learn from our own and others’ experiences in the field of development? If so, how can evaluation contribute and how is it that we seem unable to translate these experiences into practice? If not, what are the factors hampering the learning process?

Conference Center Pierre Mendès-France Ministère de l’Economie, des Finances et de l’Industrie , Paris

AFD-EUDN 2012 Site

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Working lunch with parliamentary assistants on financial “blending” mechanisms

27/01/2012

The Brussels office and KfW have organised a meeting on the topic of loan/grant blending mechanisms based on the Financial Perspectives 2014-2020 and the proposals on financial instruments (EDF, DCI and Neighbourhood) presented by the Commission (EC) in December.

This meeting followed on from the recent EC Communication on the future of its development policy that set out the objective of developing the use of blending mechanisms.

This meeting was open to parliamentary assistants concerned by development financing. Following a theoretical presentation by KfW (the advantages of grants and loans), for AFD, Céline Boulay (EBC/IFP) presented concrete examples of projects that use leverage from EC “grants” in addition to Member State loans.

This session achieved its objective as it gave participants, who still know relatively little about the subject, the opportunity to ask their questions: “Will the mechanisms crowd out projects financed by grants? Is there a risk of re-indebtedness? Do blending mechanisms contribute to the fight against poverty? Are projects that have local impacts covered by these mechanisms? What control does the Parliament have over these blending mechanisms?”.

The Head of Unit for “Financial Instruments” at Devco (EC) presented the Commissions expectations, saying that it offered a particularly effective tool, provided that Member States increase their volumes of aid. This type of meeting is extremely useful for improving parliamentarians’ understanding of development policies and of the positive impacts of blending mechanisms.

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15/12/2011

www.ideas4development.org

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5th Workshop of the Thematic Group "Implementation of the European Division of Labour" in Brussels

13/12/2011

Brussels. AFD Brussels Office invited agency practitioners to a meeting with representatives from DEVCO who informed about and discussed with participants the following topics: 1) the new Directorate General DEVCO 2) Division of Labour implementation and Delegated Cooperation: Where do we stand? 3) First exchange of views on the concept of joint programming.

Link to the PN website

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08/12/11: Symposium "France, Europe and development assistance from the Rome Treaties to today"

08/12/2011

AFD is celebrating its 70^th anniversary this year and is organizing a symposium with the Institute of Public Management and Economic Development (IGPDE) on the history of European aid with the aim of identifying how it has developed, often as a result of national policies.

See the detailed program (in French)

The AFD (Agence Française de Développement), set up in London on 2^nd December 1941 by General De Gaulle, celebrates its 70th anniversary. On this occasion, it organises with the Institut de la gestion publique et du développement économique (IGPDE) a symposium on “France, Europe and Development Aid, from the Treaties of Rome to date”.

The conference will trace the main steps of the European Development Aid, including its articulation with the French Cooperation Policy. A forward-looking round table will conclude it.

PIERRE MENDÈS-FRANCE CONFERENCE CENTER
139, rue de Bercy – 75012 Paris

Thursday, 8th Decembre 2011

PROGRAMME

9 am	Opening and scientific introduction
9.30 am	Beginnings of the European development aid (1957-1975)
11.15 am	Enlargement and new paradigms of aid (1975-1995)
1 pm	Buffet
2.30 pm	Questioning of the European Development Policy (1995-2010)
4.45 pm	Towards new horizons
6.15 pm	Closure by the French Minister of the Economy, Finance and Industry (expected)