We may move more quickly alone, but we go further together. With Proparco, AFD Group’s private sector subsidiary, and Expertise France, France’s interministerial agency responsible for technical cooperation (which joined in January 2022), the new and expanded Group signed €12.3 billion of new financing in 2022, for ambitious development initiatives around the world.
At the same time, €9 billion was disbursed to partners for the implementation of the funded projects, a record high. These investments financed more than 1,000 new projects in more than 150 countries and 11 French Overseas Departments and Territories.
Find out more: Read the full report on AFD Group’s 2022 Results
The Group’s action, which accounts for close to 30% of France’s Official Development Assistance, helped take development policies to new heights.“Our country now devotes 0.56% of its wealth to Official Development Assistance and has become the world’s fourth largest donor,” said Chrysoula Zacharopoulou, France’s Minister for Development, Francophonie and International Partnerships. “I welcome AFD’s excellent results, which help implement this policy for solidarity and partnerships all over the world.”
These levels of financing confirm France’s strong involvement in the key areas of international solidarity and in major common issues: 65% of the amounts signed contribute to the fight against climate change and 62% to gender equality.
From Africa to Ukraine
Africa benefited from close to half of the amounts signed, with €5.5 billion. And the financial effort of the French State largely focused on the continent: close to 80% of the grants and subsidized loans went to Africa.
Emergency support was also provided to the Ukrainian Government, in addition to the operations of the Group’s subsidiaries in the country’s private sector.
The Group’s subsidiaries made a significant contribution to the 2022 results. Proparco, with €2.3 billion committed, including close to half in Africa, in particular led the Choose Africa initiative. Launched in 2018, this initiative has financed around 40,000 MSMEs and several hundreds of thousands of microentrepreneurs in Africa. Expertise France, with close to €400 million of projects signed in 2022, has tripled in size since 2015 and now employs around 1,000 experts in 380 projects. Some 65% of its business volume is generated in Africa.
Partnerships central to our action
As the leading partner of the World Bank for the number of projects and the leading recipient of funds delegated by the European Commission, AFD Group works with a large number of partner institutions.
It also mobilizes and supports a number of stakeholders working at grassroots level: 275 French and international civil society organizations were directly supported in 2022. And through the international cooperation activities of the French regional and local authorities it supports (53 in 2022), the Group is building bridges between territories.
“Marked by the return of war on the European continent, its impact on food security and unprecedented heat waves, 2022 propelled us into an age of consequences” Rémy Rioux, AFD Group CEO. “In this context, AFD Group has remained ambitious, by strengthening its technical cooperation services with the arrival of Expertise France and transforming our institution into a platform to mobilize all the partners who share our objectives and wish to cooperate with France. With the 26 members of the International Development Finance Club (IDFC) and the Public Development Banks of FiCS, I have understood the power of partnership dynamics, which can counter the fragmentation of the world and engage us in a just and sustainable transition.”
Internationally, AFD Group has taken part in the key events of the year, from COP27 in Egypt to the One Forest Summit in Libreville. It also participated in the COP15 on Biodiversity in Montreal and helped structure #TeamEurope with its partners gathered within the JEFIC, EDFI and Practitioners’ Network platforms.
AFD is actively contributing to the preparation of the Summit for a New Global Financial Pact to be held in Paris on 22 and 23 June 2023, by mobilizing all 530 Public Development Banks around the world, gathered since 2020 in the Finance in Common (FiCS) movement. AFD Group is also an official partner of Paris 2024 to make sport an accelerator of sustainable development.
An increasingly aware French public approves of AFD's activities abroad
Such intense development activity is increasingly backed by the French public. The annual survey commissioned by AFD shows a growing interest in development issues among French people, with some 80% recognizing the interdependence between developing countries and their daily lives. More and more of the French public also France’s development policy, with AFD Group receiving a 90% approval rate among those who know about the Group, and the protection of the planet is increasingly a concern among the French public.
Key figures
AFD Group’s key figures for 2022:
- More than 13.4 million people benefit from a safely managed drinking water supply service
- More than 3 million people with new access to sustainable electricity services
- Nearly 14 million girls enrolled in primary and lower secondary schools
- 64 million people with better access to healthcare
- More than 10 million tons of CO2 avoided or reduced
From gender equality to biodiversity and food security
- 44% of co-financing, a record level, up 10% compared to the average for 2017-2021
- 50% of commitments benefit non-sovereign operators (civil society organizations, local authorities, private sector)
- €5.5 billion in Africa, close to half the volume of projects signed by AFD Group in 2022
- 62% of the projects signed by the Group in 2022 contribute to the fight against gender inequality
- €6 billion committed by the Group for the climate, close to 80% of France’s contribution to the UNFCCC climate finance target1
- €661 million in signed financing for biodiversity, contributing to conservation and helping societies take nature more into account
- €527 million, including €259 million in Africa, to finance new projects in agriculture and for food and nutritional security
- 39 million hectares benefit from biodiversity conservation/restoration programs
- €9.5 billion of bond issues, with almost 50% of sustainable bonds
1 The scope of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change comprises AFD Group financing, excluding the French Overseas Territories, delegated funds and financing for Turkey.
Download AFD Group's full 2022 results report here and the two-page synopsis here.
