FICOL concerns all French local authorities – regions, departments, cities, municipalities – and their groups (joint associations, etc.), which work in the context of a decentralized cooperation partnership with local authorities in developing countries.
The projects submitted are required to promote dialogue on common development issues (health, education, training, urban development, fight against climate change, the digital transition of territories, etc.), in the spirit of the Sustainable Development Goals. They must also be consistent with AFD’s general orientations and with its sectoral and geographical strategies.
The projects are implemented abroad in the territory of a partner local authority, preferably a single authority.
Special attention will be paid to proposals:
- Developed by French overseas local authorities;
- Implemented in countries where there has been little or no development of French cooperation;
- Which allow a study to be launched for a large-scale project that could subsequently be financed by AFD's conventional tools;
- Which have a knock-on effect on mobilizing actors in the partner territory (companies, associations, universities, university hospitals, etc.);
- Which take into account and promote the sectors of excellence of the French local authority, its operators and economic actors in its territory.