Crises and conflicts

Association féminine — © Mamoudou Kane /AFD

Our commitment

The proliferation of crises and conflicts gives rise to new challenges that hinder development. To continue to address the needs of populations, AFD has changed its approach to development by adapting its tools and operations. It is also coordinating its action more with humanitarian aid and peacebuilding. AFD is involved in prevention, as well as during and after conflicts, and has become a full-fledged actor in peace and resilience for populations.

Our approach

The proliferation of crisis and conflict situations makes AFD’s traditional operational contexts increasingly volatile. Entire territories are trapped in protracted crises, requiring an approach that goes beyond simply a response to address them. The necessity to provide a swift response to crises is thereby coupled with the need to address the structural difficulties of these territories, which are often revealed and/or exacerbated by crises.

As AFD is increasingly required to coordinate emergency responses with development projects, without abandoning its mandate as a developer, it has established a specific strategy for the response to crises and conflicts. This strategy aims to reduce the risk of crises undermining the development achievements and prospects of our partners and limit the spillover effects.

AFD’s strategy identifies three main objectives:

Reduce the determinants of crises: AFD works on conflict prevention and increasing the resilience of populations living in these contexts
Strengthen the territories’ response capacities to natural disasters, violent conflicts and/or crises
Improve AFD’s response in the contexts of crises and crisis resolution: transforming AFD’s approaches, partnerships, methods and

instruments to achieve sustainable impacts
To this end, AFD provides its teams with additional support for the preparation of projects implemented in crisis and conflict situations. The teams are trained in how to take into account issues specific to these situations. They are also informed about the use of tools and instruments dedicated to these areas of operation. AFD has thereby developed:

Specific consideration to improve the intervention in countries experiencing crises and conflicts
Operating methods tailored to situations where the contracting authorities are weak
Financial instruments and tools tailored to the specific characteristics of these contexts (such as rapidly changing situations and an increasing number of barriers to the implementation of projects)

Coordinating a development mandate, humanitarian action and peacebuilding

Launched in 2017 as part of France’s “Prevention, Resilience and Sustainable Peace” strategy, th is AFD’s peacebuilding tool. Minka provides €200 million per year to finance medium- and long-term structuring interventions. Its activities primarily focus on the determinants of crises, while taking their direct effects into account. Minka is structured around the prevention of violent conflicts. It is also involved during crises and in post-crisis support.

Minka comprises four initiatives: Sahel, Lake Chad, Central African Republic and Middle East. These interventions correspond to France’s diplomatic priorities and are in line with Sustainable Development Goal n°16 to promote just, peaceful and inclusive societies.

This approach builds bridges between the humanitarian and stabilization activities carried out by the Crisis and Support Center (CDCS) of the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs and the development activities financed by AFD. Minka projects stand out from conventional projects through their approach tailored to crisis and conflict situations, their simplified procedures, and the visible results they produce in the short and medium term.

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Women and girls are the primary victims of armed conflicts, but they are excluded from crisis management and conflict resolution processes.

Through its Resolution 1325 on “Women, Peace and Security” of 31 October 2000, the United Nations Security Council recognizes for the first time that respect for women’s rights, their protection, and their full participation in decision-making processes are an effective way of preventing conflicts and promoting sustainable peace.

France is actively working towards this agenda as part of its feminist diplomacy and has adopted three successive “Women, Peace and Security” National Action Plans (NAP). In accordance with the recommendations of the High Council for Equality, the third NAP 2021-2025, which aims to “take gender issues into account in all France’s action for peace and security”, makes AFD a leading actor in its implementation.

The link between climate change and security is becoming increasingly prominent in the scientific literature and in international forums. Indeed, climate change acts as a catalyst for crises and conflicts, as it exacerbates other
vulnerabilities. Its effects thereby compound the challenges of population growth and rapid urbanization, growing demand for resources, environmental degradation and unequal development. This increases existing risks of vulnerability and conflict.

Taking account of the multi-dimensional effect, which also depends on the context of climate change, helps tackle social exclusion and strengthen AFD’s action for sustainable peace. Marginalized groups (women, young people, people living in poverty) are often more exposed to the adverse effects of climate change. They are also excluded from decision-making processes, whereas they can play a key role in the resolution of crises and conflicts.

It involves building bridges between peacebuilding projects and climate change adaptation projects to make them more sensitive towards each other, without hindering action.

In areas where the outbreak of tensions can trigger crises, projects are implemented to reduce their root causes. They target various aspects, such as feelings of injustice, lack of access to basic services, and competition for access to natural resources.

The aim of prevention is to help ensure that informed decisions are made to avoid shocks, or a situation suddenly escalating into a crisis. Indeed, the “cost of inaction” in crisis prevention is exorbitant: lost development opportunities, human costs, budgetary costs (external interventions, humanitarian aid), and contagion risks. Prevention costs two to seven times less than the management of violent conflicts depending on the country.

Objectives of the approach:

Produce diagnostics and forward-looking analyses by analyzing the social, economic, political, environmental and security situation of the area
Ensure that the tensions identified are taken into account in our intervention strategies
Implement projects that address the root causes of tensions in order to increase the resilience of populations, territories and institutions in an unstable environment

AFD has forged partnerships with the stakeholders most capable of strengthening its action in crisis and conflict situations.

To prevent crises, identify risk and integrate the needs of populations, AFD works with think tanks that have extensive knowledge of its areas of operation: the International Crisis Group (ICG), URD Group and the French Institute of the Near East (IFPO).

To strengthen its action between humanitarian aid and development, AFD has established partnerships with the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). These partners, which are recognized as being neutral and independent, implement development projects with AFD grants and contribute to strengthening its legitimacy.

To implement projects, AFD supports civil society organizations (CSOs) in France or from its countries of operation. AFD offers a wide range of tools tailored to the needs of CSOs and to their added value. An infographic available online gives details of the range of financing for CSOs.