Education for Citizenship and International Solidarity

Éducation à la citoyenneté et à la solidarité internationale, l'action de l'AFD — © Kibuuka Mukisa Oscar / AFD

Our commitment

Education for Citizenship and International Solidarity (Éducation à la citoyenneté et à la solidarité internationale, or ECSI) plays a key role in addressing today’s major global challenges and in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. By raising public awareness of these issues and of international development and solidarity policies, ECSI helps foster civic engagement for a more just, inclusive, and sustainable world.

Since 2009, AFD has supported ECSI initiatives led by French civil society organizations.

Our approach

One of the strengths of French civil society lies in its ability to inform, raise awareness of global challenges and universal values, and encourage citizens to take action at their own level for sustainable development and international solidarity. Civil society organizations (CSOs) are recognized as key actors in civic engagement, both internationally and across French territories.

Promoting the values of solidarity and citizenship, fostering global dialogue and exchange, supporting active civic participation, challenging stereotypes, and offering pathways for individual or collective engagement are all objectives of the ECSI projects supported by AFD.

Through a wide range of methods and tools, ECSI reaches increasingly diverse audiences: young people in schools and during extracurricular activities, as well as festival-goers, consumers, and citizens of all ages.

Supporting the ECSI programs of French civil society organizations

ECSI promotes values that are essential to the resilience of our societies: solidarity and citizenship. By fostering cohesion among citizens from different countries, these values are also key to driving the transition toward a fairer and more sustainable world.

ECSI actors carry out a wide range of awareness-raising activities on topics such as living together, the environment, inequality, and human rights. ECSI reaches a broad audience, including schoolchildren and teachers, students, rural residents, adults from all backgrounds, organizations, and institutions. These initiatives encourage mutual understanding between generations and cultures, and support civic engagement for sustainable development. To help spread ECSI values, CSOs are developing innovative tools for educators and civic mobilization stakeholders.

ECSI initiatives are also rooted in local communities. Associations, collectives, and universities involved in international cooperation mobilize citizens in support of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and help strengthen solidarity between territories. Encounters and exchanges between communities, particularly among young people, build empowerment and contribute to reducing inequalities.

Skills-based volunteering and FONJEP positions (Fonds de coopération de la jeunesse et de l’éducation populaire), supported by AFD, also help strengthen the capacity of CSOs working in the field of ECSI.

ECSI also aims to raise awareness of the potential damage done by certain environmental, production and consumption patterns. When they are well informed of these issues - and the alternatives - they can change their consumption patterns and buy from channels that operate with more solidarity and respect for human rights and the environment.

These activities also defend the rights of women workers and human rights in production chains, value the work of people who respect these values and promote local consumption.

While providing the public with information about their energy consumption, the use of scarce resources, waste production and management, ECSI also offers alternative models of equitable and solidarity-based tourism and solidarity-based finance to address the current climate and social challenges.

Civil Society Organizations have initiated key annual events to promote the values of Education for Citizenship and International Solidarity. AFD supports them in these citizen mobilization missions targeting the general public.

These convivial events, gathering voluntary, sociocultural, economic and school stakeholders, are organized to mobilize the commitment of citizens of all ages for a fairer, more inclusive and more responsible world. Gathered for a week-end of concerts at the Solidays Festival, supported by AFD, participants also contribute to the fight against AIDS and have the opportunity to discuss international solidarity issues.

We also support thematic festivals to raise awareness of global food issues (Alimenterre Festival) and fight against discrimination (Migrant’Scène Festival).

Find out more about how AFD is raising awareness