While France is doing better than many EU countries on the volume of ODA, increased debt relief has been behind the increasing levels of French ODA of recent years. What is more, a large share of French ODA in recent years was ring-fenced to cover the costs of export-credit debt relief – credit which was not provided for development purposes in the first instance. As the opportunity to use debt relief to boost ODA figures will be soon exhausted, France will need to put in extra efforts to sustain and increase ODA levels, as per its international commitments.

France’s commitment to meet the 0.7% ODA/GNI target and to do so before its EU partners is welcome. Nevertheless, this implies significant financial, administrative and human resource challenges. For this reason, France should not delay in carefully planning all aspects of this scaling up of aid.

France has also been very active in promoting innovative sources of financing for development. It was behind the tax on air travel, as well as one of the supporters of the International Financing Facility. Unfortunately, neither of these initiatives will result in funding additional to commitments that have already been made, while such initiatives have the potential to divert attention from the need to increase official funds for development now.