The consequences of the current economic and financial crisis are hitting the poorest countries, those already weakened considerably by the food crisis, the hardest. At the same time, these very countries must face the consequences of the ecologic crisis, whose most threatening effects have yet to come. In 2000, France along with all United Nations member-States, set eight goals aiming to cut absolute poverty around the world in half by 2015. The year 2010 was an important step in attaining these Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which were reviewed at the two-thirds mark during the United Nations General Assembly in September.

ODA is a crucial means to attain the MDGs. On the European level, France had promised to allocate 0.51% of its Gross National Income to ODA in 2010. But fulfilment of this promise has been far from guaranteed. This observation is all the more alarming as that the meagre amounts allocated to French aid are being used less and less to fight poverty and inequalities, and more and more for dossiers such as fighting immigration and promoting French companies.

Coordination SUD’s Monitoring of Official Development Assistance

The ODA and Innovative Financing Commission produces an annual detailed assessment of French ODA credits, and is developing its expertise on France’s development cooperation policy as a whole and on European and international debates on aid and development financing. Among other things, it represents French NGOs in various European and international networks focusing on ODA (Aid Watch, Reality of Aid, ad hoc preparations for international forums) and development financing.