While 2023 has confirmed that a geopolitical reconfiguration is now underway with a growing number of conflicts and a greater presence of the “Global South”, we are also seeing a stronger drive for international cooperation. Countering the hypothesis of inward-looking attitudes, three out of four Europeans call for collective responses to the global challenges. International fora are pulling in crowds: nearly 100,000 people were present for the Dubai-hosted COP28 in December; the whole world will come together in Paris for the Olympic and Paralympic Games; and in June 2023, the international community met in Paris to lay the foundations for a new global financing pact at the initiative of the President of the Repubic. The resulting Paris Pact for People and the Planet (4P) sets out four principles to make the message of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) simple and accessible:
1. No country should have to choose between fighting poverty and fighting for the planet.
2. Each country should adopt its own development and climate transition pathway, while meeting the international commitments of the 2015 Paris Agreement.
3. More resources must be allocated to support the most vulnerable economies through a “concessionality shock”.
4. We need to unite to leverage far more private capital to finance the global commons.
This groundbreaking new matrix is what guides the actions of AFD Group. It could also inspire our peers — the 530 public development banks around the globe — that we are striving to bring together into the Finance in Common (FiCS) movement. Together, we wish not only to ensure that attention and solidarity is focused on the most vulnerable populations and territories – to finance what no one is financing —, but also to redirect the entire financial system towards our common goods — by leveraging private finance. This means supporting and spreading the sustainable development solutions that are emerging in the four corners of the world: from South Africa to Vietnam or Senegal through the Just Energy Transition Partnerships (JET-P); in Brazil or Rwanda with sustainable financial systems; in Kazakhstan with its water-saving policies; in Papua New Guinea or the Congo Basin through the protection of forests and biodiversity reserves. All initiatives supported by AFD Group.
As the first bank to fully align with the Paris Agreement, AFD has reached a record €7.5 billion of climate finance, thus hitting 85% of France’s climate finance target. An effort, as well, to protect nature: our objective of committing €1 billion to biodiversity by 2025 was already surpassed in 2023. With an activity of over €13 billion, AFD Group has now set its sights on becoming 100% SDG-compliant and, to achieve this, it applies a clear methodology to analyse sustainable development that now serves as a quality standard for our refinancing on the markets.
To boost this momentum, the Group is creating and strengthening its partnerships. With over 300 civil society organisations from both the North and South supported in 2023 to sustain the dynamics of economic, ecological and social change that is respectful of rights and the environment. With nearly 70 French regional and local authorities in order for them to forge reciprocity-based ties with their peers. With the private sector, where the know-how and expertise of French businesses are clearly untied to aid. More broadly, the Group is mobilising in step with all development finance players, as shown by our renewed partnership with the World Bank, for which we are now the leading global partner, or by the strategy launched in 2023 by our subsidiary Proparco of mobilising €1 of private finance for €1 euro of its own operations.
Finally, 2023 was a year of consolidation for AFD Group. Its configuration with three entities — AFD, Proparco and now Expertise France — is unique in the international development landscape. This format enables us to propose our clients and partners a broader, more flexible and better tailored offering. With a full raft of useful instruments to hand, our Group can step back from its tools to listen and respond more closely to our clients’ and partners’ contexts and expectations. Our corporate social responsibility (CSR) approach continues to be a key pillar for structuring our operations in social, environmental and ethical matters, respecting human rights, fighting corruption and ensuring transparency, as Moody’s non-financial rating recognised at the close of 2023. Committed and socially responsible, AFD is working to reduce its environmental footprint and promote in-house parity and diversity.
This strategy review foregrounds the high points of the Group, backed by its 4,500 staff and experts fulfilling our mandate from our Paris headquarters, our Campus in Marseille, and the 160 countries and overseas territories where we are committed. Lastly,
2024 is the year of a new Means and Objectives Contract signed with the State and our first Strategic Orientation Plan in an AFD Group format, which clarifies our ambition, our positioning and our commitments until 2029, the final year before the SDG deadline. It is my hope that all our collective potential for creation and momentum can be deployed to serve our clients and with our partners so that we can respond to their needs ever more effectively and help deepen and renew our ties.
