Côte d'Ivoire

Because nearly 35% of young Ivorians are excluded from education and training systems, AFD supports Côte d’Ivoire in its strategy to provide everyone access to quality education and training, as well as decent jobs.

AFD’s actions in basic education have a dual aim: 

• Expanding access to education in rural areas for poor people and especially girls, via support for the country’s policy to establish local middle schools. Example: 2,500 classrooms will be built for 115,000 students.
• Improving the quality of education via enhanced teacher training. 

AFD also helps develop vocational training and higher education, via support for constructing or refurbishing training institutions, modernizing public universities (through the establishment of a bachelor-master-doctorate system), and digitizing course content. We’ve also provided support for four centers of excellence and developed seven partnerships with institutes of higher learning and universities. 

AFD promotes youth employment in several ways, for example by backing public schemes to support employability and entrepreneurship and by facilitating professional reintegration and civic engagement. In this way we’ve helped nearly 50,000 young people.

AFD’s action in this field has several aims:

• Developing the public and private non-profit healthcare offer, as well as maternal and child care in the west and north of Abidjan
• Consolidating the pillars of the pharmaceutical system by helping to develop a local industry and improve the availability, distribution, regulation, and quality control of medicines   
• Strengthening capacities for pandemic response and epidemiological surveillance
• Enhancing health human resources (via training, organization, management, etc.)

Most of the financing for these programs has come from the first and second Debt Reduction-Development Contracts (C2Ds) between Côte d’Ivoire and France and from a sovereign loan. They have enabled the following:

• Broader adoption of modern contraceptive methods, with prevalence rates up from 13% in 2012 to 20% in 2018
• Improved public accessibility to health services, up from 44% in 2012 to 70% in 2021
•  A sharp reduction in the maternal mortality rate, down from 614 to 385 deaths per 100,000 live births between 2012 and 2021

AFD Group puts its tools at the service of the national territorial development policy that will build the Côte d’Ivoire of tomorrow. 

To promote sustainable urban development, AFD finances the construction of the Bouaké and Yopougon markets. We also provide support for improving the living conditions of the residents of Abidjan via the Development Project for the Restructured Neighborhoods of Abidjan (“Paqra”). A similar project in San Pedro is under appraisal for future development.

AFD’s work with mobility and transport stakeholders strives after several goals:

• Improving the level of service of international corridors linking Côte d’Ivoire with its regional partners
• Developing a quality public transport offer
• Facilitating the exchange and transport of goods and people by improving rural roads and bridges

We also support national programs to reduce gaps in access to drinking water, sanitation, and electricity services throughout the country. These efforts have led to significant results: more than 1.5 million people now enjoy better access to the electricity grid (a figure expected to reach 3 million in 2025), and more than 1 million people now have improved access to the drinking water network (to reach 1.5 million by 2025) and 500,000 to a quality sanitation service.

The agricultural sector plays a key role in the national economy (21% of GDP and 56% of the working population). But it’s also the main driver of deforestation: the forests that covered 16 million hectares in 1960 have now been reduced by 82%.

AFD is working with the Côte d’Ivoire Parks and Reserves Office to enhance its monitoring, management, and preservation capacities over seven protected areas representing 310,000 hectares. We are also working with the Ministry of Water and Forests and with NGOs on the sustainable management of classified forests. This work includes preservation and monitoring of existing forest cover, reforestation, and support for zero-deforestation agriculture and for people living nearby.

AFD also helps support the government’s land policy by financing the issuance of land certificates, which are essential to secure producers’ investments and reduce conflict. Land certificates have already been issued for 76,000 hectares, a figure that will grow by 500,000 hectares in the next six years.

To support the production of vegetables, rice, and corn, AFD is helping to renovate 1,100 hectares of irrigation schemes, made possible by the rehabilitation of two dams. We are also providing support to train producers in the agro-ecological transition, particularly in the cotton sector.

AFD finances projects aimed at strengthening public service in the justice sector, the training of justice personnel, and the protection of minors, as well as at improving the living conditions of detainees. Since 2014, these projects enabled the following:

• Better local coverage for public service in the justice sector, via the construction of facilities such as the Bingerville General Court and the Korhogo and Daloa Courts of Appeal.
• Improvement in prison overcrowding and detention conditions, via the construction of the Guiglo jail and correction facility, as well as in hygiene and sanitation conditions.
• Training of justice professionals via the construction of new buildings for the National Judicial Training Institute in Yamoussoukro and Abidjan. Sharing of expertise with French higher education institutions enabled the holding of 73 training sessions benefiting more than 1,600 justice professionals.
• Improved access to justice thanks to a partnership with the association of women lawyers of Côte d’Ivoire, who have conducted more than 15,000 legal consultations and referrals as part of the project.

To support financial governance, AFD promotes dialog on public financial management through budget support and financial governance assistance projects.

AFD Group supports the development of private enterprises, in particular through its subsidiary Proparco, which has a regional office for West Africa based in Abidjan.
Proparco activities in Côte d’Ivoire include loans, equity investments, and guarantees and technical assistance to banks and microfinance institutions. The companies that benefit from this financing directly or indirectly are in the agribusiness, services, energy, and infrastructure sectors.

Through its bank guarantees via partner financial institutions (SGCI, Ecobank, BICICI, SIB, ALIOS, NSIA and Advans), Ivorian SMEs have been able to access nearly €600 million in loans.

As part of the Choose Africa initiative, Proparco is mobilizing its network of French and Ivorian partners (investment funds, banks, microfinance institutions, and incubators) to support the growth of start-ups, micro-enterprises and SMEs. Côte d’Ivoire represents 30% of Choose Africa’s commitments in West Africa. Between 2018 and 2022, €216 million was committed or facilitated by AFD Group to promote access to credit for Ivorian start-ups, micro-enterprises and SMEs.