Vive la république, vive la France

Bon je sais bien que la mode est aux banlieues, de CNN à RFI, mais je vous conseille quand même pour ceux qui ont du temps libre de lire ce rapport de Coordination Sud sur l’aide au développement française (ou au moins le résumé que je vous ai dégoté ci-dessous :-) en anglais sorry ! mais je vous ai mis des décryptages et en rouge mes passages préférés pour les + flemmards). Ca n’est qu’un rapport parmi des dizaines qui critiquent la coopération française, mais vu qu’il vient de paraître et qu’il n’y a aucune chance que les médias français s’en saisissent, je lui donne un p’tit coup de pub !!

Quand je pense que certains m’ont sorti comme argument pour voter non à la Constitution que donner de l’argent à la Commission Européenne pour faire de l’aide au développement c’était comme le jeter par la fenêtre…. Lisez un peu où l’argent des contribuables français va au lieu d’aller aux pays les plus pauvres - sans compter qu'en 2004, quel a été le 3e plus gros récipiendaire "d'aide au développement" francaise ?? la Cote d'Ivoire, eh oui, en pleine guerre civile, sans état, un gros chèque en blanc pour les pauvres ....euh oups je veux dire pour l'armée francaise...

Et en kdo la liste des pays recevant le plus d'"aide au développement francaise" ... tiens c'est bizarre, mais ou sont donc passés les pays les plus pauvres???

perso je n’ai jamais payé d’impôts en France donc va savoir pourquoi ça m’énerve autant ???

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 French ODA and the Politics of Development Cooperation, Coordination Sud, November 2005 - For the full report (in French) see: http://www.coordinationsud.org/article.php3?id_article=2380

French NGO, Coordination Sud, has published a new report on French Official Development Aid (ODA) and the politics of development cooperation. The new report is a stock-take on the implementation of the French Government’s promise to increase development aid (to 0.5% of GNI by 2007 and 0.7% by 2012) as well as an analysis of the contribution of French ODA to achievement of the MDGs. The report explores both the quantity and quality of French ODA and goes into significant detail into the very high (and increasing) levels of “false” aid.

 “Artificial” aid

The report finds that, in line with the government’s commitments, French ODA has increased. Indeed leads among the G-7 nations in terms of ODA/GNI. However this increase is above all due to debt cancellation exercises agreed at the multilateral level. In fact, says the report, debt cancellation represented 40% of French ODA in 2003. Worse, most of the so-called “beneficiary” countries were unable to service their debt in the first place. This means that these cancellations have a very limited impact on the countries concerned.

Moreover, a significant part of the cancelled debt was in fact export credit debt – generated by French Export Credit Agency COFACE [ndmailan : c’est a dire des crédits et des garanties aux entreprises françaises qui veulent faire des affaires dans les pays en développement, pour qu’elles n’en supportent pas les risques (risque de change, risque de crise politique, etc.]. The purpose of export credit operations is clearly very distinct from that of development, says the report, and therefore the cancellation of these debts should never be counted as aid. Aid figures are also artificially boosted by the inclusion of at least three further spheres of so-called “cooperation” with developing countries: a) the reception of refugees; b) funding of developing country students in ; c) expenses related to the overseas countries and territories (OCTs).

Combined, this means that “real” French ODA amounts to only 44.4% of the ODA reported officially.

Indeed the OECD DAC [ndmailan: Comité d’Aide au Développement de l’OCDE, compose de tous les pays développés] openly admits that caution should be exercised in any consideration of French ODA. According to the OECD DAC “a significant part of the current growth is due to debt cancellation processes in the framework of the HIPC Initiative […]. The increase in ODA has barely translated into a flow of fresh money towards developing countries […]. The sheer scale of these processes of debt reduction has not allowed increases in ODA to support, by way of appropriate budgetary choices, the strategic priorities of French ODA, of which the achievement of the MDGs is one”. The report argues that cancelling debts which were not being repaid anyway (and which are fundamentally uncollectible) represents no display of solidarity. It represents a simple book-keeping exercise for the creditors. Instead creditors need to acknowledge their co-responsibility for the debt crisis via the promotion of their own exports and politically motivated lending practices.

-         In 2001, French ODA stood at EURO 4.63bn (0.32% of GNI). In 2005, ODA will reach EURO 7.5bn (0.5% of GNI). According to the French Treasury however, during this same period the amount of debt cancelled and counted as ODA has increased five-fold. In 2005, EURO 2.25bn of French ODA represents debt cancellation operations. Debt cancellation represents therefore 40% of French ODA;

-         This figure is surpassed only by which stood at 40.6% of ODA on debt cancellation operations in 2003. Italy followed at 24.6%, at 18.9%. The OECD DAC average is 13.5%;

-         According to the report, “real” French ODA in 2003 amounted to only 0.26% of GNI (EURO 4bn);

-         Global ODA generated by Iraqi debt cancellation alone represents US$16bn. On average for OECD DAC countries, this will artificially inflate members’ aid figures by 21%. However the figures disaggregated are even more damning. Iraqi debt cancellation could inflate aid by 21%, by 45%, by 29% and by 13%. Italian aid will increase by 66% due to Iraqi debt cancellation and Austrian aid by a staggering 142%. For the figure is 11%.