France to evaluate overseas aid following criticism
France has created a commission to assess the impact and transparency of its development aid, following allegations by the right that taxpayers’ money is being squandered overseas, reported RFI on March 2nd.
This comes after the new Trump administration in the United States froze its foreign aid programmes.
Pressure from the conservative-dominated Senate saw France’s Official Development Assistance (ODA) budget was cut by 35% in the recently approved spending bill. The ODA budget for this year now stands at €3.8 billion.
Minister of foreign affairs Jean-Noël Barrot announced in February the creation of a commission to evaluate ODA, mentioning the need for transparency and accountability.
He told French TV channel CNews in an interview “we will assess projects on a case by case basis to ensure that what we are doing serves either the direct or indirect interests of French people.”
This came after criticisms from the right over the effectiveness of ODA. A recent issue of right-wing newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche (JDD) had the headline “scandal: billions squandered on aid to foreign countries”. The paper described ODA as “obscure,” “absurd” and “obsessed with gender issues”.
The far-right National Rally (RN) MP Guillaume Bigot who wrote a parliamentary report on ODA called for a moratorium on development aid, which he said was “unaccountable,” “costly” and “ineffective”. He also asked why France was directing funds abroad when it is struggling with a record deficit.
“In the beginning (ODA) was aimed at our former colonies and the poorest countries. It is now tinged with globalist ideology,” he told the JDD. “We are helping the development of the private sector, countries with which we have few links or that don’t need the aid – even hostile countries.”
On February 26th, president Trump announced termination of 90% of its foreign assistance grants and awards, administered by USAID, cuts which amounted to $60 billion.
The State Department said the move came after a review of foreign aid “to ensure taxpayer dollars were used to make America stronger, safer, and more prosperous”.
Head of France’s Court of Auditors Pierre Moscovici sees similarities between this US rhetoric and criticism of France’s ODA. “A bit of Trumpism, a lot of xenophobia. Our ODA must of course be evaluated, which it is, but not in ignorance and bad faith” he wrote on X (formerly Twitter).
Moscovici argued foreign aid was “an asset for our influence and our economic presence in the world”.
RFI
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