Question 14605 — foreign policy

Summary

Ms. Laure de La Raudière questions the Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs on bilateral aid to education devoted by France to sub-Saharan Africa and to the 17 countries designated as priorities for French development aid (ODA) by the Interministerial Committee for International Cooperation and Development, on which France is committed to concentrating its efforts in terms of subsidies. According to the figures declared by France to the OECD Development Assistance Committee in terms of ODA for the year 2016, which are the latest data available, France has devoted 992 million euros ($1,133 million) in bilateral aid to education in developing countries this year. Of this total, only 25.7% is directed to sub-Saharan African countries, 17.7% to ODA priority countries and 4.2% towards the Sahel. Support for basic education systems, which includes preschool, primary and literacy as well as the acquisition of “basic” skills for adults according to the definition of basic education used by UNESCO, as well as by the Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs, represents only 13% of bilateral aid to education in sub-Saharan African countries and 25% in Sahel countries. Basic education must be provided to everyone without discrimination or exclusion to the extent that it aims at the acquisition of knowledge and skills to meet fundamental needs and the full development of the human person. In 2019 France will chair the G7. In this perspective, she displayed the political will to lead with Africa the battle against inequalities and to launch a global momentum for education, of which it intends to take leadership. This is a positive message that should be welcomed and which must be a vector of reinforced support from France for education in sub-Saharan African countries where, according to the UN, the number of children in school will increase to reach 444 million in 2030. Education in developing countries is also a major subject in view of the migration crisis facing Europe must face it. Teaching children to read, to write, to count, is to offer them the possibility of being free and emancipating themselves from old systems. It allows them to access a more qualified job than those of their parents, and not to see the West as the only outlet for their difficulties. In order for bilateral education aid to meet the most fundamental and urgent educational needs, it asks what measures enabling real prioritization of the poorest countries and basic education in bilateral education aid are currently being considered. She would also like to know what commitments will be made, within the framework of the 2019 G7, so that France contributes, in coordination with the entire international community, including partner countries, to strengthening the capacities of the most fragile States in in the design and implementation of educational policies.

Machine translation from French. The official text remains authoritative.

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