France is planning to reduce public development aid by up to 40 percent as part of its 32 billion budget cuts for 2025. French NGOs engaged in international solidarity are deeply concerned about the impact this will have on the worlds most vulnerable populations, especially as the United States the largest provider of overseas aid prepares to withdraw its support entirely.

Frances international solidarity mechanism helps finance development projects around the world on everything from health, food, education, water, to human rights and the fight against inequality. Many programmes are angled in favour of women and girls.

While global warming and conflict mean needs are greater than ever, France's austerity budget for 2025, if passed, would reduce public development assistance (PDA) by more than 2 billion close to 40 percent of its annual funding.

Rolling back development aid

Coordination Sud a collective representing some 180 French non-profits working on international solidarity programmes gathered outside the National Assembly last week to protest the cuts.

We understand everyone has to make an effort" says Elodie Barralon, the groups advocacy officer, but the cuts are "huge compared to compared to any other public service budget."

The cuts follow a growing trend worldwide to roll back development aid.

American presidentDonald Trumphas announced that the US the worlds largest international aid donoris freezing almost all foreign aid.

"We're in a very difficult context because all countries are stepping back on their commitments,especially at the UN level," Barralon says. "And now we have very strong opposition, especially over the Atlantic.

"So France stepping back on the budget will create more crises and send the wrong message internationally. In terms of political commitments, we're tapping into the wrong budget."

Global aid in chaos as Trump proposes to slash funds and dismantle USAID

Listen to a conversation with Elodie Barralon in the Spotlight on France podcastepisode #123

Reneging on France's commitments

Critics say the cuts fly in the face of France's commitments to international solidarity.

In 2021, France signed into law a pledge to reach theUNs targetof spending 0.7 percent of gross national income (GNI) on aid by 2025.

Only Denmark, Germany, Luxembourg and Sweden achieved that goal in 2023, but France was heading in the right direction devoting 0.55 percent of its GNI in that year.

By 2023, France had become the fifth largest international donor behind the US, Germany, Japan, and the UK,according to the OECD.

If the proposed cuts go through, France's contribution will slump to 0.45 percent of GNI. "We'll go back seven years," Barralon says.

It would be a blow to France's image internationally, Coordination Sud's president Olivier Bruyeron adds.

"The proposed policy shows France withdrawing into itself, [it's] an irresponsible abandonment of international solidarity."

It's all the more surprising, he notes, given that during the 2023global climate finance summitin Paris, "France brought together a whole host of heads of state and high-level leaders to do exactly the opposite, saying public and private funding for international solidarity needed to be stepped up".

The cuts will also have a major impact on Frances Development Agency (AFD) a public funded body that grants loans to low income countries. As well as being forced to drop some existing projects, loans will be diverted away from the neediest countries.

"We won't be able to lend at preferential rates, only to countries capable of taking on debt at certain rates, and therefore probably those that need it least," saysGilles Maduit, AFD's Asia coordinator.

"So we'll certainly have to redirect loans towards emerging countries rather than the least developed countries those with the least infrastructure and who need the most help to achieve sustainable development objectives."

He cites the examples ofHaiti, countries in the Sahel and small island nations in the Pacific.

France halts development aid to Mali

Development aid to curb migration?

France's Senate voted the cuts on 16 January, and the 2025budgetwas approved in a joint parliamentary committee last Friday.

While the foreign ministry argues that hefty increases to the development aid budget between 2017 and 2022 will allow the cuts to be offset,Max Brisson, a senator with the conservative rightRepublicans(LR) says savings can be made by choosing beneficiaries more carefully.

"In friendly countries, development aid is essential," he told RFI, citing Cote d'Ivoire and Benin. "But we should question whether development aid should continue to be directed toward countries that have become adversaries of France, such asChinaandAlgeria."

Socialist Senator Rachid Temal regrets the impact on all beneficiaries, but also points to "fewer opportunities for French companies operating in these regions".

Others argue that France's solidarity policy has to be maintained to help curb migration.

"On the one hand, we want to prevent people from coming, to restrict asylum and migration. On the other, we don't want to help them stay in their countries and develop their own economies, noted Green Party Senator Akli Mellouli. It's contradictory."

He cited the French territory ofMayottein the Indian Ocean, which is struggling to cope with a large number of undocumented migrant families from neighbouring Comoros.

"Some political figures talk a lot about reducing illegal immigration to Mayotte. But theComorosmust be developed," Mellouli argued. "When people want to leave their country, they will."

Unicef sounds alarm over child poverty in French overseas departments

Shrinking civic space

Coordination Sud is wary of the political debate linking development aid to migration, preferring to find a way out of the financing conundrum.

We have the solution, says Barralon, referring to solidarity taxes onairline ticketsandfinancial transactionsintroduced under rightwing presidents Jacques Chirac and Nicolas Sarkozy in 2006 and 2012 respectively.

"They were put in place to support and fund development assistance but [their use] was not specified. According to our estimations, the taxes could raise up to 1.6 billion this year that's nearly want they want to cut in the development aid yearly budget."

NGOs are also concerned over what the budget cuts mean for France's non-profit sector, which employs around 50,000 staff and many thousands more as volunteers.

Some of the member organisations of Coordination Sud are already considering redundancy plans in 2025 and perhaps closing down if it goes that far," Barralon says.

For her, the cuts are "very political", with the government under pressure from the far-right, anti-immigrationNational Rallythe largest single party in parliament.

These cuts are also in a wider context of shrinking civic space and far-right populist movements having more of a say", notably pushing for more France-centered politics. Civil society, she says, is no longer seen as "a counter-power and a partner in implementing development aid, but more of a burden and something we have to keep quiet.

"One way of keeping us quiet is to cut the funding."

Originally published on RFI