France

In November 2011, the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs held a national humanitarian conference that assembled senior representatives of both French and EU administrations, NGOs, CSOs and the UN to discuss major policy proposals to enhance the country’s humanitarian engagement. Immediate policy efforts are likely to centre on adopting and promoting the European Consensus on Humanitarian Aid and on developing a national humanitarian policy framework in conjunction with national agencies/actors.

France reaffirmed its commitments to the European Consensus on Humanitarian Aid and the UN General Assembly Resolution 46/182 on strengthening the coordination of humanitarian assistance, and to the principles and practice of Good Humanitarian Donorship.

In terms of humanitarian financing, France is the ninth largest government donor of humanitarian aid. Although its bilateral contributions are currently modest, amounting to between US$22.6 million and US$56.2 million in each of the last five years (or 4.6% of its bilateral official development assistance (ODA)), these rise to between US$390.7 million and US$464.2 million when multilateral (i.e. core totally unearmarked) ODA contributions to UNHCR, UNRWA, WFP and, notably, to EU institutions are taken into account.

Proposals have been made to increase the resources that France makes available for humanitarian/reconstruction activities. The report “Analyses et propositions sur l’action humanitaire dans les situations de crise et de post-crise”, which was instrumental in making the policy recommendations adopted at the 2011 conference, suggests that we might see increased expenditure on reconstruction programmes, increased expenditure through French NGOs and increased participation in the UN reform process (including support for appeals and humanitarian funding mechanisms). Recommendations were also made to increase engagement with the public and to bolster France’s research/academic capacity.

Key references

Analyses et propositions sur l’action humanitaire dans les situations de crise et de post-crise, March 2010

DAC Peer Review, 2008

Le Centre de crise (CDC)

Le Ministère des Affaires étrangères et européennes