“Continuing to adapt to our partners’ needs”


With JÉRÉMIE PELLET,
CEO of Expertise France

and RÉMY RIOUX,
AFD Group CEO and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Expertise France

What can we expect from the new Strategic Guidelines, which will be the first in AFD Group format?

R. R. The next Strategic Guidelines will take us through to 2029 – right before the deadline for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. They will complete our consolidation efforts which began with the integration of Expertise France in 2022 and will harness our collective potential to benefit our clients, in collaboration with all our partners in France, Europe, and around the world. By capitalizing on the diversity of the work carried out by our three entities and the full range of tools at our disposal, the AFD Group 2024-2029 Strategic Guidelines will equip us with a unique strategy and clarify our role in representing France: a group that is “by your side,” “100% focused on the SDGs,” with a “mobilization platform.” These three commitments present challenges we will need to overcome. We will do this by pooling all our means, resources, and know-how, particularly through the movement of staff between AFD and Expertise France, something which is happening more frequently. And we will be even more attentive and respectful of our clients and partners to even more effectively meet their needs and further strengthen our ties.

These new Strategic Guidelines and the two resulting agreements on targets and resources are a continuation of the Group’s aims, in keeping with the guidelines laid out by the French law of August 4, 2021, the CPD, the CICID, the CIOM, and the Paris Pact for People and the Planet. They are fully aligned with the multilateral framework set by the 2030 Agenda, the Paris Climate Agreement, the Addis Ababa Peace Security, and Cooperation Framework, the Sendai Framework, and the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, which have guided our actions since 2015. Between now and 2025, when the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development in Spain and the COP 30 Climate Summit will be held in Brazil, our Group is ready to support sustainable development solutions that are emerging and spreading across the globe. This will be made possible by the commitment of all our employees and support from the Public Development Banks that are part of the Finance in Common network.

Expertise France will celebrate its tenth anniversary at the end of the year. How do you assess this first decade?

J. P. Our record is extremely positive. As a result of its dual role as both an interministerial agency for technical cooperation and an AFD Group operator, Expertise France uses a partnership approach to efficiently and consistently meet France’s priorities for inclusive and sustainable development. Following our expansion, in 2020 we became the second largest technical cooperation organization in Europe, reflecting France’s efforts to foster inclusive development, within which technical cooperation plays a key role.

At the European level, our integration into AFD Group has bolstered our dialogue with our counterparts and EU institutions. In 2023, for the second time, Expertise France held the presidency of the Practitioners’ Network for European Development Cooperation. I made it my mission to better organize and strengthen this network, using a Team Europe approach.

Thanks to the growth in our business and the doubling of our volume of business in the past five years (close to €400 million in 2023), Expertise France has bolstered our position on the international stage in all sectors, from health and biodiversity to economic development, culture, and heritage, as well as in new areas such as cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, and space. To support and sustainably structure this growth, we are strengthening our network on the ground. In 2023, we decided to decentralize our work even further. This is reflected in stronger networks with AFD in the field.

Expertise France has bolstered our position on the international stage in all sectors.

How is AFD Group strengthening its action on the ground?

R. R. With a network of around 4,500 employees working in more than 150 countries and 11 French overseas departments and territories, our Group is engaging in a dialogue around local public policies with all our partners and clients. Our aim is to meet the development strategies of France’s overseas provinces and the countries in which we operate. Staff in each entity coordinate their efforts to ensure that our work fosters connections between the public and private sectors and takes the institutional contexts into account. I can’t overstate the importance of our shared network. Since 2023, our geographic coverage has grown, with five regional AFD-Expertise France-Proparco teams that are working to provide Group solutions on the ground in the Andes, South Asia, Southeast Asia, Eurasia, and North Africa regions. This process is far from complete, but we are improving our operational synergies and are moving towards increased decentralization of our resources and decisions to grow ever closer to our final beneficiaries, while managing our risks. Our goal is to capitalize on our shared identity and the Group’s unique added value. We are working towards this in the Group Executive Committee, which now meets regularly with Françoise Lombard, Jérémie Pellet, Marie- Hélène Loison, and Bertrand Walckenaer and listens to all our colleagues. We are committed to responding in a flexible and agile way to meet the needs of the most vulnerable populations and have a greater positive impact on global public goods.

The year 2023 was marked by numerous crises in Expertise France program areas. How have you adapted to these international events?

J. P. Of course, the work of Expertise France has been affected. But working in crisis zones is a core part of what we do. Our action in countries in crisis contributes to our aim of establishing, strengthening, or rebuilding strong public institutions and supporting private sector development. We also want to ensure that people receive essential public services. Working in sensitive contexts is part of our raison d’être, as is adapting our support to the specific needs of our partners: our projects are customized.

To do so, we use a broad range of tools including project teams in the French ministries and alongside our partners, the provision of technical support, and our network of international technical experts. These tools are one of our key assets and allow us to remain agile and effective in all situations.

Our ongoing decentralization process and our transformation are both intended to better meet our partners’ needs. We need to keep rethinking the way we operate. Expertise France and the entire AFD Group are at a pivotal moment that requires us to adapt to better meet our partners’ needs and tackle the challenges of a perpetually changing world.

Remarks collected in May 2024.

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