The finance bill for 2025, presented this Thursday, October 10, provides for a reduction of more than 20% in aid aimed at supporting the most vulnerable countries and populations. Against the commitments made by Emmanuel Macron.
New blow for international solidarity. The finance bill for 2025, presented this Thursday, October 10 to the Council of Ministers, provides for a further drastic reduction in the budgetary envelope devoted to public development assistance (ODA), which brings together public financing intended for poor countries and emerging. France plans to devote 5.2 billion euros to it, a reduction of more than 20% compared to the previous year (6.5 billion euros).
This announcement, although expected, is causing a stir within associations helping the most deprived. ODA plays a vital role in the fight against poverty and inequality, financing programs such as the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis. Especially since the budget devoted to the “Solidarity with developing countries” program provides for an even greater reduction: around -33% compared to the previous year.
A drop of 740 million euros in February
“It’s a huge cut and completely incomprehensible given the global contextprotests Olivier Bruyeron, president of Coordination SUD, a platform which brings together 180 French international solidarity NGOs. We are witnessing an increase in conflicts and crises linked to climate change. With what means will France now be able to meet the needs of the population? Concretely, this cut of more than 1.3 billion in the budget is equivalent to the elimination of thousands of projects carried out with vulnerable people or even to the end of educational support for millions of children.
Coordination SUD also denounces the creation of the “Solidarity Fund for Development” program, which was previously outside the budget, and directly funded by the tax on financial transactions and the tax on plane tickets. “Not only was this financing protected, but it also ensured the contribution of two capital-intensive sectors. As this mechanism ends, the ODA budget is even more precarious”specifies Olivier Bruyeron.
This is the second time, in less than a year, that the ODA budget has been sacrificed. In February, the former Minister of Economy and Finance, Bruno Le Maire, announced a drastic reduction of 740 million euros, or 13% of his budgetary resources in 2024 on this aspect. A few months earlier, President Emmanuel Macron still called for a surge in global solidarity, in front of an audience of heads of state gathered at a summit for “a new financial and global pact.”
Since his election in 2017, the tenant of the Elysée had promised to consolidate the means of France’s international action. The August 2021 programming law even included the objective of reaching 0.7% of gross national income (GNI) dedicated to ODA by 2025, in accordance with an objective set in 1970 by the Assembly of United Nations for rich countries. The following year, France thus became the fourth largest provider of aid in the world, particularly in the sectors of the environment, equality between women and men, education and even health. Since then, the 0.7% objective has been postponed to 2030. With this new cut announced on October 10, France could lose all the efforts made over the last seven years.
Related News :