Billet et image Banque de France
PROGRAM / HISTORY SYMPOSIUM
AGENCE FRANÇAISE DE DÉVELOPPEMENT
1941 – 2016: 75 YEARS OF COMMITMENT
The Agency, its Origins, its Partners and its Fields of Action
NOVEMBER 30TH 2016, FROM 9.00AM TO 6.30PM
MISTRAL AUDITORIUM (AFD)
3 PLACE LOUIS ARMAND PARIS XII
1941 – 2016: 75 YEARS OF COMMITMENT
The Agency, its Origins, its Partners and its Fields of Action
In 1941, while the Second World War was in full swing, in London, General de Gaulle
created the Caisse Centrale de la France Libre (CCFL), the earliest precursor ancestor
of the Agence Française de Développement (AFD). At the time, the Institution’s purpose
was to provide the administration of Free France with a Treasury and Central Bank.
The Caisse Centrale’s area of influence rapidly expanded in both the French Overseas
Territories and Africa, and the Institution’s monetary role was reduced in order to
focus on project financing. Over the years, the Caisse Centrale de la France Libre
(CCFL), which became the Caisse de la France d’Outre-mer (CCFOM) in 1945,
the Caisse de Coopération Economique (CCCE) in 1958, the Caisse Française de
Développement in 1992 and, finally, the Agence Française de Développement in
1998, has developed its missions, partners and fields of action in order to adapt to
changes in the international context and in the issues surrounding global development.
While the AFD is currently celebrating its 75th anniversary, it is gearing up to
experience a new critical period in its history. Faced with the increasing importance
of climate, migration and demographic issues, and at a time when the international
community has just redefined the contours of its framework for action (adoption
of the Sustainable development Goals and Paris Climate Agreement in 2015),
the AFD’s role has doubtless never been so important. It is in this context that the
French President wished to give the AFD the means to scale up, in particular by
announcing, in august 2015, the establishment of closer ties with the Caisse des
Dépôts et Consignations (CDC).
At a time when unprecedented opportunities are opening up to the AFD, there is a
need to look back at the history of the Institution and to use this occasion to grasp,
over the long term, the components and determinants of the public policies which
AFD has been contributing to for the past 75 years.
Open by Rémy Rioux, Managing Director of the AFD, and by Akinwumi Adesina,
President of the African Development Bank, this symposium will include a number
of eminent speakers (researchers, historians, academics) and will alternate between
academic research presentations, testimonials, debates and the screening of photos
and archive films.
English-French interpretation
8:30 - 9:00
Reception of participants
9:00 - 9:30
Opening session of AFD’s 75th anniversary
celebration week
By:
• Rémy Rioux, Managing Director of the AFD
• Akinwumi Adesina, President of the African Development Bank
9:30 - 11:00
Session 1: The spirit of laws
Facilitator:
Christophe Courtin, Development Practitioner, international consultant on issues
related to civil society, human rights and the rule of law.
The Law of 30 April 1946, directly inspired by André Postel-Vinay, Managing Director
of the Caisse de la France d’Outre-mer (CCFOM), shaped France’s approach
to development assistance. Over the years, the strategic role of the Caisse has
increased. Profound financial, geographical and sectoral transformations have been
undertaken, in particular during the Jean-Michel Severino period. In July 2014,
68 years after the Law of 1946, France’s development and international solidarity
policy was subject to a new public and parliamentary debate, with the adoption
of an Orientation and Programming law (LOPDSI).
Speakers:
• Victoria Lickert, Doctor of Political Science, associate at CEESP-Paris I
ACADEMIC VIEWPOINT
“The Law of 1946: the Brazzaville Conference and the origins of the French
‘cooperation’ machinery”.
• Pr Gordon Cumming, Professor at Cardiff University
ACADEMIC PRESENTATION
“Transforming the AFD and French development assistance: the Severino years”.
• Pascal Canfin, former Minister of Development
TESTIMONIAL
“The Orientation and Programming Law on Development and International Solidarity
– origin, debates and beginnings”.
11:00 - 11:30
Coffee break
11:30 - 13:00
Session 2: Operations
Facilitator:
• Pr Gordon Cumming, Professor at Cardiff University
Over the past 75 years, the Law of 1946 has led to a number of achievements in
French overseas local authorities and ‘departments’ as well as in former African
colonies. Over fifty subsidiaries have been created in the electricity, housing and
credit sectors. While in certain cases the link between the AFD and these activities
has now weakened or no longer exists, this network has provided a response
to the major development challenges and it is one which remains unique in the
history of aid.
Speakers:
• Thierry Cornaille, Chairman of the Banque Calédonienne d’Investissement,
former New - Caledonian Minister of the Economy
TESTIMONIAL
“The history of the New - Caledonia Housing Company (SIC)”.
• Vincent Duchaussoy, Doctor of Economic History, Rouen University
ACADEMIC VIEWPOINT
“The Caisse Centrale’s ‘Law of 1946’ bank subsidiaries in Africa”.
• Philippe Bauduin, Deputy Managing Director of AFD
TESTIMONIAL
“The Caisse Centrale’s ‘Law of 1946’ bank subsidiaries in the French overseas territories”.
• Kako Nubukpo, Director of Digital Francophonie at the International Organization
of la Francophonie (OIF)
DISCUSSANT
13:00 - 14:00
Buffet lunch
14:00 - 14:30
Snapshot: the long time span of projects
In the 1950s, the Caisse Centrale was involved in financing the settlement of families
from Reunion Island in Madagascar, with the technical assistance of BDPA (Office
for the Development of Agricultural Production). These families were settled on the
banks of the Sakay, an integral bush area, transformed into a prosperous area by
this rural development project.
A long-term approach, which is less dependent on the immediacy of administrative
life and the project cycle, transcends successive aid policies, the discourse, the
institutions and people. The intergenerational shock waves of the Sakay project
initiated in Madagascar in 1952 are an example of this.
FILMS AND ARCHIVE PHOTOS
“From Réunion to Madagascar, a look back at a major project from the 1950s: Sakay”.
By:
• Luc Bongrand, Author-Director
• Nicolas Courtin, Deputy Editor-in-Chief of the review Afrique Contemporaine
14:30 - 16:00
Session 3: The Actors
Facilitator:
• Laurence Badel, Professor at Paris I University
The definition and implementation of public policies and development projects
increasingly call on a wide range of actors, stakeholders and participants, whose
combined action enriches the field of international cooperation. Local governments,
associations, economic circles: understanding the AFD’s history requires looking
at these actors and at the long-standing and new relations which the AFD has
with them.
Speakers:
• Sadio Soukouna, Doctor of Political Science at Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne
University
ACADEMIC PRESENTATION
“The international cooperation work of local governments under the influence of
networks of interdependence and interplay among actors (Canada, France, Mali)”.
• Christophe Mestre, Professor at the International Center for Local Development
Studies (CIEDEL)
COMMENTS
“The international action of regional and local authorities”.
• Victoria Lickert, Doctor of Political Science, associate at CEESP - Paris I
ACADEMIC PRESENTATION
“The French business community, the AFD and Africa in the 1990s”.
• Lola Wilhelm, Doctoral student at the Graduate Institute of International and
Development Studies in Geneva
ACADEMIC PRESENTATION
“French associations and cooperation policies from the inter-war years to the dawn
of the postcolonial period: the example of the fight against hunger. European and
transnational prospects”.
16:00 - 16:30
Coffee break
16:30 - 18:00
Fields
Facilitator:
• Véronique Dimier, Professor at the Free University of Brussels
Back in 1975, Ministries asked the AFD to extend it activity beyond its historical
field of operations, to support Haiti, English- and Portuguese-speaking countries
and former Belgian colonies. Further enlargements took place periodically in the
1990s, then more extensively starting in 2002.
Speakers:
• Ron Bevacqua, International consultant
EXPERT VIEWPOINT
“Caisse Française de Développement’s first steps in Cambodia: Microfinance in a
post-crisis country”.
• Magali Dupetit, Doctor of Political Science, Sciences Po Paris
ACADEMIC VIEWPOINT
“The AFD in China”, presentation based on the thesis “The uses of the environment
in foreign policy – The case of Franco-Chinese cooperation (1997-2013)”.
• Éric Jourcin, former economist for Latin America at AFD
TESTIMONIAL
“The AFD in Latin America”, addressing emerging countries, between global public
goods and the Millennium Development Goals.
18:00 - 18:30
Summing-up and conclusion
Summing-up:
• François Pacquement, History Officer at AFD
Conclusion:
• Philippe Bauduin, Deputy Managing Director of AFD
A WORLD
IN COMMON
75 years of commitment
by AFD
#75ansAFD
creation addb.fr
London 1941