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La Francophonie is a cultural and linguistic community of more than 175 million people who use French to varying degrees in their daily lives. La Francophonie is also an institutional community of 53 states and governments on five continents. These states and governments have signed La Francophonie’s Charter. Ten other states currently monitor La Francophonie’s efforts as observers.
Three policy mechanisms steer the activities of La Francophonie: the summits, which bring heads of state and government together every two years; the Ministerial Conference of La Francophonie; and the Permanent Council of La Francophonie. Together, these mechanisms guide and monitor the work of the International Organization of La Francophonie (OIF), in cooperation with the four direct operators of multilateral cooperation and other member organizations.
The OIF’s Secretary General is responsible for its activities. Elected by heads of state and government for a renewable four-year term, the Secretary General is La Francophonie’s official representative internationally. The Secretary General is also responsible for implementing the ten-year strategic framework adopted at the 2004 Summit in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. The framework establishes guidelines for the activities of La Francophonie’s institutions. Since December 2005, a General Administrator has supported the Secretary General and is responsible for managing the OIF’s day-to-day activities. Clément Duhaime, a Canadian, currently holds this position.
Directions and priorities of La Francophonie
La Francophonie has a dual mandate as a political institution and an international cooperation agency:
- As a political institution, it chiefly advocates the building of democracy and the rule of law in La Francophonie, and the promotion of linguistic and cultural diversity.
- As an international cooperation agency, it focuses its activities on four key priorities identified in the ten-year strategic framework: promoting peace, democracy, and human rights; supporting education, training, higher education, and research; furthering cooperation for sustainable development and solidarity; and promoting the French language, as well as cultural and linguistic diversity.
Because of its experience and expertise in these areas, La Francophonie is a key partner in the international development community’s activities. Heads of state and government of member countries sought to take the opportunity of the Beirut Summit in October 2002 to reaffirm La Francophonie’s wish to actively help to achieve the objectives of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD). At the same time, they also gave the Conference of National Education Ministers in French-speaking countries (CONFEMEN) a mandate to monitor the implementation, in member countries, of the Education for All (EFA) program, stemming from the Global Forum in Dakar in 2001.
In March 2005, the OIF also endorsed the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness. Its signatories pledged to increase efforts to harmonize and ensure results-based management of their development initiatives.
“True, La Francophonie has a key political role to play. But La Francophonie must continue to be useful, visible, and practical. It must be prepared to be judged on what it really contributes to communities. It is not a matter of supporting education for education’s sake, culture for culture’s sake, or encouraging people to learn to speak French because it is politically correct. Today, we must shape people’s environments to improve their living conditions. We must give the women and men of La Francophonie the means to take control of their development.”
Excerpt [translated] from the declaration by the heads of state and government at the close of the 1995 Summit in Cotonou, Benin. |
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