What does Pascal Canfin think is the biggest accomplishment of his relatively young tenure as France’s deputy minister for development? He’d like to say: more aid transparency.
In a video interview with Devex President and Editor-in-chief Raj Kumar at the European Development Days in Brussels, Canfin acknowledged France’s shortcomings on aid transparency in the past, but said the government now is opening up more data to the public — starting with development programs in Mali.
“So each and every project financed by French taxpayers’ money will be on this website and can be controlled and followed both by the French taxpayers but also, and it’s more important, by the Malian citizens, in order to decentralize the control of the efficiency of ODA,” explained the French aid official. “So each and every project financed by French taxpayers’ money will be on this website and can be controlled and followed both by the French taxpayers but also, and it’s more important, by the Malian citizens, in order to decentralize the control of the efficiency of ODA.”
Canfin added that this is what French aid agency AFD needs to do to improve the ownership of ODA projects, “the kind of things we didn’t do before,” and said France will do the same for 16 other African countries in 2014.
Click the above video for more of our interview with Canfin, including his thoughts on how the government can get more public support toward French development cooperation.
Devex was at the European Development Days 2013. Check out our coverage of Europe’s leading global development event of the year.
About the author
Eliza Villarino
Eliza Villarino currently manages one of today’s leading publications on humanitarian aid, global health and international development, the weekly GDB. At Devex, she has helped grow a global newsroom, with talented journalists from major development hubs such as Washington, D.C, London and Brussels. She regularly writes about innovations in global development.