France was the world’s fifth-largest bilateral donor last year, and for decades, it has spent tens of billions to support development and humanitarian causes across the globe.
But similar to many Western donors, French aid has seen a sustained decline in the past couple of years.
Based on the data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, France’s total official development assistance, or ODA, went down to $15 billion in 2023 from $17.3 billion in 2022 — the first time since 2018 that French aid suffered a real-term decline.