Development assistance of France for African countries

Abstract

The paper analyses the official development assistance provided by France to African countries within 2001—2012. The term official development assistance is understood as financial flows directed by the institutions of donor countries to a certain group of countries and multilateral institutions in order to support the progress and prosperity of developing countries. The aim of the study is to verify whether the criteria for granting financial support declared by the donors (in here: France) and determined by the Millennium Development Goals (defined by the UN General Assembly in 2000), are covered by actual financial flows. Data concerning the volume of the development assistance within 2001—2012 were analysed in the following subgroups of countries: the ones which were and were not historical colonies as well as countries with and without natural resources. For each subgroup, a panel model with fixed effects was estimated. It was stated that although mainly the development issues and anti-poverty campaign are postulated by the French foreign policy, the recipients structure of development assistance provided by France is largely dependent on the common colonial past, energy sources potential (oil, gas, uranium), migration level as well as bilateral trade exchange.