Our development cooperation in Africa

In Tunisia and Libya, we operate an established in-country office in Tunis (since 2019) with over 110 staff managing 19 national projects on migration, innovation and entrepreneurship. Since 2025, we’ve expanded into Libya with a new office in Tripoli.

In Morocco, our regional office in Rabat acquired a project support unit in 2025. We lead four national programmes in areas such as social protection, biodiversity, migration and green finance, in partnership with the Agence Française de Développement (AFD).

In Egypt, we focus on social protection and public financial systems aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). 

Nine international technical experts are currently deployed across Tunisia (4) and Egypt (5), with new positions being created in Egypt (4) and Morocco (2).

West Africa is our agency’s largest area of activity, with 60 national projects totalling €511 million in business volume (excluding multi-country initiatives). We are particularly active in Côte d’Ivoire and Guinea, where we implement projects on governance, security, health, vocational training, entrepreneurship and culture, with 75% of funding coming from the EU and 21% from AFD.

In terms of security, we support EU-funded initiatives in Côte d’Ivoire, Benin and Togo to counter threats in the Gulf of Guinea’s coastal states via capacity building of local security forces. 

Shifts in the Sahel have brought about a reshuffle of our agency’s project portfolio. We are now increasingly active in East and Central Africa, with our West-African work focusing on Guinea and Côte d’Ivoire, where we opened two in-country offices in 2024.

We are also expanding our development aid into Africa’s English-speaking countries. We are running projects in Ghana and Nigeria on health, urban planning and the creative industries, as well as in Sierra Leone and Liberia. This is in cooperation with EU-led programmes.

We have 16 national projects in this region totalling €96 million (excluding multi-country projects).

We have been active in East Africa since 2016, especially in Ethiopia and Rwanda, our main countries of operation in the region. We operate in these States through national projects (in the heritage, economic and financial governance, health and stabilisation sectors), as well as programmes to support the African Union (deployment of experts in the AU bodies, support for agencies in democratic governance and health).

With the resumption of Franco-Rwandan cooperation and the signing of a host nation agreement in 2022, our project portfolio in Rwanda has expanded significantly, leading to the opening of an in-country office in September 2024. Our agency is also present in Burundi and Kenya, and we have a regional office in Nairobi. In Ethiopia, where development cooperation is well established, we plan to open an in-country office in 2026. Our work in the region is financed by the EU (69%) and AFD (22%).

With 22 projects totalling €126 million (excluding multi-country initiatives), we support governments and their institutions in strengthening economic, social and environmental policy. We work closely with local and international partners, particularly in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), where we opened an in-country office in 2024.

Our focus areas include:

• Governance and the rule of law (judiciary support, the fight against corruption, decentralisation)
• Security (capacity building for local security forces and stability initiatives)
• Health (systems strengthening, training, coordination)
• Economic development (entrepreneurship, vocational training, job creation)

Our work in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is diverse and covers all SDGs. Our project portfolio in the DRC is mainly funded by AFD (76%), with Expertise France acting as the project implementation agency. 

Other projects are being run in the DRC and Cameroon on economic and financial governance, culture, and decentralisation. Several programmes will be implemented in coordination with the EU in 2025. The region’s funding is 70% AFD and 25% EU.

In Southern Africa, our six national projects total €32.3 million (excluding multi-country projects). We carry out targeted actions in South Africa, Mozambique, Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Angola, where cooperation on high-level projects is growing. 

Our agency works on priority areas such as:

• Financial governance and the fight against corruption
• Rule of law and institutional support
• Public health and risk prevention
• Vocational training and youth employment

Angola has become an increasingly vital location, thanks to solid partnerships and a shared determination to see through current reform projects. This work has been carried out in close cooperation with the EU, the AFD Group and local institutional stakeholders. Given the dynamic development cooperation in Angola, we have decided to open an in-country office in Angola in 2026. 

The projects in Mozambique and Botswana focus on governance and culture. Zambia will host a circular economy initiative in Lusaka in partnership with the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA). And in Zimbabwe, we are providing support to the honey industry. The EU funds 98% of these projects.

The Indian Ocean is one of our busiest regions. We have a strong presence there on the ground through our in-country offices in Comoros and Madagascar and are establishing our presence in Mauritius. This further solidifies our agency’s presence in the region, enabling us to implement both national and regional programmes with a vast range of stakeholders. 

In the Indian Ocean, we work hand-in-hand with stakeholders from various diaspora, who contribute significantly to innovation, entrepreneurship and multilateral dialogue. We also focus heavily on climate action and biodiversity conservation. The Indian Ocean portfolio totals around €90 million.