Ministry of Foreign Affairs' s presentation

With responsibility for French foreign policy, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is the key player of the international cooperation process, thanks to a network of cultural institutions and diplomatic offices which ensure its presence in numerous countries. It thus has a natural place among the founding members of the GIP SPSI.

Four main missions

The mission of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is four-fold:

• It informs the President of the Republic and the government of global developments and of the situation in foreign countries. This information is furnished to the Ministry by France’s embassies and consular services around the world and may concern political, economic, cultural or cooperation matters.

• It formulates France’s foreign policy on the basis of the information received, and proposes directions for French foreign policy.
• It conducts and coordinates France’s foreign relations, representing the country in relations with foreign governments and the international organisations, and coordinates the foreign affairs activities of other government departments. The ambassador is the personal envoy of the President of the Republic to the government of the host country. He conducts negotiations, enters into agreements and performs official business on France’s behalf.
• He ensures the protection of French interests abroad and provides (through the consular posts) assistance to French nationals in the host country.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs is assisted by a Minister Delegate for Foreign Affairs and a Minister Delegate for Cooperation and Francophony.

The second largest network worldwide

The inheritor of a long tradition, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is divided into more than twenty divisions operating under the coordination of a Secretary General.

Those of particular relevance to the GIP SPSI are:

• the directorate general for policy and security and in particular its department of the United Nations and International Organisations

• the directorate general for international cooperation and development, and notably its development policies department, its cultural cooperation and French language department and department for scientific, academic and research cooperation,

• the geographic divisions: European cooperation, Continental Europe, Africa and the Indian Ocean, North Africa and Middle East, Americas and the Caribbean, Asia and Oceania,

• the directorate of French nationals abroad and foreign nationals in France.

The Ministry also has several specialist services, including an analysis and forecasting centre and a service for francophone affairs.

France’s overseas actions are underpinned by a network of 156 embassies, each with a service for cooperation and cultural action (SCAC), 17 representation offices and 98 consular posts. These figures make it the second largest network worldwide after the USA.

Development and health promotion

In the area of health and development, most of France’s cooperation activities fall within the scope of the Millennium Development Goals, three of which are directly related to health issues:

• reduce by two thirds the mortality rate among children under five,
• reduce by three quarters the maternal mortality ratio,
• halt and begin to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS, and the incidence of malaria and other major diseases,

... as well as, under Goal 8, the provision of access to affordable essential drugs in all countries.

Each year €200 million is pledged to health, 60% of which is allocated under bilateral arrangements. France is particularly prominent in the fight against AIDS: since the G8 in Evian it has been, after the USA, the second biggest contributor to the Global Fund to Fight against HIV/AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis, devoting an annual €150 million to that cause. It also operates in partnership with GIP Esther.

Other priority targets for cooperation in the area of health and development are:

• the improvement of health systems through support for national public health policies and the decentralisation of health provision, human resources development (training and management of health professionals), drugs policy, etc.
• support in implementing suitable funding mechanisms for health systems, with emphasis on viability through a judicious mix of external aid, State contributions and public participation, and the creation of solidarity mechanisms.

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