The 90-day pause of US development aid, decided by the Trump administration at the end of January, and the panic it caused around the world, should help France understand the consequences of its massive budget cuts. French aid has been slashed by €2.1 billion in the 2025 spending bill presented to the Assemblée Nationale on Monday, February 3. The 37% reduction on top of the nearly €800 million cut decided in February 2024, will not be fully offset by higher taxes on airline tickets or financial transactions.
French aid represents only a fraction of US aid, the world's largest, with a budget of $64.7 billion (€63 billion) in 2023. Moreover, its reduction will not suspend hundreds of health or food aid programs overnight. But the cut comes at a time when global poverty has stopped decreasing for the first time in three decades, and low-income countries are stalling, choking under the weight of their debt.
In the future, the French Development Agency (AFD) will not be able to do much for them. It will have to reduce its subsidized grants and loans, which benefit the poorest nations, most of them in Africa. Some sectors must prepare for the worst. This is the case for humanitarian aid, which will have to operate with €500 million per year instead of €900 million, at a time when crises are multiplying, from Gaza to Goma (Democratic Republic of Congo) via Sudan. The same applies to healthcare, which relies heavily on donations.
A political weapon
Adaptation to global warming, of which the countries of the South are the first victims, also risks being sacrificed. Building a cyclone shelter or a dam to protect against rising sea levels is not cost-effective and can only be funded by donations. Nonetheless, the AFD will continue to raise money on the financial markets at attractive rates, thanks to the rating of its shareholder, France, and will pass on these funds to other countries by distributing cheap loans. These loans will be used to support the private sector, build infrastructure and combat climate change.
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