US embassy cable - 05PARIS7082

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 PARIS 007082 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
STATE FOR EB/IFD/ODF, AF, AND EUR/WE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: EAID, PREL, FR 
SUBJECT: Small is Beautiful?  France's "Co-Development" 
Program Showing Signs of Success 
 
 
NOT FOR INTERNET DISTRIBUTION 
 
1.  (SBU) SUMMARY.  After 20 years, the MFA's "Co- 
Development" Program has finally started to bear fruit. 
France's co-development program seeks to benefit both France 
and countries from which many of France's illegal migrants 
come by helping potential and actual migrants create their 
own small businesses in their countries of origin.  The MFA 
sees this program as a useful tool in combating clandestine 
immigration and in helping to fight poverty in developing 
countries.  END SUMMARY. 
 
2.  (SBU) Econ Couns and intern recently called on Christian 
Connan, Ambassador in Charge of "Co-Development," to learn 
more about this small but increasingly successful 
development program.  The challenge of immigration has 
proven to be a divisive and complicated issue in France. 
In 2002, the total number of immigrants that had entered 
French territory was estimated at over 3.3 million, and over 
45% of these immigrants have come from the Magreb or French- 
speaking Africa. 
 
3.  (SBU) Amb. Connan explained that France's Co-Development 
Program has had a long history, with more failures than 
successes.  First started by the Socialist Government in the 
1980's, it was a project with a political goal designed to 
forge partnerships in the developing world and as a means to 
counter the "U.S.'s capitalist influence," Connan said 
wryly.  He explained that the program evolved in the 90's 
under the then-Interior Minister, Jean-Pierre Chevnement, 
to become a tool to attempt to control immigration flows 
into France, but again it delivered mixed results at best. 
 
4.  (SBU) In 2002, the MFA took over the program and altered 
it by creating the position of `Ambassador-Delegate' for Co- 
Development and re-casting (and selling to parliament) the 
program as a development policy with incidental immigration 
benefits.  The program now appears to be making an impact, 
even if only on a small-scale.  In Mali, the example with 
which Connan was most familiar, the program has been in 
place for three years and is beginning to create employment 
and an "entrepreneurial culture." 
 
5.  (SBU) Outlining some details of the program in Mali, 
Connan explained that the GOF Co-Development Program 
operates in three ways: 
-- it aides immigrants to return to Mali with small budgets 
to realize small-scale projects (ie: cultivating several 
hectares of land they may own, opening up a small business, 
etc.); 
-- it encourages investment in Mali by ethnic Malians 
resident in France by helping them target their remittances 
toward programs and enterprises that train and educate 
Malian citizens; 
-- and it sends qualified Malians resident in France, such 
as doctors, researchers and businessmen, back to Mali to 
take part in temporary aid projects with a focus on capacity 
building. 
 
Connan reported that approximately 350 Malians have returned 
to their country.  Those individuals have in turn created an 
additional 350 jobs.  With a failure rate of only 10% and 
creation of 700 net jobs, the MFA considers the Mali program 
quite successful, Connan explained.  He added that results 
in other countries in which the program has been operating 
have been similarly successful. 
 
6.  (SBU) The Co-Development program will continue to expand 
in 2005 with operations planned in Senegal, the Comoros, 
Ethiopia, several Sub-Saharan Francophone African nations, 
and Haiti.  In 2005, the MFA spent around 2 million euros on 
this program and in 2006, spending will increase to 6 
million euros. 
 
Comment: 
------- 
7.  (SBU) An interesting idea with multiple benefits, the Co- 
Development Program still causes some controversy.  The 
explicit goal of encouraging migrants to return to their 
homeland and the targeting of certain nationalities that 
will "benefit" from the program, sits uncomfortably in some 
quarters.  However, the emphasis on investment and enhancing 
the value of human resources is an innovative and 
potentially effective way of promoting development in the 
poorest countries, while also dealing - albeit in a small 
way -- with the sensitive issue of immigration. This is an 
interesting alternative to France's larger-scale development 
programs.  It will be interesting to see whether the results 
obtained over the past three years continue and can be 
replicated more broadly. 
 
STAPLETON