The Atlas of the French Development Agency offers a unique vision of this continent. An invitation to change the way you look at things, explains Rémy Rioux, managing director of the public institution.

Interview

Africa's population is expected to double twice during the 21st century. Is African demography a time bomb?

Let's look at it from a different perspective. This continent, which was tragically drained of its strength at the time of the slave trade, is a territory as vast as the European Union, the United States, India, China and Japan combined. With 1.3 billion inhabitants living on 30 million km2, its density is lower than that of other regions in the world. Who knows today that Africa is India, with exactly the same population and the same wealth? And with a much higher potential: one in two young people under the age of 25 will be African in 2070. However, population growth generates economic growth.

Is that already the case?

Yes Per capita income there has been increasing continuously for twenty-five years. Compared to their GDP (gross domestic product), African countries spend much more on education than we do. Now, in many countries, the major challenge of the quality of education remains to be met. At the same time, there has been a rapid decline in infant mortality. And the news shows us, with Covid-19, that, contrary to what has been written, African countries have reacted well, while their health systems were supposed to be more fragile than ours.

But some in Europe threaten waves of migration from Africa...

Another representation needs to be reviewed: the majority of migration takes place within the African continent and not from Africa to Europe. And the migrants most often go south. Did you know that in Johannesburg (South Africa) or Harare (Zimbabwe), many taxi drivers speak French. They come from Guinea or Ivory Coast and they know that the richest region on the continent is southern Africa.

After all, isn't Africa doing so badly?

It has made great progress over the last thirty years. We are interested in it. It can inspire us. For example, it is ahead of the curve for renewable energies or in certain digital uses. The French Development Agency participates, along with other French and African actors, in the Digital Africa initiative, which finances incubators, start-ups and innovations. There are more people in Africa with a mobile bank account than in the whole world. This atlas presents all the diversity of the continent and focuses on Africa as it invents itself.

Should we change the way we look at development?

With the climate, the digital transition, economic and social divides and now the Covid-19 crisis, all countries in the world, without exception, are facing unprecedented challenges, are seeking solutions and must cooperate. Our country has an unknown, discreet, positive capacity: its development policy and an agency, AFD, which finances, all over the world, more than a thousand concrete, useful and innovative projects every year. It does so with all civil society actors in our territories — and there are a very large number of them in western France. More international exchanges on the different experiences of sustainable development are needed. More ambition and more innovation. We are all in development.

A halo of corruption continues to envelop many African regimes. How do you get away from it?

We are extremely vigilant on this point. We apply exactly the same procedures as all other banks when it comes to money laundering, terrorist financing or corruption, under the control of the Banque de France and because our values require it. As soon as there is a suspicion, we step in.

this ever happened to you?

Very seldom. And each time, there was a return of funds. Diverting money away from development means holding back one's country and penalizing its population.

And when they are states?

We ensure that we find the right channel to reach the populations. It is also one of the specificities of AFD: only half of what we do goes through governments. We work with local authorities, NGOs (non-governmental organizations) and businesses. And in 2019, we enabled 2.4 million children, half of them girls, to go to school, improved access to health care for 18 million people, and connected nearly 8 million households to an electrical grid.

the coup in Mali surprise you?

recent months, the political and security situation had been very tense. And the signs of what happened in 2012 are unfortunately still there (1).

The African continent, which emits few greenhouse gases, will however suffer severely from climate change. Are your programs meeting this challenge?

100% of the programs we fund contribute to achieving the Paris climate agreement. The continent is very hard hit by climate change and the loss of biodiversity, even though it is currently responsible for only 3.5% of global CO2 emissions. Our interventions make it possible, every year, to protect or restore 10 million hectares of natural areas. An additional 3 million people each year also have access to drinking water.

Is it urgent?

Yes Climate change is changing the coastline and causing sea levels to rise. Three African cities (Alexandria in Egypt, Lagos in Nigeria and Abidjan in Ivory Coast) are among the twenty cities most threatened by rising waters in the world. 10 million African urban residents are under the threat of their homes being submerged.

(1) The overthrow of President Amadou Toumani Touré after demonstrations against nepotism and insecurity in the north of the country, which is facing the Tuareg revolt and Islamist rebels.