AFD and the Grameen Crédit Agricole Foundation, a historic and promising partnership

Rémy Rioux, Managing Director,
French Development Agency Group

A long-standing partner, the French Development Agency (AFD) has supported the Foundation's activities for over 10 years. Its Director, Rémy Rioux, shares his perspective on the impact of the economic and health crisis generated by the Covid-19 pandemic on the African continent and his assessment of the partnership with the Foundation.

—What do you think were the impact points of the health crisis on the African continent and how did the AFD respond to this crisis? What were your main areas of intervention?

RR: Africa experienced a shock in 2020, which I would like to point out was entirely exogenous and unprecedented. The continent appeared quite resilient in terms of health, but less so in terms of the economy. An unprecedented recession, averaging 2.61 times the previous year, affected more than forty countries simultaneously. Beyond the cyclical impact, the crisis is raising fears of a profound weakening of economies and societies.

The French Development Agency (AFD) group mobilized very quickly to support its partners. On the health front, with a €1.2 billion Health in Common initiative, half of which is in Africa for around fifty projects and nearly €130 million in donations; and on the economic front, with our "Choose Africa" program to support the entrepreneurial network and then strengthen it with a Resilience component, bringing the program to €3.2 billion committed by 2022. Finally, we are supporting, in line with the "Finance in Common" Summit, African public development banks—there are around a hundred on the continent—to make them drivers of sustainable growth.

—What is your assessment of the historic partnership with the Grameen Crédit Agricole Foundation?

RR: For more than 10 years, the AFD Group has provided the Foundation with portfolio and individual guarantees and financed the African Facility, which allows us to support small institutions for the benefit of disadvantaged populations, particularly in rural areas. Since 2020, the partnership with the Foundation has been managed by Proparco, our subsidiary dedicated to the private sector. Beyond the financial partnership, we appreciate the quality of the relationship between our two institutions, marked by trust and transparency. The essential nature of supporting the microfinance sector has been reinforced by the Covid-19 crisis, and working with the Foundation constitutes a solid lever for strengthening the sector.

—Can a large institution like yours and an agile player like the Foundation still invent new ways of acting, and in what priority areas?

RR: It is the complementarity of our two institutions and their modes of intervention that make the partnership strong and relevant in serving several priority areas of intervention, namely: support for the development of microinsurance, particularly agricultural microinsurance; support for microfinance institutions in improving social performance management; development of the digital offering of the microfinance sector; and green microfinance. The context of the crisis has reinforced the relevance of these areas of intervention.