Agence Française de développement (AFD) and
Permanent Conference of

African and French-Speaking Consular Chambers (CPCCAF)

kick off the Universities of Consular Cooperation

(29 June – 7 July 2010, HEC Jouy-en-Josas)

Jean-Michel Severino, Chief Executive Officer of Agence Française de Développement, and Omar Derraji, President of the Permanent Conference of African and French-Speaking Consular Chambers (CPCCAF), signed a €200 000 agreement on 9 April 2010 to finance the Universities of Consular Cooperation to be held from 29 June to 7 July at the HEC business school in Jouy-en-Josas, France.

AFD wished to support the CPCCAF project in order to allow 120 executives from African consular chambers in 24 countries to attend a capacity building program for executives based on 13 seminars, and 30 presidents of consular institutions and their management teams to attend an HEC seminar devoted to the strategic management of intermediary organizations.

This agreement seals a partnership initiated between the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, AFD and CPCCAF which aims to implement actions to support the structuring and development of Africa’s private sector via consular chambers.

This project will also benefit from financial support from the Center for the Development of Enterprise in Brussels.

About AFD

AFD stands for the Agence Française de Développement. AFD is a public development-finance institution that has worked to fight poverty and support economic growth in developing countries and the French Overseas Communities for more than 60 years. AFD executes the French government’s development aid policies.

With offices in more than 50 countries, AFD finances and supports projects that improve people’s living conditions, promote economic growth and protect the planet. AFD-funded projects provide schooling for children, support farmers and small businesses, supply drinking water, preserve tropical forests and fight climate change, among other things.

AFD committed nearly €6.2 billion to financing aid activities in developing countries and the French Overseas Communities in 2009. The funds should permit the vaccination of 1,8 million children, give 7.3 million people access to drinking water and create or save jobs for 900,000 workers engaged in private enterprise; funding for energy efficiency projects will save nearly 5 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions per year
.

www.afd.fr

About CPCCAF

The Permanent Conference of African and French-Speaking Consular Chambers (CPCCAF) was set up in 1973 at the initiative of Presidents Pompidou, Houphouët-Boigny and Senghor. This cooperation network helps consular chambers support the development and structuring of Africa’s private sector.

This unique network now gathers some 100 intermediary organizations from 27 French-speaking countries, including 24 African countries, and works in the trade, industry, service, craft and agriculture sectors.

CPCCAF and its member consular chambers aim to promote and be a key player in this new approach to development which aims to boost business activity in Africa, catalyze private investment and foster wealth creation at the local level.

In a context marked by globalization, Africa’s economic fabric, which is mainly made up of very small enterprises (VSEs) and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), is particularly vulnerable despite existing mechanisms.
In addition, at a time when economies are being liberalized, in order to help African businesses be active in new areas that are being opened up (ECOWAS, WAEMU, CEMAC, COMESA), the consular chambers’ aim is to be fully recognized for their key role as a mediator between the public and private sectors and as autonomous entities that can organize access to financial and non-financial support for African businesses.