New report details how President Macron’s French diplomacy plans for Africa have fallen short – and future challenges

France’s Africa policy under the Macron government comes under the spotlight in a new report by DPIR research fellow Dr Corentin Cohen for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

In Will France’s Africa Policy Hold Up?Dr Cohen explains how Macron aimed to develop French relations with African countries against a fraught historical relationship. Macron’s mandate – to increase financial aid and investment towards the continent, and deepen people-to-people ties and security partnerships -  have had limited results.

He argues that, as with other states, France lacks tools to get the benefits of its engagement with civil societies, African entrepreneurs and philanthropists. ‘Change has proven harder to achieve than the French president might have anticipated,’ he writes.

He also claims that France was unable to recalibrate its security and military intervention policy in the Sahel, meaning it eroded most of its newly earned diplomatic capital.

Furthermore, in certain cases, the government's own nationalistic appeals have appeared to undercut the attempts to make amends for France’s colonial history.

As Macron’s second term begins and France hosts the presidency of the Council of the EU, Dr Cohen suggests that there is a meaningful opportunity to re-set the tone for new partnerships between Europe and Africa.

These opportunities, if seized, he argues, could help France develop policies that favour the provision of public goods and infrastructure, wealth redistribution, and accountability – and inspire other countries in Europe to do the same.

Corentin comments: “I hope the paper will contribute to foster debates on the memorial and reparation policies regarding colonization, challenges of diplomatic ties between state and civil societies, the failures of France's Sahel military interventions and the feasibility of a new partnership between Europe and Africa.

“The paper aims at engaging with policy makers, experts and academics and I hope it will also pave the way for more research on these topics.”