France. Development Co-operation Review (1997)
France has always pursued the objective of a substantial, sustained aid effort, and now ranks second in aid volume among donor countries. As host to the Summit of the Heads of State and Government of the Group of Seven (G7) major industrial democracies in Lyon in 1996, France sought to give a prominent profile to the top-level discussion of development co-operation issues. France's official development assistance (ODA) disbursements amounted to $8.4 billion (FF 42.1 billion) in 1995. Three-quarters of this amount was disbursed as bilateral aid, half of which went to Sub-Saharan Africa. The humanitarian aid of French international solidarity associations (Associations de solidarité internationale -- ASI), such as “Médecins sans Frontières” is known world-wide.
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