Organisation internationale de la Francophonie

Structure

Executive Secretariat (Secretaries-General)

The position of Secretary-General was created in 1997 at the seventh leaders' summit held in Hanoi. Canadian Jean-Louis Roy was secretary of the Agence de coopération culturelle et technique from 1989 until the formal creation of the Agence intergouvernementale de la Francophonie in 1997 with former Secretary-General of the United Nations Boutros Boutros-Ghali as the first secretary-general of La Francophonie. Abdou Diouf, the former president of the Republic of Senegal, became Secretary General on 1 January 2003. He was re-elected on 29 September 2006 for a second mandate during the Summit of the Francophonie in Bucharest, and elected again in 2010 at the Summit of the Francophonie in Montreux for another mandate, which ran until 31 December 2014. At the 2014 summit in Dakar, former Governor General of Canada Michaëlle Jean was chosen to lead the organization starting in January 2015.

The Secretary General of the Francophonie is elected at the Summit and serves as the spokesperson and the official international representative of the Francophonie's political actions. The Secretary General is responsible for proposing priority areas for multilateral Francophonie actions. Their job is to facilitate Francophone multilateral cooperation and to ensure that programs and activities of all operating agencies work in harmony. The Secretary General carries out their four-year mandate under the authority of the three leading institutions of the Francophonie: the Summits, the Ministerial Conference and the Permanent Council.

Summits

The Summit, the highest authority in the Francophonie, is held every two years and gathers the heads of states and governments of all member states of the OIF around certain themes of discussion. It is chaired by the head of state or government of the host country and this person assumes that responsibility until the next summit. By enabling heads of state and government to engage in dialogue on all international issues of the day, the summit helps develop the Francophonie's strategies and goals to ensure the organization's influence on the world stage.

Ministerial Conference

The Ministerial Conference of the Francophonie gathers the foreign or francophone affairs ministers of member states and governments every year to ensure the political continuity of the Summit. This conference ensures that the decisions made during the previous Summits are carried out and to plan the next Summit. It also recommends new members and observers to the Summit.

Permanent Council

The Permanent Council of the Francophonie gathers the Ambassadors of the member countries, chaired by the General Secretary of the Francophonie and under the authority of the Ministerial Conference, its main task is to plan Summits. This conference also supervises the execution of the Summit decisions made by the ministerial conferences on a day-to-day basis, about the examination of the propositions of the budget distribution.

Parliamentary Assembly

The objectives of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Francophonie (APF) are to represent to the French-speaking authorities, the interests of the French-speaking communities, to promote the democracy, the rule of law and the respect of human rights. Furthermore, it follows the execution by the operators of the Francophonie of action plans elaborated by the Conference of the members using French as a common language. It also favours the cooperation and strengthens the solidarity within the French-speaking communities, mainly towards the parliaments of the South. The Parliamentary Assembly of the Francophonie is constituted by member sections representing 77 parliaments or interparliamentary organizations. The Secretary General is the French senator Jacques Legendre.

Agency of the Francophonie

The Agency of the Francophonie is the main operator of the cultural, scientific, technical, economic and legal cooperation programs decided at the Summits. It is also the legal seat of the Secretary General and is used by him as an administrative support. The agency also contributes to the development of the French language and to the promotion of the diverse languages and cultures of its members, while encouraging mutual understanding between them and the Francophonie. For this reason, it is a place of exchange and dialogue and its simultaneous in Francophone countries. The Agency's headquarters are in Paris and it has three regional branches in Libreville, Gabon; Lomé, Togo; and Hanoi, Vietnam.

Members

Mauritania's membership was suspended on 26 August 2008, pending democratic elections, after a military coup d'état. Madagascar's membership was suspended in April 2009 due to an unconstitutional transfer of power on 17 March 2009. Mali's membership was also suspended in March 2012 due to a coup d'état, and then the Central African Republic was suspended at the 88th session of the CPF (March 2012), as well as Guinea-Bissau on 18 April 2012 for the same reason. Thailand, an observer nation, was suspended in 2014 following the 2013–14 political crisis. In 2018, Louisiana became the first US state to join, as an observer. In 2021, the government of Nova Scotia announced its intention to apply for observer status. In 2023, there was a coup in Gabon, which was condemned by the OIF, but unlike others, the country wasn't suspended from the OIF. Gabon asked to be heard by the other members and the OIF member states finally decided not to suspend Gabon.

In September 2024 the OIF lifted its sanctions on Guinea, which had been in place since 2021 following a military coup. In March 2025, Niger announced its withdrawal from the organization three years after it was suspended. This was followed by the withdrawal of Burkina Faso and Mali, which cited "selective application of sanctions" and "contempt for Mali's sovereignty".

Although the French language is popular in Algeria and Algeria used to be a colony and later an internal part of France, it is currently not a member of the organization.

Operating agencies

The organization relies on five operating agencies to carry out its mandate: l'Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie (AUF); TV5Monde; l'Association Internationale des Maires Francophones (AIMF); l'Association des Fonctionnaires Francophones des Organisations Internationales (AFFOI); and l'Université Senghor d'Alexandrie.

Association of Francophone Universities

Established in 1961 in Montreal, the Association of Francophone Universities gathers institutions of higher education and research among the Francophone countries of Africa, the Arab world, Southeast Asia, Central and Eastern Europe, and the Caribbean.

Its mission is to contribute to the construction and consolidation of a scientific space in French. It supports the French language, cultural and linguistic diversity, law and democracy, and the environment and sustainable development. It also provides an important mobility program for the students, the researchers and the professors.

Its mission is to support the French language and the linguistic diversity within international organizations. Every year the association coordinates the day of French language within International Organisations. It also organizes seminaries to increase awareness about the importance of linguistic, cultural and conceptual diversity. The president is the French international civil servant Dominique Hoppe.

TV5Monde

TV5Monde is the first international French language television network, available in many countries. On television and online the audience of TV5Monde has grown rapidly. TV5 is one of the three largest television networks in the world (along with the BBC and CNN). It provides wide access to original television programs in French, and contributes to the development of the language and French-speaking cultures. It broadcasts the different forms of the French language spoken around the world, with all their accents. It reaches beyond native speakers of French; the majority of those who can receive it and part of its audience comprise viewers for whom French is not the mother tongue. Thanks to subtitles in various languages, it provides access to the Francophonie to non-French speakers – it is translated into 12 languages.

International Association of French-speaking Mayors

The International Association of French-speaking Mayors was created in Quebec City in 1979 by Jean Pelletier and Jacques Chirac, then the respective mayors of Quebec City and Paris with an initial group of 20 founder-cities. It is an operating agency for urban development gathering 48 countries or governments. The goal is to establish close cooperation in all areas of municipal activities. Its missions are to strengthen local democracy, building municipal capacities, and to support the populations. The association pursues its actions in the domains of health, culture, youth and education, urban development, training, and municipal infrastructures.

The association is presided by Anne Hidalgo (Paris' mayor) since 2009, with Pierre Baillet as permanent secretary.

Senghor University of Alexandria

The project of creating a French-speaking university in the service of African development was presented and adopted following the Dakar Summit in 1989. The Senghor University in Alexandria, Egypt is a private postgraduate institution that trains managers and high-level trainers in areas that are a priority for development in Francophone Africa. It directs the capacities of the managers and trainers to the action and the exercise of responsibilities in certain domains for the development: the project management, the financial institutions, the environment, the nutrition-health and of the cultural heritage. The Senghor University regularly organizes seminaries to help its students and of the public specialized in the domains of its action, by collaborating with the other operators and the institutions of the Francophonie.

Missions

The International Organisation of the Francophonie leads political actions and multilateral cooperation according to the missions drawn by the Summits of the Francophonie. The Summits gather the Heads of states and governments of the member countries of the International Organisation of the Francophonie where they discuss international politics, world economy, French-speaking cooperation, human rights, education, culture and democracy. Actions of the International Organization of the Francophonie are scheduled over a period of four years and funded by contributions from its members.

The Charte de la Francophonie defines the role and missions of the organization. The current charter was adopted in Antananarivo, on 23 November 2005. The summit held in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso on 26–27 November 2004 saw the adoption of a strategic framework for the period 2004–2014.

The four missions drawn by the Summit of the Francophonie are:

1. Promoting French language and cultural and linguistic diversity.
2. Promoting peace, democracy and human rights.
3. Supporting education, training, higher education and scientific research.
4. Expand cooperation for sustainable development.

French language, cultural and linguistic diversity

The primary mission of the organization is the promotion of the French language as an international language and the promotion of worldwide cultural and linguistic diversity in the era of economic globalization. In this regard, countries that are members of the Francophonie have contributed largely to the adoption by the UNESCO of the Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions (20 October 2005).

At the national level, there is the problem of promoting the French language within the context of its co-existence with other partner or international languages in most member countries, especially in Africa. Maintaining the relative importance of the status of French is an imperative that requires solidarity and the pooling of means and resources among countries committed to the French language within their respective societies.

The Francophonie has been a pioneer in terms of the recognition of cultural diversity and dialogue of cultures. It must find ways of confronting the trend towards uniformity that accompanies globalization and fostering the preservation and development of cultural diversity.

Peace, democracy and human rights

Similar to the British Commonwealth of Nations, the Francophonie has as its stated aims the promotion of democracy and human rights. Following the 3 November 2000 Déclaration de Bamako, the Francophonie has given itself the financial means to attain a number of set objectives in that regard.

The Francophonie intends to contribute significantly to promoting peace, democracy and support for the rule of law and human rights by focusing on prevention. Political stability and full rights for all, the subject of the Bamako declaration, are considered key to sustainable development.

The Francophonie has chosen to provide its member countries with access to the expertise of its extensive intergovernmental, institutional, academic and non-governmental network with a view to building national capacities, resolving conflict and providing support for ending crises.

In recent years, some participating governments, notably the governments of Canada and Quebec, pushed for the adoption of a Charter in order for the organization to sanction member States that are known to have poor records when it comes to the protection of human rights and the practice of democracy. Such a measure was debated at least twice but was never approved.

Supporting education, training, higher education and research

The International Organisation of the Francophonie aims at connecting the various peoples using French as a common language through their knowledge. Education, like access to autonomy and information for all, begins with all children having access to a full primary education free of any inequality. It involves an integrated approach of teaching and training from primary to secondary school that will lead to employment. Education policies must also give French an integral place alongside the partner languages. Last, the research potential of French-language academic streams must be promoted.

Cooperation for sustainable development

The Francophonie is committed to working towards sustainable development by supporting the improvement of economic governance, capacity building, cooperation and the search for common positions in major international negotiations. It's necessary to manage durably the natural resources, particularly the energy and the water, and politics are established to make sure of the conservation of these resources with effective anti-poverty campaigns.

In 2013, the United Nations Volunteers programme received a financial contribution from the Federal Public Service (FPS) Foreign Affairs, Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation of the Kingdom of Belgium for the years 2013 and 2014 to support the outreach to the francophone world and the promotion of volunteerism via its Online Volunteering service.

Criticism of the organization

Growing non-Francophone states in OIF

The membership of the OIF has climbed from 21 in 1970 to 88 member states and territories in 2018. This sharp increase in the number of member states, many of whom have little to no connection with the French language and culture, has been a matter of growing concern. In their 1996 study on the Francophone space, linguists Daniel Baggioni and Roland Breton pointed out, alluding to the applications of Bulgaria and Angola to join the OIF, that only politico-diplomatic criteria could explain these odd extensions of the OIF. Xavier Deniau, founder of the Association des parlementaires de langue française (now the Parliamentary assembly) and author of La Francophonie, expressed concern that the enlargement of the OIF to countries where French is practically nonexistent risks diluting the effectiveness of the organization. Despite calls for a moratorium on the admission of new members, each new Sommet de la Francophonie has witnessed the admission of batches of new members that have little, if anything, to do with the French language: Bosnia-Herzegovina, the Dominican Republic, the United Arab Emirates, Estonia and Montenegro in 2010; Qatar and Uruguay in 2012; Mexico, Costa Rica and Kosovo in 2014. On that occasion, the Montreal daily Le Devoir, which reports extensively on the OIF and its summits, remarked that several members of this "merry madhouse" that the OIF had become did not even recognize Kosovo as a country. The "endless enlargement" of the Organisation accelerated following the arrival at the head of the OIF of former UN Secretary General Boutros-Ghali who declared early in his term in 1998 that French being in his opinion the language of solidarity, tolerance, respect for the individual, cultural diversity, universality and openness, the OIF needed to open itself to non francophones. The motivation of small and mid-size countries in joining the organization appears to be a desire to increase their international visibility. In October 2018, the Irish Department for Foreign Affairs explained that Ireland's accession with observer status would "Develop and deepen Ireland's institutional linkages with Africa" and allow the country to "play a more influential role in locations including the Sahel... and to engage on the challenges facing countries in French-speaking West Africa." A departmental review in May 2023 added that "new Embassies in Senegal and Morocco represent Ireland's first missions in francophone Africa and complement our recent accession as an observer member".

Following the arrival of Boutros-Ghali, the OIF had also seen a steady increase in the number of its missions and priority action areas — peace and conflict prevention, human rights, democracy, international cooperation, sustainable development, cultural and linguistic diversity, education and training, youth, gender equality, civil society — bringing a fundamental shift from the cultural to the political sphere. Jacques Legendre, the French senate's rapporteur on the Francophonie, expressed his concern that the OIF was becoming "a second-rate duplicate of the General Assembly of the UN". Many actors of the francophone sphere interested in the future of the organization, including former French ministers or secretaries of state for the Francophonie such as Pierre-André Wiltzer and Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne, have been calling on the OIF to refocus on its fundamentals: language and culture.

Human rights in member states

While promoting human rights is stated as a core mission of the OIF, many of its member countries governments have or have had poor human rights records. At the 1999 Francophonie Summit in Moncton, Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chrétien and former French President Jacques Chirac announced at the close of the summit that a human rights observatory would be established to further promote human rights within the OIF. The French newspaper Le Monde noted in 1999 that if respect for fundamental freedoms were made a strict criterion for membership, the organization might effectively cease to exist given the number of member governments with poor human rights records at the time. In 2000, the OIF adopted the Déclaration de Bamako concerning democracy and human rights.

In May 2018, French President Emmanuel Macron announced that his government would support the nomination of Louise Mushikiwabo, Rwanda's longtime foreign minister, as the next Secretary General of the OIF. Critics, including human rights organizations, viewed this as a setback for the OIF's role in defending and promoting human rights, citing Mushikiwabo's close relationship with Rwandan President Paul Kagame, whose government has faced significant criticism from human rights advocates.

Support for the organization

Ambassador James Roscoe, UK Acting Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN, commented in 2020:

The Francophonie undoubtedly has a role to play alongside the UN and other organisations in the fields of conflict prevention, mediation and the exercise of good offices, including in settings such as Cameroon. The UK encourages the Francophonie, along with the UN, the African Union, ECCAS and the Commonwealth, to continue to support efforts to end violence and restore peace in Cameroon's northwest and southwest regions.

The Francophonie can also make valuable contributions to the UN's efforts to assist countries emerging from conflict to hold successful elections and to strengthen the role of democratic governance.