AFD - 2018 Registration document

STATEMENT OF NON-FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE

Transparency and dialogue with stakeholders

2.3 Transparency and dialogue with stakeholders

2.3.1 Transparency of funds granted Transparency of funding is a strong corporate and social responsibility challenge for AFD Group. The transparency of AFD’s activities must be ensured in compliance with regulatory requirements linked to its legal form and in compliance with French data protection laws. Furthermore, within the scope of its activities, the Group must ensure there is no risk of aid being misappropriated, of corruption and fraud. In March 2018, the AFD Board of Directors approved AFD Group’s new transparency and dialogue policy (1) . Through this policy, AFD Group strives to comply with the best practices observed by other sponsors and with international standards, including the standard of the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI), whilst taking on board the expectations of stakeholders. This policy aims to ensure accountability of its actions, in particular through the transparency of all funding granted, and to help legitimise France’s Official Development Assistance policy. It is based on five principles: usefulness, openness, the 2.3.2 Dialogue with stakeholders Under its corporate social responsibility policy, AFD has entered into dialogue with its stakeholders. This dialogue helps take on board the wants and needs of stakeholders and stay as closely tuned to their concerns as possible. The transparency and dialogue policy presented at the Board of Directors meeting of 8 March 2018 acknowledges this dialogue with stakeholders as a cornerstone of AFD’s corporate social responsibility approach, insofar as it helps to factor social, environmental, ethical and human rights concerns into the Group’s strategies. The strategic documents prepared by AFD, which determine its areas of operation with respect to sectors, regions and cross-business issues, are subject to stakeholder consultation (civil society organisations, regional government authorities, companies, research institutes, etc.) prior to submission to the Board of Directors. Once approved, these strategic documents are available on AFD’s website. In 2018, AFD launched a digital consultation process to enable all its internal and external stakeholders to react to the strategic proposals that will guide the Group’s actions over the 2018-2022 period. The consultation, which was held from 12 February to 16March, involved 860 external participants and 213 employees. ❙ Number and % of sovereign projects reported in IATI format Financial aid to be disclosed (number) Financial aid disclosed (number) Financial aid disclosed (%)

protection of trust and sensitive information, attentive listening, and dialogue. Internally, AFD has a legal notice supporting the disclosure of information and monitoring compliance with the rules applicable to confidential information and professional secrecy. AFD’s staff is required to refer to this notice to better understand the concept of professional secrecy. An information disclosure procedure has been implemented to support staff with this exercise in transparency. It describes how information disclosure requests sent to AFD by third parties should be processed. These information disclosure requests may concern information reported on AFD’s website, AFD’s open data platform, and the IATI registry, or other information on AFD Group, its strategy, financing transactions and intellectual productions. AFD is continuing its policy to publish business data in the IATI format on its own open data website, http://afd.opendatasoft. com/. At 31 December 2018, published project data covered 63% of sovereign projects underway in an amount greater than €100K, financed in all the countries where AFD operates. All of these contributions were taken into account, summarised and published on the digital consultation platform (2) . In line with AFD’s commitment, a feedbackmeetingwas organised, attended by about 100 people, where AFD presented its arguments on the 12 most popular proposals. This policy also makes dialogue part of an approach fostering continuous improvement, mutual learning, innovation and impact. In this respect, it encompasses more than just information and communication. When investigating and implementing the projects it supports, AFD ensures, through legal conditions and support processes, that the project owner consults with the various stakeholders. For projects with significant environmental and social risks, the Agency applies the World Bank’s Environmental and Social Framework. Revised in 2016, the Framework now includes measures regarding the responsibility to involve stakeholders at each and every stage of a project. It is essential to engage in dialogue with local authorities, communities and associations regarding projects proposed for funding, in particular those presenting environmental and social risks, to take their opinions and concerns into consideration and thereby improve the living conditions of populations and the sustainability of projects. 1,346 844 62.70%

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(1) The scope of this policy concerns AFD and its subsidiary Proparco, and provides for specific adaptations for AFD and Proparco. It is available on AFD’s website: https://www.afd.fr/fr/politique-de-transparence-et-de-dialogue-du-groupe-afd. (2) https://consultation-numerique.afd.fr/.

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REGISTRATION DOCUMENT 2018