AFD - 2019 Universal registration document

STATEMENT OF NON-FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE

Ameaningful work environment

2.8 Ameaningful work environment

Although the Adviser preserves the anonymous nature of these consultations, he communicates with Senior Management and reports as necessary to the AFD and Proparco Boards of Directors, and also to their specialised committees (e.g. the Risks Committee in February Ǿ 2019). In addition, the Ethics Adviser supervises the AFD system for managing environmental and social complaints. Lastly, since January Ǿ 2019, it has been the point of entry for AFD Group’s professional whistle-blowing system. The ethical method seeks to be attractive and appealing, by adopting a positive and constructive educational approach. This approach stimulates individual and collective questions, reinforces the desire to act in a correct manner, and encourages the demand for compliance. 2.8.2 Skills development, employability b and training The AFD Group human resources policy was validated in 2018. It aims to both support the strategy and take up the challenge represented by the unprecedented growth in activities. Given this context, the Group has acquired a set of human resources management tools in order to recruit and smoothly integrate talented employees in France and the countries where it operates. The Group offers its employees motivating career paths, combined with the means - training in particular - to maintain and develop their skills by reinforcing their internal and external employability. The Group’s recruitment policy includes an onboarding system that offers a full training and mentoring programme that – in addition to promoting a basic understanding of the work environment – fosters cohesion and teaches the strategic goals, missions, challenges and procedures relevant to AFD Group’s present and future activities. The Onboarding system created in 2016 for new recruits was enhanced during 2019. It now consists of distance learning modules accessible to everyone as soon as they are recruited, and face-to-face modules on themes selected with the business lines. It is deployed systematically for new recruits. In summer 2019, digitisation of the system facilitated access for local staff to the training that is vital for effective onboarding into the Group. This digital service has provided vital support to the major recruitment drive organised in the network in 2019. In addition to the Onboarding system, distance learning has grown considerably, with forty or so new modules available on the formation.afd.fr platform. This service is constantly improving. It covers a very wide variety of needs, from sectoral expertise to personal development, and also including finance and banking subjects. As a complement to digitisation, regionalisation is opening up new training possibilities for network employees. In 2019, 46

The AFD Group strives to promote a responsible approach in its internal operations and to provide its employees with an inclusive and rewarding work environment. This approach constitutes one of the six commitments in its corporate social responsibility policy. The Group encourages employee dialogue and offers its employees the most favourable working conditions possible to develop their skills and pursue interesting and motivating career paths, while preserving a balance between their private and professional life. 2.8.1 The ethics system The AFD Group is well aware of the strong demands associated with its public service mission in French Overseas Departments and Collectivities and Foreign Countries, and in 2004 decided to put in place an ethics system. It consists of a Charter, a Committee and an Adviser. The Ethics Charter was written in 2004 and updated in 2012. It defines (1) a common ambition for the Group and its employees, guidelines for behaviour and commitments consistent with its triple status as a development agency, a financial institution and a public body. The Charter “aims to reinforce the identity, unity and performance of the institution (…) and also to protect the Group and its employees against any reputational risk” (Article Ǿ 1). It applies to every employee, regardless of their business line, hierarchical position or duties. It promotes commitment, integrity, openness and adaptability as the Group’s four key values (Articles Ǿ 11 to 15). A copy of the Charter is given to new recruits when they sign their employment contract. The Ethics Committee meets at least six times every year. It is chaired by the Deputy Chief Executive Officer of AFD. The other members are the representatives of each Executive Department of AFD (7), Proparco, the personnel (CSE: Social and Economic Committee) and the Ethics Adviser. On the strength of the many business lines it represents, it gives Senior Management and the Group the benefit of its discussions and recommendations on operational ethical subjects that it identifies or that are submitted to it. The Ethics Adviser runs training/awareness-raising sessions for new recruits and employees soon to be assigned to the network (the network comprises almost one hundred AFD or Proparco departments/local offices/offices). In 2019 the Ethics Adviser led 35 internal training sessions on Ethics, for 698 Ǿ employees. He participates in regular discussions about ethics with all the head office teams and visits several network teams every year. He is in direct contact with all the Group’s employees, and holds regular meetings with Senior Management and members of the Executive Committee. The Adviser welcomes, listens and gives confidential advice to all head office and network employees who wish to talk about a problem or have a question about ethics (136 consultations in 2018 and 184 in 2019, almost a third of which were for network employees).

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(1) https://www.afd.fr/en/ressources/ethics-charter-afd-group.

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UNIVERSAL REGISTRATION DOCUMENT 2019