AIRF commits to give the Francophonie a new impetus

The Francophone Regions held their General Assembly and Work Groups meeting on the 23rd and 24th March, coinciding with the Week of Francophonie

On Friday 24th of March 2017, the International Association of Francophone Regions (AIRF) held its Management Board and General Assembly meetings at the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Regional Council’s location in Lyon, France. The day before, 23rd of March, the four work groups of the organisation met to work on the 2017-2018 action program. 

The President of the AIRF and of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, Laurent Wauquiez (also Vice-President of ORU Fogar) hosted the General Assembly and, in the presence of 61 regional presidents, presented the organisation’s strategic lines for 2017-2018. Since the meeting was being held during the Week of Francophonie, he emphasised, among targeted objectives, that of giving the French language a new impetus, which is, with 274 million speakers distributed in all 5 continents, a strong and expanding language. 

The other strategic guidelines prioritize the economic promotion of the francophone regions, a fresh impetus to decentralisation for the development of territories, youth inclusion and employment, supporting cultural actions and a closer collaboration with the International Organisation of the Francophonie (OIF), the European Union and the African regional associations. 

New work groups 

All these topics had been previously discussed at the work groups’ meeting, created a year before during the Management Board meeting held in May 2016 to meet the objective of strengthening the collaboration and intensifying joint actions among the AIRF’s members. Two of the groups are led by members of ORU Fogar: the “Economic Development” group, led by the President of ORU and of the Moroccan region of Rabat-Salé-Kénitra, Abdessamad Sekkal, and the “Decentralisation, governance, and recognition of the role of the regions” group, lead by Jeannot Ahoussou-Kouadio, President of the Bélier region and of the Ivory Coast Assembly of Regions and Districts (ARDCI). 

At the end of the meeting, the cities of Dakar (Senegal) and Yamoussoukro (Ivory Coast) were proposed to host the next meetings of the Management Board and General Assembly, respectively.  

Image credits : Michel PERES, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region