AFD Group in India [fr]

Agence Française de Développement (AFD)

AFD Group contributes to the implementation of France’s policies for sustainable development and international solidarity. The Group includes Agence Française de Développement (AFD), which finances the public sector, NGOs, research and training; its subsidiary Proparco, which is dedicated to the private sector; and Expertise France, a technical cooperation agency. The Group finances, supports and accelerates the transitions needed for a fairer, more resilient world.

With our partners, we are building shared solutions with and for the people in more than 150 countries, as well as in 11 French Overseas Departments and Territories. As part of the commitment of France and the French people to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, our teams are at work on 4,200 projects in the field. Our objective is to reconcile economic development with the preservation of common goods, from peace, the climate and biodiversity to health, education and gender equality. Towards a world in common.

AFD Group’s commitment in India

AFD has been operating in India since 2008, by developing cooperation actions for sustainable development and the fight against climate change. It has committed EUR 1.9bn over these 15 years, through 26 projects in the form of loans to the State and State-owned companies, as well as technical assistance programs.
AFD has been entrusted with a strategic mandate tailored to the Indian Government’s priorities. It is implemented through three main focuses for cooperation:

• Promote sustainable and integrated urban development;
• Encourage energy efficiency and renewable energy development;
• Conserve the country’s biodiversity and natural resources.

Our objective: help India successfully achieve its urban, energy and ecological transitions.

AFD’s financing is also a vehicle for sharing France’s expertise and innovative solutions, which Indian partners are seeking for targeted skills transfers. In addition to the loans it allocates in India, AFD can set up technical assistance programs which aim to build the expertise of its counterparties. AFD benefits from a close partnership with the European Union for this purpose in the context of fund delegations.

Learn more about AFD in India: india.afd.fr

PROPARCO

Proparco is a subsidiary of Agence Française de Développement (AFD) focused on private sector development. It has been promoting sustainable economic, social and environmental development practices for 40 years. Proparco provides funding and support to both businesses and financial institutions across Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle-East.

It seeks to partner projects in key development sectors – infrastructure (with a specific focus on renewable energies), agribusiness, financial institutions, healthcare and education, etc. – and to boost the contribution of the private sector to achieving the sustainable development goals adopted by the international community in 2015. As a means to this end, Proparco finances businesses that are instrumental in creating decent jobs that pay decent wages, in supplying essential goods and services and in battling climate change.

In India for the past 15 years, PROPARCO’s interventions have been based on two pillars:

• Support our customers in their climate transition. This priority objective is historically achieved through equity support-to-support mitigation and adaptation measures for businesses or debt to energy developers.
  PROPARCO also now analyzes projects in the field of energy recovery from waste, electric mobility, the circular economy, recycling and even agro ecology.
  PROPARCO is also involved in promoting urban energy efficiency through the establishment of dedicated credit lines for green and affordable housing;

• Contribute to the reduction of inequalities: The other major objective of PROPARCO in India is to support projects with a direct impact on the reduction of gender, socio-economic and territorial inequalities. Thus, PROPARCO intervenes massively in favor of financial inclusion, particularly for women, as evidenced by recent operations (2020/2021) with Annapurna (30 MUSD | in debt and equity), Indusind Bank (75 MUSD), Neogrowth (10 MUSD | ), Northern Arc Limited (20 MUSD) and Svantara Microfin (15 MUSD).

For more information, go to: https://www.proparco.fr/en