2027 Budget Bill: France’s official development assistance budget once again faces a potential cut of 300 million euros

Tom Janvier

Chargé de programme

Published on 11 August 2026.

After five successive cuts in less than two years, France’s official development assistance budget could fall again in 2027. According to the spending ceilings set by the Prime Minister, funding for the Official Development Assistance budget programme would be reduced to €3.3 billion, €300 million less than 2026 Since 2024, funding for this programme would therefore have fallen by 50%.

On 15 July 2026, the Prime Minister’s Office unveiled the proposed spending ceilings for the 2027 Finance Bill, as determined by the Prime Minister in the ceiling letters sent to the various ministries. At this stage, these amounts constitute the Government’s budgetary framework. They provide an indication of the appropriations that will appear in the 2027 Finance Bill, although they may still change before the bill is presented to the Council of Ministers and during its examination by Parliament.

Under this framework, the “Official Development Assistance” programme would undergo its sixth consecutive cut since February 2024. Its spending ceiling would fall from €3.6 billion under the initial 2026 Finance Act to €3.3 billion in 2027 a reduction of €300 million, or 8%. Meanwhile, funding for the other budget programmes included in the document would increase by approximately 1% on average.

The announced figure does not yet constitute the final budget, however. It may change before the Finance Bill is submitted and during its examination by the National Assembly and the Senate.

A further reduction following the cuts made in 2026

The 2027 Finance Bill framework comes after funding for the official development assistance programme had already been reduced during the current year. Two decrees published in June 2026 cancelled €21 million in payment appropriations, bringing the programme’s available resources down to approximately €3.548 billion.

This reduction would extend the downward trajectory that began in February 2024. Between the amount provided for in the 2024 Finance Act and the framework announced for 2027, funding for the official development assistance programme would have fallen from approximately €6.7 billion to €3.3 billion, a reduction of nearly €2.6 billion, or 50%, in three years (including the former Development Solidarity Fund for 2024).

These cuts could have considerable human consequences. According to study published by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), the cuts to French aid introduced since 2023 could result in more than 3.5 million additional deaths by 2030, compared with a scenario in which funding had remained at its 2023 level.

The ceiling letters also reveal a particularly concerning reduction in commitment appropriations, which enable new multi-year projects to be launched. According to the information available, these would fall by approximately €917 million across the programme’s two main components: €600 million for Programme 110, “Economic and Financial Assistance for Development,” and €317 million for Programme 209, “Solidarity with Developing Countries.” This reduction would therefore have consequences beyond 2027: it would severely restrict France’s ability to make new commitments in subsequent years.

Development assistance would account for a disproportionate share of the savings

The “Official Development Assistance” programme would experience one of the largest cuts in the French government budget in 2027. With a €300 million reduction in appropriations, it would account for approximately 8.5% of the €3.5 billion in total cuts across the budget programmes included in the document.

This contribution appears all the more disproportionate given that the official development assistance programme represents less than 0.5% of total expenditure under the government’s general budget.

At the same time, spending by the government and its agencies would reach €708.4 billion in 2027. In particular, the Government is planning a €6.4 billion increase in the armed forces budget, an additional €1.5 billion for the “Environment, Sustainable Development and Mobility” programme, €800 million more for school education, and €600 million more for research and higher education.

A 50% reduction since 2024

If confirmed, the proposed ceiling for 2027 would be:

• Approximately 7% lower than the funding remaining after the cancellations made in 2026;
• 25% lower than the amount allocated under the 2025 Finance Act;
• 50% lower than the amount provided for in the 2024 Finance Act, including the former Development Solidarity Fund for 2024.

The budget for the official development assistance programme would therefore fall for the sixth consecutive time since the first funding cancellations in February 2024. In cumulative terms, this would be the second-largest reduction experienced by any budget programme over this period, after “Government Transformation and the Civil Service.”

Numerous stakeholders condemn the use of international solidarity as a “budget-balancing variable”

In July 2026, 144 members of Parliament and 392 NGOs sent an open letter to the Prime Minister, calling for the release of funding that had already been approved and reiterating that French aid should primarily address the needs of the most vulnerable populations.

The new announcements for 2027 prompted numerous reactions from civil-society organisations. Coordination SUD described the cuts as relentless budgetary targeting and noted that, over the past three years, the official development assistance budget had been one of the main contributors to efforts to reduce the public deficit.

UNICEF France has expressed alarm over the proposed cut for 2027, stating that “the cost to children is immense.” By way of illustration, €300 million would enable UNICEF to provide psychological support to more than 12 million children who have experienced armed violence, displacement or the loss of a loved one. An equivalent amount could also provide water, food, healthcare and protection to more than 1.8 million children and families affected by conflict or natural disasters.

A trajectory taking France even further away from its commitments

The proposed reduction would come six years after the adoption of the Act of 4 August 2021 on inclusive development and the fight against global inequalities. The Act established a target of allocating 0.7% of gross national income to official development assistance by 2025.

This target was not met, and the deadline for achieving it was postponed until 2030. After peaking at 0.56% of gross national income in 2022, French aid has continued to decline. In view of the cuts already adopted, it could fall to around 0.38% of GNI in 2026 a level comparable to that recorded ten years earlier.

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