Canada and La Francophonie

La Francophonie is a group of 90 states, governments and observers unified by shared values and French as a common language. It is an important player in international relations representing more than 1 billion people, including 396 million Francophones, on the five continents.

La Francophonie was established on March 20, 1970, at the Niamey Conference in Niger, with the creation of the Agency for Cultural and Technical Co-operation (ACCT), which in 2005 became the International Organization of La Francophonie (IOF). The IOF is now at the centre of a network of organizations that make up the institutional Francophonie.

Alongside the Parliamentary Assembly of La Francophonie (APF) and four operators (the University Agency of La Francophonie (AUF), TV5MONDE, the International Association of Francophone Mayors (AIMF) and the Senghor University in Alexandria), the IOF is implementing multicultural co-operation to find solutions to the major challenges faced by the Francophone world. The IOF’s four missions are to promote the French language, cultural and linguistic diversity; to promote peace, democracy, and human rights; to support education, training, higher education, and research; and to develop economic co-operation in support of sustainable development.

Louise Mushikiwabo was appointed Secretary General of La Francophonie at the 17th Summit of La Francophonie held in Yerevan, Armenia, and has held this position since January 2019. She was re‑elected for a second four‑year mandate during the 18th Summit of La Francophonie held in Djerba, Tunisia, in November 2022. The Secretary General leads the political activity of La Francophonie as its official spokesperson and representative on the international stage.

What Canada is doing

Canada is one of the founding countries and an active member of the IOF, and has maintained strong and sustained engagement for over 50 years. The Honourable Anita Anand, Minister of Foreign Affairs, is responsible for La Francophonie. She is supported in this task by Parliamentary Secretary the Honourable Mona Fortier, and the personal representative of the Prime Minister of Canada for La Francophonie (sherpa), Sébastien Carrière, who was appointed on April 5, 2023.

Canada is the second largest donor to the institutions of La Francophonie, with contributions totalling nearly than $43 million in 2025 -2026 . Its financial support contributes to achieving the missions of La Francophonie, defined in La Francophonie’s 2023-2030 strategic framework and illustrated in the IOF’s 2024-2027 programming.

Canada’s participation in La Francophonie enables it to promote its values, showcase Canada’s Francophone communities, and advance its foreign policy, development priorities and economic diversification within the francophone world. Canada’s weight within La Francophonie is strengthened by the engagement of the provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec as member governments and Ontario and Nova Scotia as observer governments.

Canada is very visible within the institutions of La Francophonie. For example:

Canadians have held the positions of Secretary General and Director of the IOF including the current director, Caroline St-Hilaire, who was appointed in March 2023
Three institutions of La Francophonie are headquartered in Canada : OIF Representation for North America and the Institute for Sustainable Development of La Francophonie (IFDD) in Québec City as well as the University Agency of La Francophonie (AUF) in Montréal. The AUF boasts more than 30 Canadian higher-education and research institutions among its ranks.
Five Canadian cities are active in the International Association of Francophone Mayors (AIMF)—Montréal, Ottawa, Québec, Repentigny and Terrebonne — in addition to two federations of municipalities.
The legislative assemblies of Canada and five provinces (Manitoba, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Ontario and Quebec) are members of the Parliamentary Assembly of La Francophonie (APF). Four other provinces (Alberta, British Columbia, Prince Edward Island and Saskatchewan) are also participants.
Canada is one of the six donor governments for TV5MONDE, the largest French‑language television network. TV5MONDE broadcasts productions from La Francophonie, including Canadian programs, in more than 200 countries and territories.

Canada’s actions within La Francophonie are aimed at promoting peace, democracy, human rights and gender equality; refocusing La Francophonie on the French language and its values; promoting the French fact in all its diversity, including in the digital space; supporting the continuous improvement of the governance, transparency and effectiveness of La Francophonie’s institutions; and providing international visibility for the Canadian Francophonie, particularly minority communities. Canada is also working with its partners to strengthen the role of La Francophonie in promoting trade and investment within the Francophone space and in enhancing the economic resilience of its members.

Over the past few years, Canada’s direct contributions to the institutions of the Francophonie have contributed not only to the achievement of their missions, but also to advancing Canadian priorities, for example, through the following initiatives.

Visibility of French and the digital space

Launch of TV5MONDEplus in September 2020, thanks to an investment by Canada (Canadian Heritage) of $14.6 million over five years, making Canada the first major contributor to this digital platform. TV5MONDEplus is available free of charge in nearly 200 countries and territories, increasing the online presence of French-language content, contributing to the visibility of Canadian productions, and strengthening the discoverability of French-language programs on the international scene.
The platform offers more than 6,500 hours of programming, with 27% of all content in the catalogue in 2025 originating from Canada.
Canada provided an additional 4 million dollars over two years (2024–2026) for the acquisition and promotion of Canadian content for TV5MONDEplus. This funding was renewed in the 2025 federal budget, with an allocation of 6 million dollars over three years starting in 2026–2027.
In March 2021, Canada provided support for the creation of the Francophonie TV5MONDEplus Fund. The Fund, which supports television productions from developing countries, aims to ensure that content on the platform is as representative as possible of Francophone diversity. To date, Canada has contributed close to $2 million to the Fund.

Women and gender equality

A contribution of $300,000 annually for the Observatoire francophone pour le développement inclusif par le genre (OFDIG) [Francophone observatory for gender-inclusive development]. Created in 2022, this observatory aims to encourage gender equality at an international level and help empower and encourage self‑reliance among women and girls in three key areas of inclusive development: the economic sector, educational systems, and higher education and research. The OFDIG is the result of a partnership between the University Agency of La Francophonie (AUF) and the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM), where it is based.
A total of $400,000 in financial support in the form of scholarships to enable African students to continue their graduate studies at Senghor University in Alexandria.
Contribution to the OIF's “La Francophonie avec Elles” fund, which supports projects initiated by local organizations, benefiting tens of thousands of vulnerable women in the French-speaking world.
Since 2017, financial support for the Leadership Workshops for French-speaking women parliamentarians of the APF’s Network of Women Parliamentarians. These workshops have so far focused on capacity building, anti-harassment, gender budgeting and more.

Democracy and Human Rights

A contribution of $75,000 to support the OIF in organizing training in Creole and intercultural competencies for a contingent that will take part in the anti‑gang task force in Haiti.
Contribution of $110,000 to improve civil registration practices, in particular the non‑registration of girls, in rural areas in Africa and Haiti.
Financial support of $100,000 in 2022 for the IOF’s project to address disinformation in Africa (Lutte contre la désinformation en Afrique) to strengthen the skills of media professionals and create learning content on techniques for verifying information.
A contribution of $135,000 to the IOF’s project on democratic processes (Processus démocratiques) to develop research on women’s participation in politics, implement awareness-raising initiatives for political players to promote and enhance women’s candidacies, train women candidates, as well as support the IOF’s project on peace and stability (Paix et stabilité) in training women military officers.

Youth

To date, a contribution of $400,000 has been granted to support the participation of youth at the Congrès de la jeunesse estudiantine, organized annually by the Agence universitaire de la Francophonie (AUF) in conjunction with the Semaine mondiale de la francophonie scientifique.
Support for young artists and athletes participating in the Jeux de la Francophonie.

Economic development

Financial support provided for the organization of the 5th Economic and Trade Mission of the Francophonie, held from June 11 to 13, 2024, in Montreal and Quebec City. This mission enabled more than 150 companies and economic actors from 22 OIF Member States and Governments to network, explore new business opportunities and learn more about the Canadian and international francophone business environment.

Governance

Financial support for the Association internationale des maires francophones (AIMF) to support urban initiatives and city actions, and facilitate the dissemination of best practices in local governance. In 2024, $150,000 in funding was granted by Global Affairs Canada to support a project led by the City of Montreal, in collaboration with the AIMF and ENAP, to promote the French language and Francophone identity within Francophonie cities.
Support for the parliamentary cooperation projects of the Assemblée parlementaire de la Francophonie (APF), as well as the APF gender‑responsive budgeting legislative corpus and of a legislative toolbox.

Education and research

$130,000 in funding for online learning and continuing education scholarships for students at Senghor University.
Financial contribution to the Académie internationale de la Francophonie scientifique (AIFS), inaugurated in March 2023 and based in Rabat, Morocco, to support the development of knowledge and scientific publication in the French language.
$140,000 for the development of a mapping of teachers of French and teaching in French across the Francophone space, in collaboration with the Observatoire de la langue française based in Quebec City.

History of Canada’s participation in La Francophonie

In 1970, Canada was a founding member of the Agency for Cultural and Technical Co-operation, which became the IOF in 2005. Canada has worked actively within the international Francophonie since its inception. With the support of its provincial partners, it was one of the first countries to promote La Francophonie and has supported the creation of its institutions, including:

1961 - Creation of the University Agency of La Francophonie (AUF), a university network that currently has 1,007 members in 119 countries, with its head office in Montréal.
1979 - Creation of the International Association of Francophone Mayors (AIMF) on the initiative of the mayors of Paris and the city of Québec, Jacques Chirac and Jean Pelletier. The AIMF currently has 345 member cities and associations of local elected representatives.
1988 - Creation of TV5 Québec Canada, one of two operating agencies with TV5’s TV5Monde offering programming that promotes the cultural, social and linguistic diversity of the Canadian and international Francophonie.
2019 - Creation of TV5MONDEplus, a French-language digital platform for the dissemination of Francophone audiovisual productions worldwide.

Canada played a leading role in the evolution of La Francophonie and the development of its political, economic and cooperative mandates.

Canada encouraged La Francophonie to further commit to defending democratic values and human rights, and through the Bamako Declaration (2000) and the Saint-Boniface Declaration (2006), to adopt a mechanism to react to political and social crises that arise in the Francophone world.
Canada has also been a leader in the development of an economic mandate within La Francophonie, supporting the development and implementation of the La Francophonie’s Economic Strategy. Through a significant contribution of $10 million (2015–2019), Canada made possible the implementation of an IOF program that seeks to promote employment through entrepreneurship for women and youth in Sub-Saharan Francophone Africa. More than 27,000 youth and women in 13 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa benefited from the support and guidance offered by this program.
Canada played a decisive role in the development and adoption of the La Francophonie Strategy for the Promotion of Gender Equality and the Rights and Empowerment of Women and Girls at the Yerevan Summit in 2018.
Canada has actively supported institutional reforms within La Francophonie that seek to equip its institutions with the tools required to increase effectiveness and transparency, and to achieve better results. Canada is behind the IOF’s first transparency consolidation policy, adopted at the Yerevan Summit in Armenia in 2018. With Canada’s support, the IOF implemented results-based management and modernized its financial and administrative management tools. Canada also supports the IOF’s efforts to refocus its programming on high value-added projects in order to better meet the needs of the populations of the Francophone world.

Summits of La Francophonie, which are held every two years, are an opportunity for Canada to demonstrate its commitment to the international Francophonie. The next Summit will be held in Cambodia in 2026 Three summits have been held in Canada to date:

Québec Summit (2008)

The Québec Summit in 2008 led to the adoption of the Québec Declaration, which made concrete proposals on four major issues: the environment, the French language, democracy and the rule of law, and economic governance. This summit was co-chaired by Canada and Quebec, and benefited from New Brunswick’s participation as a partner.

Moncton Summit (1999)

The Moncton Summit led to the organization of three major sectoral conferences: the Conference of Women of La Francophonie (Luxembourg, February 2000) on the theme of “Women, Power and Development;” an international symposium on the practices of democracy, rights and freedoms in La Francophonie (Bamako, Mali, November 2000) leading to the adoption of the Bamako Declaration, a key document for La Francophonie; and a ministerial conference on culture (Cotonou, Benin, June 2001) which produced the Cotonou Declaration on the issue and the promotion of cultural diversity, preparing the way for ratification in 2005 of the International Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions (UNESCO).

Québec Summit (1987)

The Québec Summit identified the priority areas of La Francophonie: culture, communications, language, technological development, science, energy and agriculture. It was also during this summit that the Francophone Business Forum and the Institute for Sustainable Development of La Francophonie (IFDD) were formed. The IFDD’s head office is in Québec.