Since 1990, France has been keen on helping Namibia into her first steps as an independent nation and then into supporting its program of moder-nization and development.
In 2007, France will increase its support to Namibian development by 22% with a bilateral of N$ 24,52 M (2,62 M€) compared to an effort of N$ 20,01 M (2,30 M€) in 2007.
This direct aid does not take into account:
·the support of France through multilateral organizations:
o 25% of the European Development Fund is financed by France (the European Commission supported Namibia with N$ 3,7 Bn between 1990 and 2004),
France will be the biggest contributor to the Global Fund in 2007 (GF support to Namibia’s fight against HIV, tuberculosis and
o malaria has reached NA$ 114 million in 2006),
o Since 2004, the FFEM is supporting Namibia’s effort to protect the environment with a 12,3 M€ contribution over 4 years to the community based natural resources management programme (ICEMA). 10 conservancies are concerned by this wildlife management project.
· The 35 M€ (N$ 327 M) soft loan France will make to Namibia for the ETSIP programme.
France’s bilateral support to Namibia in 2007
Based on the priorities of Vision 2030, the goals of NDP2 & NDP3 and in coordination with other donors, the French cooperation in Namibia will support 4 sectors: cultural diversity, French language promotion, governance and poverty reduction.
Cultural diversity
In order to facilitate the international integration of Namibia, France will support the development and the promotion of Namibian cultures :
·The Franco-Namibian Cultural Centre will contribute to the awareness and to the development of Namibian cultural identity by:
o Organizing more than 80 concerts, theatre plays, exhibitions, film, video shows and lectures ,
o Putting in place training sessions in Namibia and France for local artists with institutions such as the National Theatre of Namibia, the College of the Arts, the Katutura Community Art Centre, the National Art gallery,
o  Offering the public its high quality cultural facilities, in particular a 10 000 document library (books, magazines, DVDs …) .
· France will slightly increase its cooperation in the audiovisual sector. Thanks to a technical assistant located at the NBC, French cooperation will pursue:
o Its programme of modernization of the NBC, mainly through technical training and by promoting its programmes (participation to the MIP TV and St Tropez festivals),
o Its aid towards the movie sector, by supporting the Wild Film Festival and Namibia’s “Taste of Rain”.
· According to the cooperation agreement signed in July 2006 between the National Museum of Natural History of Paris and the National Museum of Namibia, France and Namibia will launch a 5 year investment and training programme to develop her cultural tourism offer (modernization of its museums, training of archeologists and museum conservationists …).

Learning of French
Namibia willing to accelerate its integration in Africa, the learning of French as a second language becomes a priority for more and more pupils.
France will help Namibia to meet the growing demand to learn French by:
· supporting the training by UNAM of French Teachers (11 students in 2007),
· organizing French courses at the FNCC (400 learners in 2006),
· offering professional courses of French (civil servants, tourist guides, diplomats …),
· providing training sessions to the teachers of FRIENDS, the French/English/German Branch of DHPS.

Governance
With France phasing out of rural development, growing support will be allocated to the sector of governance in order to:
· help modernizing the public service:
o France will continue to support to the ongoing decentralisation process with the implementation of a  public participation and participatory democracy programme and the modernization of regional councils through training and equipment donations ;
o French cooperation will remain the main partner in the setting up, in 2007, of the National Institute for Public Administration and Management ;
· … and promote Human rights:
o The French Embassy will finance the large training sessions for public prosecutors (legal matters and administrative management) ran by the Human Rights and Documentation Centre of the UNAM,
o French cooperation will support the structuring of the anti-corruption commission (training sessions for investigators, information campaign …) and the translation in Namibian law of the provisions of Merida convention,
· France will be on the side of the Human Rights Consultative Commission, created in April 2006, through training sessions for its members and aid for the 2007 Human rights awareness week organised by the Ombudsman.
Poverty reduction
Thanks to a new 3 year long small grant scheme, the French government co-finances small development projects with a strong social dimension. Around 20 projects around Namibia will be aided  in 2007 .