International Organisation of the Francophonie

La Francophonie groups together all territories and people that use French as a common language – whether as their mother tongue, an administrative language or a cultural language. French is spoken by more than 321 million people and remains the second most-studied foreign language in the world. It is the fifth most spoken language in the world and the fourth most used language on the Internet.

It was in Niger in 1970 that the Agence de coopération culturelle et technique was founded, paving the way for the creation of the International Organisation of La Francophonie (IOF) in 2005.

The IOF encourages exchanges between government and civil society representatives in French-speaking countries. It has 53 member, 32 observer and 5 associate states. Its core values are anchored in the Charter of La Francophonie, which was adopted at the 1997 Summit of la Francophonie in Vietnam and completed in 2005 in Madagascar. The charter upholds solidarity, peace, democracy, sustainable development and the rule of law in French-speaking countries.

On October 4 and 5, 2024, the 19th Francophonie Summit took place in Villers-Cotterêts and Paris. Its theme was: “Creating, Innovating, and Enterprising in French”. The member states adopted several declarations (Summit Declaration, Declarations of solidarity with Lebanon, and a Resolution on crises). The Secretary General of La Francophonie, Madame Louise Mushikiwabo, warmly thanked France, the host country, for organising the Summit. The Summit was an opportunity to discuss multilateralism during a time of crisis.

In order to reach its goals, the IOF is divided into four bodies:

• Ministerial Conference (CMF) (fr)
• Permanent Council (CPF) (fr)
• Permanent ministerial conferences: Conference of Education Ministers (CONFEMEN) and Conference of Ministers for Youth and Sport (CONFEJES) (fr)

The IOF works with the following four specialised agencies:

Academic Agency of la Francophonie (AUF)

Universities in the French-speaking part of Switzerland, the EPFL, the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland and other educational institutes are members of the AUF. The State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation has contributed to the AUF's budget since 1998.Switzerland has a seat on the board of the organisation.

TV5MONDE

Switzerland was a co-founder of this French-language TV channel created in 1984. TV5MONDE programmes are broadcast to more than 200 countries in 11 different languages.

The International Association of Francophone Mayors (AIMF)

The AIMF is a network of local authorities which implements projects within the framework of a shared system of values.

Senghor University

The OIF is a forum where states work together to promote linguistic diversity, democracy, human rights, and sustainability.