Department of International Cooperation of the Government of Monaco
Bénédicte Schutz
Monaco’s Special Representative
You were a field humanitarian for many years before joining the Department of International Cooperation. What is your vision of official development assistance? How has it evolved?
My career path led me first and foremost into the field, particularly in Africa, where I worked for international NGOs such as Handicap International and the Fondation d’Auteuil. Before joining the Government of Monaco’s Department of International Cooperation when it was set up in 2007, I had a diplomatic stint working for the Principality at the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie, where I was in charge of monitoring projects financed by Monaco and the Organisation’s various cooperation programmes. I launched the first French-speaking international volunteer scheme. The move to the Monegasque Cooperation in 2007, before taking over as Director in 2013, was therefore a natural one.
In my view, we are at a time when joint international action is more necessary than ever, given the global issues of security, health and climate that are having an inescapable impact on our lives. The COVID pandemic has wiped out a decade of development, inequalities are widening, and hunger is on the rise. In this respect, Official Development Assistance (ODA) is an essential investment in tomorrow’s world, not a sunk cost. And it is to the credit of the Principality and the Sovereign Prince, who is so committed, that Monaco continues to increase its ODA, making it the world’s leading donor per capita.
The IECD’s collaboration with the Department of International Cooperation began in 2011. Why have you chosen to focus your activities on young people, particularly in North Africa and the Mediterranean?
This ties in with our vision of ODA as a tool for social justice to correct inequalities and a means of investing in the world of tomorrow. Who better than young people to represent the breeding ground for this future? It is first and foremost young people, and all vulnerable groups such as women, girls, children and people with disabilities, who must be supported as a priority, because it is they who have the greatest difficulty in accessing their rights and opportunities, all the more so when crises arise.
As far as North Africa and the Mediterranean are concerned, our collaboration with the IECD is based on the observation that youth unemployment is an issue common to all the countries in the Mediterranean basin, since it ranges from 20% to 38% depending on the country. When you consider that children and young people under the age of 25 account for almost half of the population of the Middle East and North Africa, you realise that they are an essential lever of transformation for the entire region. Hence the various vocational training programmes implemented by the IECD and supported by Monaco, whether in Lebanon, Morocco or Tunisia. Or the 2ndchance schools and schemes, and the Mediterranean New Chance Network (MedNC) for young NEETS, also operated by the IECD and for which the Monaco Government has been a supporter from the outset. We are also grateful to the IECD for supporting the “Jeunesse en Méditerranée (JMED)” scheme with us since 2020. This will pave the way for the emergence of a new generation of Mediterranean NGOs committed to helping young people.
Why did you choose IECD? What do you see as its added value?
At the Monegasque Cooperation, we are of course looking for good projects to support, but above all we are looking for the right partners to implement them and build a long-term relationship. In the IECD, we have found a reliable, high-quality partner with whom we have been working closely since 2011. IECD has also been one of the Monegasque Cooperation’s privileged partners since the signing of a memorandum of understanding in July 2022. We share common values and converging priorities in the fields of education, vocational training and entrepreneurship. IECD is also a partner that is very much in line with our objective of localising more of our aid with local partners. We are delighted that IECD has created local entities with which we sign direct partnerships, such as Semeurs d’Avenir in Lebanon and IECD Morocco. These structures are essential agents of change in the MENA region.
What does this collaboration bring to you (in terms of your employees, your strategy, your values, your expertise, your knowledge of the sector, of countries, etc.)?
I think – I hope! – that our collaboration allows us to enrich and develop each other. IECD’s expertise, or rather knowledge of the field, enables us, for example, to identify the real needs of the populations we support and to find solutions together, always in line, of course, with the national priorities of the countries in which we operate. Together, we can identify avenues for future joint action. As in the North Africa-Mediterranean region, where it’s no coincidence that we work together in almost all the countries where we operate, and where a truly regional dimension and vision for the programmes has been put in place, with support for NEETS and young people in general in the area of access to employment.
Have you had the opportunity to visit the various countries where the projects supported by the International Cooperation Department are being implemented? Did any of the young people you supported catch your attention?
I am particularly attached to the “La Rizière” project, supported by the IECD in Madagascar, which has led to the construction of a vocational training centre for the hotel and catering trades in Fianarantsoa, in partnership with the Collège Saint François-Xavier (SFX). La Rizière comprises a vocational training centre offering a number of promising courses and a training hotel-restaurant that not only provides practical experience in the hotel trade for students – while generating income to support the activities of the training centre – but also an ideal, highly professional setting for locals and tourists alike. On each of my assignments, I take great pleasure in staying at La Rizière, which allows me to interact with the young learners.
Since this year, the DCI has also been supporting the IECD’s “Pro Pulse” initiative, which enables young people trained in the regions to complete an internship and settle in the capital. I recently had the opportunity to talk to former students of La Rizière who are now working in large hotels in Tana.
At a time when official development assistance is being called into question in France and in many other countries, how do you see the future for international development?
First of all, I would like to reiterate that I am delighted that the Principality has not followed the current global trend and cut its Official Development Assistance. Quite the contrary. Apart from the size of our country and its funding, this is undoubtedly due to the fact that Monaco does not use its international solidarity as an instrument of political soft power, and sees it simply as a way of assuming its place in the concert of nations by doing its bit, like the hummingbird, and our duty to put ourselves at the service of the most disadvantaged.
Of course, I can only deplore the outright cuts that have been made, especially as they have been brutal and affect not only the final beneficiaries of the projects, but also the staff of the NGOs that implement them, whether international or local, in turn plunging thousands of people into disarray. But I want to remain positive and say to myself that this is perhaps a blessing in disguise, and that it will bring about a change – albeit a radical one – in international development and the way it is currently approached.
The last word?
I’ll leave it to Albert Camus: “The poverty of people puts a ban on the beauty of the world.”