About us

An international partner working for the global environment and sustainable development

For nearly 30 years, FFEM has been working to reconcile the conservation of the environment and sustainable development in developing and emerging countries. FFEM has set the priority of acting to protect the global environment in order to promote sustainable economic and social development in the countries where it operates.

This interministerial financial instrument serves the French cooperation and development policy. It has a unique position in the landscape of bilateral international donors. It stands out from other public and even private initiatives by placing innovation at the center of its action.
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Province Sud Nouvelle Caledonie
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Our missions

The French Facility for Global Environment (FFEM) has been working to reconcile the conservation of the environment and sustainable development in developing and emerging countries.

For nearly 30 years, it encourages innovative initiatives and pilot projects that respond to global environment challenges and aim for environmental, social, and economic benefits. Its objective is to test solutions and learn lessons from them, and then to facilitate their dissemination and deployment in other places and/or on a broader scale. The distinctive features of the FFEM are inno¬vation and replicability of action.

 

Aerial view of waterfront village in Uganda

Our strategic priorities

To finance operations that reconcile the protection of the global environment and economic growth in the countries where it operates, FFEM has historically focused its operations on the fields of climate, biodiversity, international waters, land degradation, chemical pollutants and the stratospheric ozone layer.

 

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Our governance

FFEM’s governance is based on three bodies which interact right from the definition of the fund’s strategy up to the operational implementation of projects.

 

Mangrove Costa Rica

Over 25 years of solutions

For nearly 30 years, FFEM has been listening to scientists, orientating strategy around international conventions and agreements, innovating and taking up global environmental and development challenges.

 

5
areas of operation
+400
projects committed
120
countries of operation

FFEM promotes concrete and innovative initiatives 

In addition to its capacity to appraise project that address the issues of the international agenda for the preservation of global public goods and the Sustainable Development Goals, FFEM promotes concrete and innovative initiatives in the field by all types of actors, for the benefit of the global environment and local development in countries in the South.

 

FFEM’s financial resources

FFEM’s resources stand at €132m for the period 2023-2026. They are replenished by the State budget and are renewed in 4-year cycles.

FFEM’s financial resources come in addition to France’s contribution to the Global environment facility (GEF). They allow France to continue and scale up the implementation of innovative actions, integrating global environmental issues in the development projects of emerging or developing countries.

The activities of FFEM, a bilateral fund, differ from those of GEF, its multilateral counterpart, through:

  • His dual mandate Environment and Development
  • The innovation it promotes 
  • The priority given to operations in Africa and the Mediterranean (while FFEM earmarks 70% of its financial commitments for Sub-Saharan Africa and the Mediterranean, GEF earmarks 25%)
  • Its partnerships with Francophone actors