International Organization of la Francophonie (OIF)

There is no doubt that since its existence, language has been a crucial element of human communication. In fact, languages are one of the ways through which globalization has reached every corner of our planet. Languages change, they are imposed, they are taught and learned, they gain power or disappear, and they can serve as links for promoting peace, solidarity, and progress within different actors of the world. This is the case of the French language, the fifth most spoken language in the world with a population of around 300 million speakers across the globe.  This group of people from 80 different nations across all five continents are part of “la francophonie”. When we capitalize the term, la Francophonie becomes not only the ensemble of speakers, but the region that comprises the nations that have French as their official or co-official language. We associate this coalition of countries to an international organization, the Organization Internationale de la francophon...

La Francophonie can be defined nowadays as the world community of French-speaking countries, or the collective unit formed by French-speaking people.  Onésime Reclus (french geographer in the 19th century) first formulated the term Francophonie with the colonialist expansion of European countries like France. The term never had a considerable impact until the 1960s when Léopold Senghor, first president of Sénégal, used it consistently. Those political leaders who emerged from decolonization in French Africa in the 1960s, ended up pursuing the institutional expansion and functional cooperation within the Francophone world. With their newly acquired civil liberties, and political and social rights, they wished to create new mechanisms of consultation, co-operation, and, whenever deemed appropriate, policy coordination at the political level. Such ideas were fostered by figures like Léopold Senghor of Senegal, Hamani Diori of Niger, and Habib Bourguiba of Tunisia. Several Afri...

We find that nowadays there are globally more than 150 million Francophones. Two of every three Francophones live outside of France, and in more than forty countries on five continents. We could understand la Francophonie as “a community, based on a common language, which believes in the unity and diversity of cultures". It should come as no surprise that French has for some time been one of the most widely used languages in the world, and for a long time it was the only language of international diplomacy. It is used alongside English as a working language at the United Nations, the European Union and the Olympic Games. However, there is a great deal more to the Francophonie community than simply sharing a common language. Regarding population, in 2013, there was around 1 billion of habitants in francophone territories with a density of 34.36/km2 (89.0/sq mi), yet according to different sources, there are more or less 274 million of french speakers in the world. Organized b...

According to the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie itself, the main objectives that the organization was founded upon are the following:  - Promoting the French language and linguistic and cultural diversity.  - Promoting peace, democracy, and Human Rights. - Supporting education, teaching and research. - Developing economic cooperation to ensure long-term development.  Therefore, despite being founded on a language as a common characteristic, the organization clearly follows the characteristics of a political entity. The organization is currently organized as follows: there is a role of a secretary general who acts as the official representative of the organization, nowadays held by Ms. Louise Mushikiwabo . The guidelines for cooperation and the objectives and strategies that the organization will follow are decided every two years in an event known as the Francophonie Summit, which brings together the heads of State and Government of all ...

The OIF has actually emerged as a political actor with France and Canada being at the top representatives of La Francophonie. In terms of soft-power, we can encounter a clear goal in french-speaking countries to develop their own leadership in economics. Sharing a common language brings a contraction in trade, business and communication costs, making it much more affordable for companies to get in a new market, but at the same time sustain existing trade flows over time, including in the event of an economic interruption. In addition to these costs, sharing a language also appears to have an impact on the level of the collective trust. Based on an Eurobarometer survey, which was held in 2013, investigators have proved that sharing the same language fosters mutual faith, which in return has a massive positive effect on the global trade of Francophone Countries. Generally speaking, linguistic ties raise our understanding of certain economic behaviors in areas such as internatio...

Let's make a comparison with another region. Regions might choose to constitute themselves addressing different concepts. We have chosen to analyse a region that’s based upon a language as a result of historical events such as colonisation. Other regions might want to associate for mutual benefit using a shared history and common interests as well. That’s the case of the Commonwealth, a region whose members are also partly from the African continent. Despite both organizations have very similar goals, such as the promotion of peace and democracy, and the common development and progress of their members, their approaches are quite different.  The Francophonie has a more similar system to that of the United Nations, by making decisions through majority voting , while the Commonwealth does it through consensus. When it comes to funding, the Francophonie spends ten times the amount the Commonwealth does of funding per citizen. This fact portrays that when comparing them, Fran...

As we have been able to see, la Francophonie comprises more than 300 million citizens worldwide. Two of every three Francophones live outside of France, and in more than 50 countries all across the 5 continents. La Francophonie "is a community, based on a common language, which believes in the unity and diversity of cultures" (Hamilton 1994, 21). Considering these facts, it is not surprise that French is one of the most widely spoken languages in the world, and a key language in international diplomatic relations as well. It is used alongside Arabic, Chinese, English, Russian and Spanish as an official language at the United Nations , as well as the European Union and many more world-wide organizations.  Leopold Sedar Senghor , the former president of Senegal, and one of the first leaders to push for summit meetings, said that French isn't just a practical common language for use in administration and education. Senghor defined the French language as "a way of...