The Investment Fund for Economic and Social Development (, or FIDES) was a development finance institution active in the

French colonial empire The French colonial empire () comprised the overseas Colony, colonies, protectorates, and League of Nations mandate, mandate territories that came under French rule from the 16th century onward. A distinction is generally made between the "Firs ...

, notably in

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

. It was established in 1946, as

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

recalled its earlier policy that colonies should be fully self-sufficient. It existed until 1959 when a

decree A decree is a law, legal proclamation, usually issued by a head of state, judge, monarch, royal figure, or other relevant Authority, authorities, according to certain procedures. These procedures are usually defined by the constitution, Legislativ ...

replaced it with the ''Fonds d'aide et de coopération'' (FAC).

Assessment

In 1962, René Dumont criticized the fund from an economic point of view:

" thin the framework of FIDES very large sums were granted to French-speaking Africa. In face of the immense needs, however, they seemed quite modest. The aid could in fact have been increased many times without a corresponding tax pressure, had France had the courage politically to decolonize more rapidly. Forty-six percent of the FIDES grants, particularly in the first four-year plan, were used to build roads, ports and airports. These were indispensable to open up the countries, but could have been achieved at less cost."

Historian Paul Nugent states that the more recent historical consensus "is that FIDES amounted to much more than an ideological figleaf. It did channel substantial resources into the African colonies - initially (as in the British case) into infrastructural development, but later also into industrial enterprises and agricultural projects." However, this development was mainly directed towards the extraction and transportation of

resources ''Resource'' refers to all the materials available in our environment which are Technology, technologically accessible, Economics, economically feasible and Culture, culturally Sustainability, sustainable and help us to satisfy our needs and want ...

. According to historian Catherine Coquery-Vidrovitch, 64% of the budgets went into infrastructural and industrial development to extract products and transport them to the ''

Métropole A (; French for "metropolis") is an administrative entity in France, in which several communes cooperate, and which has the right to levy local tax, an ''établissement public de coopération intercommunale à fiscalité propre''. It is the mo ...

'', while only 18% was consecrated to "social programs" such as

literacy Literacy is the ability to read and write, while illiteracy refers to an inability to read and write. Some researchers suggest that the study of "literacy" as a concept can be divided into two periods: the period before 1950, when literacy was ...

vaccination Vaccination is the administration of a vaccine to help the immune system develop immunity from a disease. Vaccines contain a microorganism or virus in a weakened, live or killed state, or proteins or toxins from the organism. In stimulating ...

campaigns. The majority of the 599 billion

francs The franc is any of various units of currency. One franc is typically divided into 100 centimes. The name is said to derive from the Latin inscription ''francorum rex'' ( King of the Franks) used on early French coins and until the 18th centur ...

that went to the colonies between 1946 and 1956 ended up being funneled back either to French companies or individual settlers and administrators. Moreover, economist Thomas Piketty asserts that the funds should not be overstated because the portion of the French budget that went into the colonies never surpassed 0,5% of the French GDP, while military expenses to restore order in the colonies surpassed 2% in the same period.

Assessment

References

Further reading