By Benoist Mallet Di Bento
As ministers gather to assess the candidates for the next Secretary-General of the International Organisation of La Francophonie (OIF), attention naturally focuses on personalities, diplomatic balances and electoral arithmetic. Yet this institutional sequence should not obscure the more fundamental question before the Francophone world.
The real issue is not simply who will lead the Organisation. It is what kind of Francophonie we wish to build over the next fifteen years.
The international environment has changed profoundly. Strategic competition has intensified, artificial intelligence is reshaping economies and societies, climate change is redefining development priorities, and civil societies are demanding a greater role in international governance. In such a context, the Francophonie cannot remain primarily an inherited institutional framework. It must become a platform capable of producing solutions, facilitating cooperation and generating shared innovation.
For decades, the Francophonie largely operated through a vertical dynamic in which expertise, financial resources and institutional models flowed from North to South. This approach produced significant achievements in education, cultural cooperation and institutional development. It deserves recognition.
However, the realities of the twenty-first century invite us to think differently.
The demographic centre of gravity of the French language now lies overwhelmingly in Africa. Innovation is emerging across the entire Francophone space. Québec has become a world-class centre for artificial intelligence. Morocco has developed major academic partnerships across Africa. Universities, entrepreneurs, researchers and local communities throughout Africa, the Caribbean, the Indian Ocean, Southeast Asia and the Pacific are generating original responses to global challenges.
This evolution raises an essential question
What if some of tomorrow’s most significant educational, technological, agricultural and cultural innovations were to emerge first from the Global South?
If that happens, the Francophonie can no longer be understood simply as a space where knowledge is transmitted in one direction. It must become a community of reciprocal learning, where every society contributes its own experience and every member remains willing to learn from others.
Such a transformation also requires broadening our understanding of the Francophonie itself.
The OIF is an organisation of States and governments. Yet the Francophonie lives first through its peoples: teachers, researchers, entrepreneurs, artists, local authorities, universities, businesses, athletes, diasporas and, above all, younger generations.
Across the Francophone world, expectations are growing for an Organisation that is more visible, more accessible and more closely connected to realities on the ground. Establishing permanent dialogue with civil society, academic networks, territorial authorities and economic actors would considerably strengthen the Organisation’s legitimacy and effectiveness.
Ambition, however, requires resources
There is an increasingly visible gap between the missions assigned to the Francophonie and the financial means available to fulfil them. Education, mobility, research, cultural cooperation, digital transformation, agricultural development and youth programmes all require sustainable investment.
The next Secretary-General will therefore need to explore new instruments: public-private partnerships, Francophone investment funds, development finance institutions, philanthropic foundations, diaspora investment mechanisms and impact finance. In the longer term, the idea of a genuine Francophone financial architecture deserves serious consideration if the Organisation wishes to transform political aspirations into measurable achievements.
Technological sovereignty constitutes another major challeng
Artificial intelligence is no longer simply an innovation sector. It is becoming the infrastructure through which knowledge, information and economic activity circulate. The linguistic and cultural data that train these systems inevitably shape their outcomes.
The Francophone world possesses remarkable assets: research centres in Europe and North America, rapidly expanding innovation ecosystems across Africa and an exceptional linguistic diversity. Together, these strengths could support multilingual open models, digital preservation of languages, scientific cooperation and ethical governance of artificial intelligence. In this domain, the Francophonie could become not merely a participant, but a recognised international contributor.
Food security offers another strategic opportunity
Agriculture remains central to demographic growth, employment, territorial stability and climate resilience. Rather than viewing agriculture exclusively as a production sector, the Francophone world could promote integrated ecosystems connecting research, innovation, local transformation and entrepreneurship across continents. Such cooperation would strengthen both economic sovereignty and sustainable development.
Likewise, sport deserves greater recognition as an instrument of diplomacy. The Jeux de la Francophonie already demonstrate its potential. Expanded cooperation among universities, federations, local governments and youth organisations could transform sport into a powerful vector of inclusion, trust-building and peace.
Language itself also deserves renewed reflection
French constitutes our common linguistic space, yet it coexists with thousands of other languages. The Francophonie should therefore not pursue cultural uniformity, but rather become a laboratory of multilingualism.
This diversity extends beyond languages to modes of knowledge transmission. Across many Francophone societies, oral traditions continue to preserve memory, education and collective experience alongside written culture. At a time when artificial intelligence is reshaping learning itself, these traditions should no longer be regarded simply as heritage. They represent living intellectual resources capable of enriching future educational models.
Climate change reinforces this need for intellectual openness
Throughout the Francophone world, diverse legal traditions, scientific approaches and local knowledge systems coexist. Indigenous knowledge, customary practices and contemporary science should not be viewed as competing systems but as complementary contributions to environmental stewardship. The Francophonie is uniquely positioned to facilitate this dialogue.
Natural resources should also become instruments of cooperation rather than sources of conflict. Critical minerals, energy resources and biodiversity can generate shared prosperity only if accompanied by local value creation, education, institutional capacity and long-term peace.
More than twenty years ago, former United Nations and Francophonie Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali warned against cultural uniformity and argued that cultural diversity should be shared rather than merely protected. For him, dialogue among cultures was not an abstract ideal but a necessary condition for lasting peace. That insight remains remarkably relevant today.
In an increasingly fragmented international order, the Francophonie has an opportunity to renew that vision. Diversity should not simply be preserved as a historical inheritance; it should be mobilised as a strategic resource for innovation, cooperation and peace.
Ultimately, the election of a Secretary-General is important. But it is not the final objective. The deeper challenge is to enable the Francophonie to evolve from a community bound primarily by a shared language into a community united by shared learning.
Such a transformation would not diminish the Organisation’s original vocation. On the contrary, it would fulfil it. In a multipolar world where no civilisation possesses all the answers, every society has something to teach, and every society has something to learn. Perhaps this is the Francophonie’s greatest strategic opportunity—and its greatest responsibility.
About the author:
Benoist Mallet Di Bento is a Consultant en stratégie internationale, essayiste et observateur des enjeux de la Francophonie
