In June 2026, G7 leaders will meet in Évian, France, for a summit that will put to the test whether the phrase “global solidarity” still means anything in an era marked by shrinking aid budgets and multilateralism under attack.
France will assume the G7 presidency this year, a role that gives it significant influence over the group’s agenda. As chair, France can’t dictate other governments’ budgets, but it does have the power to influence the G7’s agenda and guide what topics are brought to the table, shaping the global agenda long after the photo ops end.
France is taking on this role at a pivotal moment. Across vulnerable countries, aid-funded programs are already being scaled back or shut down. Health systems are straining under the weight of climate shocks, food price volatility, and conflict, just as international support is becoming less predictable than ever.
A single summit rarely changes the world on its own. But the priorities France helps set, or drop, can shape global policy for years to come. Here’s what’s at stake.
Évian as a Checkpoint
After assuming the presidency, French officials say they will focus on rebuilding international partnerships and addressing global imbalances. It plans to use negotiations and forums on health, development, Africa, and peace to shape what ultimately reaches the final leaders’ declaration. This document, while nonbinding, signals what the G7’s priorities are and signals what the world’s wealthiest democracies consider important to keep on the multilateral agenda.
Much of this work takes place behind the scenes and across ministerial tracks on finance, development, health, climate, and foreign affairs, determining what language ultimately survives after extensive negotiations. France hopes to set a clear standard across that process by:
- putting real money behind shared priorities,
- making financing predictable for countries and communities,
- treating solidarity as a financial commitment.
The Global Backdrop of This Pivotal Year
This year, that agenda-setting power matters more than ever as the G7 prepares for a pivotal year. Across the world on the ground, these rollbacks are already having tangible impacts. Aid-dependent programs are scaling back or shutting down after buckling under yet another blow.
For instance, when mobile health clinics stopped servicing remote communities in Madagascar earlier this year, it wasn’t because demand for care had fallen. Funding had.
These clinics, which provided essential contraception, maternal care, and basic health services to women who otherwise had little or no other options, were forced to suspend operations after foreign aid was cut. Outreach teams were grounded. Services paused. And families who had come to rely on this regular outreach received no clear timeline for when help would return.
Similar disruptions are taking place across sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia as official development assistance (ODA), otherwise known as foreign aid, declines after years of growth. ODA refers to government funding to support development and welfare in economically fragile countries. While the term can sound technical, its impact in daily life is profound.
Aid from wealthy nations that once underpinned routine health services, education programs, food security initiatives, and climate adaptation projects is increasingly uncertain or disappearing altogether. According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), global ODA fell in real terms in 2024, the first decline in five years.
“It is regrettable that ODA decreased in 2024 after five years of continuous growth,” Carsten Staur, chair of the OECD’s Development Assistance Committee, said when the figures were released. “It is even more concerning that some of the major donors have signaled further, and quite significant, decreases over the coming years.”
A Global Slowdown
It’s not just one or two countries trimming their aid expenditure. Several G7 countries have reduced development spending over the last two years, citing tough balance sheets at home, the need to invest more in military defense budgets, and higher spending on housing refugees, which counts toward their overall aid spending under international rules.
Britain shocked the world when it abandoned its long-standing goal to reach 0.7% of its national income on aid spending, in line with the UN target of 0.7%, to 0.3%, a move Prime Minister Keir Starmer defended as necessary to manage the country’s public finances amid a cost-of-living crisis at home. Germany, Europe’s largest donor by volume, similarly reduced aid in its 2024 budget amid domestic fiscal pressures.
The US, the world’s largest aid donor in absolute terms, went further in 2025. The State Department reported that 83% of USAID programs, the national agency overseeing most humanitarian and development assistance abroad before it was dismantled last year, were terminated, freezing more than $8 billion in approved funding and calling into sharp question the future of the global aid system.
How France Can Make Its G7 Presidency Matter
Aid makes immunization campaigns, maternal and child health services, schools, emergency food, and climate adaptation projects that protect communities possible. In many countries, especially those grappling with debt or fragile institutions, it’s one of the few reliable sources of funding.
As climate change accelerates, extreme weather events, economic shocks, and humanitarian crises will increasingly bombard the same places repeatedly. To make matters worse, not nearly enough money from the private sector flows to the most economically fraught countries, as investors tend to favor more stable bets and markets.
That's why analysts warn that tightening aid budgets risks reversing decades of progress. Sustained cuts to development could result in millions of additional preventable deaths by the end of the decade, with children disproportionately affected.
And where is France in all of this? The country remains one of the world’s top donors, but it has also joined the broader slowdown. OECD data puts French ODA at 0.48% of gross national income in 2024. French civil society organizations have warned that recent budget changes, amounting to about 2 billion in aid cuts, have made funding less predictable and complicated long-term planning, putting millions of lives at stake in the process.
The French government has often positioned itself as a defender of multilateralism. President Emmanuel Macron has even warned against what he called the “double discourse” of wealthy nations that fail to walk the walk when it comes to pledging solidarity on the world stage.
“No country should ever have to choose between reducing poverty and protecting the planet,” Macron said at a global finance summit in Paris, just a few short years ago, in June 2023.
For people whose lives depend on aid, however, words only matter if they actually translate into stable funding. When it comes to health, education, and climate adaptation, predictability matters as much as headline pledges. A long-term vision to tackle global challenges is essential, from staffing to procurement to building trust.
What You Can Do to Help
If France decides to match its words with action, June’s gathering in Évian could serve as an important wake-up call for all G7 countries. It will signal whether wealthy countries can acknowledge the devastating consequences of cutting back on aid and coordinate an appropriate response, or whether headlines of the devastation wrought will remain the new normal.
Here’s what you can do about it, wherever you are:
- Share this story with others. Aid cuts happen when governments don’t feel the pressure to keep spending on what matters to their voters. Sharing helps keep development, health, and climate finance in the public conversation as G7 negotiations unfold.
- Take action throughout the year. Global Citizen will launch targeted actions ahead of the Évian summit, calling on G7 governments to protect aid budgets, commit to multi-year financing, and keep development finance on the agenda. Signing and amplifying those actions helps apply much-needed pressure.
- If you’re in France, contact your representatives. French lawmakers will help shape the country’s position as G7 chair. Calling or writing to them to defend development funding is one of the most direct ways to influence the country’s role in the process.