• History of the CONFEJES
• The CONFEJES today
• The programmes
• The structures
• Contributions
• The partners

** Find here our leaflet : "10 Questions-Réponses pour mieux connaître la CONFEJES" [PDF] **

History of the CONFEJES

The CONFEJES came into being in Paris, on December 1969, following the initiative of the African Presidents Habib Bourghiba (Tunisia), Leopold Sedar Senghor (Senegal) and Hamani Diori (Niger). The youth and sports ministers of French-speaking countries decided then to meet once a year.

However, the term ‘Conference of the Youth and Sports Ministers of French-speaking Countries’ (CONFEJES) was not adopted until 1973. In the meantime, the ministers adopted the statutes governing the organization and running of the Secretariat in 1971.

The Standing Secretariat was set up in 1972. The draft agreement governing the organization and running of the CONFEJES was ratified by the member states in 1975.

Yet, the CONFEJES statutes were to be adopted only in 1987. The draft agreement with Senegal was ratified at the same session. In September 1987, in Quebec, during the heads of state or government summit who are sharing the French language, the CONFEJES was given mandate to implement and ensure continuity for the Francophone Games. The International Committee for the Francophone Games was then set up under its authority.

In 1995, the CONFEJES reviewed its statutes and structured its actions around four programmes. The principle of holding a conference every two years was also adopted. Still in 1995, the head of states and Governments summit held in Cotonou, renewed the CONFEJES mandate as regards Youth and Sports within the French-speaking world.

Faced with change in the social context in 1996, the CONFEJES board recommend a significant strengthening of female participation in areas such as sports. The Secretariat General is then advised to organize, every year at least two events exclusively dedicated to women.

In 1997, the Ministers’ conference decided to institute the CONFEJES days aiming to promote and popularize these events. Those days must be celebrated in all countries while the ministers’ sessions are being held. In November of the same year, the heads of state or government meeting in Hanoï (Vietnam) decided unanimously to dedicate the 8th Francophone Summit that took place in September 1999, at Moncton (Canada) to youth.

In February 1999, young people met in Mali, under the CONFEJES to make public their concern and their vision of the role they want to play in the French-speaking world. Their resolutions were put before the heads of state or government from French-speaking countries.

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The CONFEJES today

Today CONFEGES plays a leading role in the field of youth and sports by focussing on a strategic dialogue delineated in terms of vision and values by defining its mission clearly and by setting objectives leading to an action programme. This corpus is the core of the organization’s values

The vision

At CONFEGES, we believe that young people must be encouraged to become active and take part in the countries’ development in a responsible way and must play a leading role in making the French-speaking world stronger. In this approach for the young people, CONFEGES stands above all everything as an agent for change dedicated to the promotion of youth and sport.

The values

In its relationship with countries, young people and its partners, CONFEGES appreciates and encourages autonomy and freedom for both organizations and people. It relies on solidarity and open-mindedness and the exchange values. It counts on training and participation to further empower young people and support creativity.

The mission

The vital mission of the CONFEGES is to sensitize countries, resources and energies in view of creating dialogue in order to promote sustainable development, participation and the involvement of young people within the society. The CONFEGES also aims at favouring and promoting the establishment of environments conducive to youth participation, social, economic and professional integration in the French-speaking world.

The objectives

The CONFEGES mainly aims to :

• advise and help member countries by using the know-how accumulated throughout the years and by tapping the reflection and creative potential the member States and their partners offer ;
• train the instructors the countries need in the field of youth and sport  ;
• encourage the initiatives of socioeconomic integration suggested by young people by contributing to the funding of projects by young businessmen ;
• encourage the development of associations ;
• contribute to the development and training of a sporting elite in Africa  ;
• promote sporting events and youth gatherings in order to favour exchanging and sharing, stimulate and value their involvement and contribution within society.

The Plan

The CONFEGES sets the orientations, works out the strategies, encourages the political, technical and financial synergies while reinforcing national capacities by promoting member states’ programmes. In a concrete way CONFEGES makes a major contribution to the design, elaboration and implementation of the youth and sport Francophone multilateral programme. Through such deeds, the CONFEGES aims at developing solidarity and cooperation by multiplying supportive action to member countries and by making a multilateral framework for efficient exchange available to them for the implementation of development programmes. Because of the size of the task, CONFEGES also develops intense activity to mobilize several partners to make its action in favour of young people in the French-speaking world real.

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The programmes

The Conference of the youth and sports ministers from French-speaking countries, initiated over the thirty years has regularly adjusted to sociopolitical and economic changes and to the demands of the member states. Over the years, the programme of activities has regularly been updated so that the preoccupations of the main beneficiaries (young people) may be met. The General Secretariat’s current Board of Directors have therefore undertaken, since 1997 and with the help of experts from the member states to prepare the institution’s dynamic entry into the third millenium mainly characterized by globalization and the permanence of the search for excellence. After several work meetings, missions to assess the activities performed in the countries, new orientations and a 2000-2004 plan fitting the expressed needs have been suggested to the top authorities of CONFEJES and have been adopted.

They revolve around the following points :

• a greater affirmation of the role of CONFEJES as a place of reference and opinion in the multilateral support to policies in favor of the young ;
• constant and lasting support for member states (at their request) for the formulation or reformulation of their planned national youth and sports policies by reinforcing their capacities in these fields ;
• the implementation of programmes accordingly to the states’ expectations and from the current needs expressed by young people ;
• reinforcing the general nature of the training ;
• reinforcing the synergies with other institutions in the French-speaking world and international organizations working with youth and sports.

These new orientations have led into a programme that breaks down as follows :

• Programme I : Institutional support to the implementation and reinforcement of national youth and sports policies,
• Programme II : Programme for the promotion of youth and for the development of sports,
• Programme III : the CONFEJES programme for executive training and in-service training,

This programme is intended to be original, innovative, specific and focussed on member states. It will be regularly re-examined with everybody’s support so as to help CONFEJES meet the challenges and demands it faces. That’s what it takes for our institution to be effective in the third millenium.

The Francophone Games, an exceptional achievement for the Francophone youth

It was in 1987 in Quebec (Canada), during the Summit of the heads of state or government from French-speaking countries that the CONFEJES called upon to organize the Francophone Games on a permanent basis. It was under its leadership that the International Committee of the Francophone Games (CIJF) was set up the following year. An original event, set up in accordance with art and sports and quickly acknowledged as young people’s festival, the Francophone Games quickly emerged as the French-speaking world’s major meeting to which all the countries involved in the Summit of the heads of state or government are invited to take part. Morocco organized the first Francophone Games in 1989. They then took place in France in 1994, in Madagascar in 1997 and in Canada in 2001. The fifth Francophone Games will be held in Niger in 2005.

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The Structures

The structure of the Conference of members of youth and sports shows four different bodies each of which has specific decision-making powers. They are the Conference, the Board, the Committee of Experts and the General Secretary’s Office.

The Conference

The Conference is composed of 38 ministers or representatives of member countries or governments in charge of Youth and Sports. It meets every two years in one of its member countries in order to discuss development of activities relating to Youth and Sports.

The Conference examines and adopts the programme of specific actions. It deals with all questions relating to the institution, namely the renewal of the Conference Board, requests for membership and the appointment of the Secretary General. It also examines opportunities to establish strategic alliances with international institutions with objectives similar or complementary to those of the CONFEJES.

The Board

The Board has 15 members classified as follows :

• Group A : Europe and North America (5 members),
• Group B : West Africa (3 members),
• Group C : Central Africa and the Great Lakes (2 members),
• Group D : North Africa, the Mediterranean and Central Europe (2 members),
• Group E : Indian Ocean, Asia and Caribbean (2 members),
• The Youth and Sports Minister (senior) (1 member).

Members are nominated at each meeting of the Conference of Ministers.
The Board chairs the ministerial working session and sees to the implementation of the adopted/agreed budget programmes and to their readjustment, when necessary. It is headed by a minister acting as President in Office. The Board also meets twice in between a ministerial session.

The Committee of Experts

The Committee of experts is composed of experts from individual CONFEJES member countries. It meets before every ministerial conference or Board meeting to study and draft recommendations to be submitted to the ministers.

The Secretary General’s Office

The Secretary General is in charge of the implementing of decisions taken by the conference and acts as a go-between for member countries. The Secretary General is based in Dakar, Senegal. He is responsible for :

• suggesting and putting into concrete form new guidelines reflecting national youth and sports policies on the basis of decisions put forward by member countries ;
• ensuring the implementation of CONFEJES resolutions, by forming institutions ;
• collecting and dispatching documents, reports and draft resolutions from the Board and the conference ;
• the Secretary General’s Office is also in charge of keeping records of all papers and documents issued in the framework of implementation of the CONFEJES mission.

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Contributions

Support for national youth and sports policies and to young people is made possible thanks to five specific funds set up by the conference.

The Youth Integration Fund (FIJ)

The aim of the FIJ is to promote entrepreneur-ship among young people in order to allow their social and economic integration, by providing adequate training in entrepreneur-ship ; It also takes part in the financing of some projects developed by young people while training and which are submitted to the CONFEJES by member countries. The FIJ intend to support projects from young people and to encourage the emergence of dynamics at local regional and national level in order to generate key projects with significant results for young people in the French-speaking world. The FIJ has gradually become an efficient instrument in terms of self-employment for young “school leavers”. Since 1989 it has financed some 600 businesses which 1500 young people are said to have profited from. These businesses have lead to the creation of 4000 jobs that support 26000 people. In order to increase its capacity to support the social and economic integration of young people from the French-speaking world, the CONFEJES has also drafted a programme to reinforce the FIJ. This consolidation aims at increasing the financing capacity of existing funds. The recent introduction of distance learning represents a way of facilitating the marketing of youth’s products and businesses. This process has encouraged a huge number of young people to join in, create and develop their own business.

The International Fund for the Manufacturing of Equipment for Sports Training (FIFMAS)

The CONFEJES has set up an international fund for the manufacturing of equipment for Sports Training Sessions (FIFMAS) showing its prime concern for the professional and economic integration of young people. The FIFMAS finances youth projects relating to the manufacture of sports training equipment and clothes. This initiative makes it possible to create jobs for young people while promoting their economic and social integration. Various training sessions have been offered in some countries but today few people have a good command of the manufacturing techniques of sports materials and equipment. But for two years now, the CONFEJES has organised international training sessions for instructors. These sessions focus on the manufacturing of sports equipment for trainers in districts associations and community youth centres. The training sessions are famous for their pedagogical approach which is easy to understand, practical and focused on results.

The Francophone Fund for Olympic Preparation (FFPO)

Created in 1990 the FFPO is the continuation of the Development programme for sport activities at higher level. It aims at raising Africa’s sporting elite to the best world performances and preparing them for major international competitions by granting training course scholarships and highly specialized technical support. The FFPO finances training for redeployment of higher level sportsmen at the end of their careers for example training coaches, referees and physical education teachers. The FFPO has enabled CONFEJES to reconsider its policy in favour of the African sporting elite by favouring the setting up of top level institutions in the African continent, namely training centres where athletes can benefit from good weather conditions and coaching with their approved coaches by international partner Federations.

Convention on the developement of top level sport

Concerned with facilitating the fulfilment of top-level athletes, mainly African, the CONFEJES has signed a convention with France entitled Top Level Sport Development. This convention is based on a four-action plan :

• the thorough preparation of the African sporting elite through training and improvement sessions as well as through the training and the improvement of coaches, referees, officials and managers ;
• the granting of preparation and training scholarships for top-level African sportsmen, awarded to the best athletes on the basis of criteria relating to their performances ;
• the organization of an acclimatization and media coverage training during the 7thAfrican Games in Johannesburg, 10th to 19th September 1999 ;
• final training for the preparation of the African sporting elite and collective sport teams qualified and selected for the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games.

The CONFEJES programme : training and capacity building for executives

The CONFEJES programme for the training of executives aims to support the policies and strategies for the training of executives from member countries in view of reinforcing national capacities and sustainable development.
More precisely, it aims at the integration and the training of the executives in the national policies of youth and sport in the sense that the training of executives is common to both sectors.
For that purpose, the PCFC’s priorities are :

• to integrate the new training needs (for example entrepreneur-ship, project management, needs analysis) as part of the teaching curricula of national institutions,
• harmonize the existing training programmes in viewof establishing equal ratings between diplomas,
• promote in-service for the executives,
• develop South-South and North-South partnerships in order to make existing resources accessible,
• support the setting up of university programmes at post-graduate level,
• meet and exchange within the framework of the Consultative Standing Committee on senior executives training,
• grant training scholarships targeting the specific needs of Ministries and Institutes, counseling, seminars and the development of national training plans for executives.

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The Partners

CONFEJES favours the setting up of international networks in the fields of youth and sports. Such associations break down barriers and encourage the sharing and transfer of expertise. That synergy produces global results for the benefit of all partners.
Young people of the world, member countries of the CONFEJES and the French-speaking community are among the first to benefit from those alliances.

The francophone bodies

As part of the implementation of its programmes concerning youth and sports, CONFEJES has favoured partner relationships with the Francophone inter governmental Agency (AIF) , leading organization of Francophone multilateral cooperation. In addition to regular meetings between the two organizations, the cooperation includes an active participation of CONFEGES in some of the special committee programmes organized by the Francophone organization. Moreover, CONFEJES naturally collaborates with the other institutions of the Francophone organization such as the conference of ministers’ for national education from French-speaking countries (CONFEMEN) and the International Association of Francophone mayors (AIMF).

The International organizations

Lately CONFEJES has liaised with UNESCO to carry out studies on young people and produce a CD-ROM. It also intervenes quite actively in the African programme against drugs (PAAD) of the European Development Fund (FED) by organizing the African Youth Cup against Drugs. CONFEJES also collaborates with organizations such as the International Labour Organization (ILO), the International Olympic Committee (CIO), the High Council for Sports in Africa, the CMJS/ECOWAS within the framework of specific projects. Finally, the African Sport Movement, through sport confederations has become a privileged partner for CONFEJES in the implementation of its programmes (Sport section), mainly the eight dominant disciplines that are : athletics, judo, wrestling, basketball, football, handball and volleyball.

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