Ambition francophonies
Background
President Emmanuel Macron made an official visit to Canada on September 25 and 26, 2024. On this occasion, and in advance of the 19th Francophonie Summit held in Villers-Cotterêts and Paris on October 4 and 5, 2024, the President of the Republic met with author Antonine Maillet and other leading figures in politics, the non-profit sector, business and the arts from the Canadian Francophonie. They presented the challenges facing the various Canadian francophonies.
Following these discussions, the President of the Republic unveiled the “Ambition francophonies” initiative, which marks the renewal of France's support for the Francophonie in Canada.
Our vision
For France, the Francophonie is a window on the world. Speaking French means sharing a heritage and the potential to connect with:
321 million francophones around the world
51 million people who learn French as another language (Organisation internationale de la Francophonie, 2022)
The French-speaking world is also a space for creation and thought, where French and Canadian talent meet.
Command of the French language facilitates mobility and is a gateway to numerous opportunities, particularly for Canadian youth, the priority target of our initiatives.
The French language is a common good. Our initiatives are as much about supporting French in minority situations as they are about developing bilingualism and helping English-speaking populations learn French.
“The French language belongs to all those who take an interest in it.”
Hélène Carrère d'Encausse
Our work to promote the Francophonie
We work to promote student mobility between Canada and France, and support Canadian students wishing to discover or study within the French higher education system. They are welcomed through the “Bienvenue en France” program. 2,245 Canadian students pursued studies in France in 2024-2025
We support a network of 10 Alliances françaises in Canada, which are Canadian non-profit associations that offer French language courses and language-level certifications for all types of clients. The Alliance françaises also contribute to the spread of French-speaking cultures and to the promotion of local French-speaking communities.
We support the learning of French within the Canadian education system.
We respond to requests from Canadian schools and universities for French language assistants, who provide invaluable support to students learning French. 67 French language assistants working in 8 provinces over the 2025-2026 school year.
We support the development of the DELF and DALF diplomas in Canada, which certify the language skills of non-native speakers of French.
84,000 Canadians sat the DELF and DALF exams over the past few years, making Canada the country with the second-highest number of DELF/DALF students (after France)
We support French-language education in Canada's 8 French international high schools and work with the Agence pour l'enseignement français à l'étranger to encourage the creation of new accredited establishment
We offer excellence scholarships to support the training of Canadian teachers of French whose mother tongue is not French.
We support research and creation in French, by organizing residencies, projects and events, and at the same time promote the dissemination of French-language arts and knowledge to the Canadian public. This is also the mission of the Alliances françaises, which offer French-language cultural programming throughout the year.
With Ambition francophonies, we're promoting a Francophonie that’s open to the rest of the world, building bridges between France and Canada, and opening up a world of opportunities.