Institut Francais (IFAS)

The Institut Français (or the French Institute) is a French public industrial and commercial organization started by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for promoting French culture around the world. The government has entrusted the Institut Français with promoting French culture abroad through artistic exchanges - performing arts, visual arts, architecture, the world-wide diffusion of French books, film, technology and ideas.

The French Institute works closely with the French cultural network abroad consisting of approximately 150 French Institutes and nearly 1000 Alliance Française around the world. The institutes are charged with promoting intellectual and cultural audiovisual cooperation between professionals, to present French and Francophone contemporary art for all audiences, to promote French higher education to foreign students and teachers, and to offer a complete range of teaching the French language.

French Institutes can be found in numerous countries in Africa, including Algeria, Morocco, Mauritania, Mauritius, Senegal and South Africa. The institute also has a presence in Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, Namibia and Niger.