IPA President, Bodour Al Qasimi, addressed the « Etats généraux du livre en Langue française dans le Monde », an international summit on francophone book publishing which was held both online and physically in Tunis on 23 and 24 September 2021.

In her message which she delivered in French during the plenary panel on « Relier et promouvoir les acteurs du livre en langue française : une démarche à consolider » ("Connecting and marketing stakeholders in the French language book industry: an approach to be strengthened "), she called for further cooperation within the publishing sector in order to tackle the challenges resulting from the Covid pandemic and the increased digitalization of our societies. She highlighted IPA’s INSPIRE plan (https://www.internationalpublishers.org/inspire) as a timely response.

IPA Secretariat’s Olivier Borie, who also contributed to the session, spoke of the importance of IPA’s francophone members, many of whom were present at the event, including Sekou Fofana, President of Afrilivres, who was on the panel too. He then gave an overview of IPA’s activities at national and international levels, especially on freedom to publish and copyright. He mentioned the upcoming IPA Academy, and invited African stakeholders from the francophone publishing industry to send their ideas and projects to the Africa Publishing Innovation Fund which supports literacy, book access, indigenous publishing, and library restoration in Africa (https://www.apinnovation.fund/).

The two day summit featured many of IPA’s francophone members.