Luxembourg's development cooperation - Annual report 2012

The new committee met twice in 2012, on 22 October 2012 and on 18 December 2012. In 2013 a first meeting was held on 8 February and a second on 25 April. In the interests of transparency the meetings’ agendas and minutes a are available on the Directorate’s website.

Among the topics discussed, special attention was devoted to the following issues:

a) The guiding principles of development cooperation policy

• The committee reviewed the main components of the Directorate’s annual report for 2011 and examined its priority commitments.
• A summary of the Luxembourg Development Cooperation Conference, held on 17 and 18 September on the theme of ‘‘food insecurity, policy and security’’, was presented to the committee.
• The committee discussed the findings of the OECD-DAC peer review of Luxembourg’s development cooperation, including the DAC’s recommendations regarding the enhancement of policy coherence for development.

b) Fair trade in public services

The committee reviewed the questionnaire on the purchase and consumption of fair trade products in public services, which was developed by the NGO Fairtrade and circulated to all the ministries in July with the consent of the Governing Council. The questionnaire achieved its primary objective of drawing the attention of the ministries, administrations, municipal authorities and public establishments to the consumption of fair trade products simply through its circulation.

A reminder was subsequently submitted to those ministries still processing  the questionnaire in order to enable a prompt assessment of the responses. This evaluation was forwarded for information and possible follow-up to the Governing Council and Fairtrade.

c) Health and safety at work

The NGO platform, Cercle de Coopération, requested that the Inspection du Travail et des Mines (ITM) (Inspectorate of Labour and Mines) and the Ministry of Labour should be consulted on the application of health and safety measures in premises used by NGOs.

This consultation was performed bilaterally, and although the inter-ministerial committee was unable to take part, it was kept abreast of the situation.

d) Policy coherence for development

Each committee meeting approached this topic from a different angle. Members focused on the “Fair Politics” brochure published by the Cercle de Coopération. During a meeting with representatives of civil society on 18 December, the discussions concentrated on those areas in which NGOs felt there was not enough policy coherence for development. For instance the group debated the usefulness of compiling an impact sheet on the “development” aspect of legislative projects, and discussed more general issues such as the broader concept of sustainable development, all the while recognising the need to limit red tape. The Cercle de Coopération encouraged the committee to develop a more proactive approach to examining policy plans in terms of coherence.

It was in this context that the committee received experts from the European Centre for Development Policy Management (ECDPM) in Maastricht on 8 February, in order to hear the researchers’ findings on the concept of policy coherence and the policies already in place. Part of the meeting was also devoted to the models followed by other EU Member States, with a view to adopting a method for implement the principle of policy coherence for development at the national level. The committee will take these findings into account in selecting the most appropriate approach for Luxembourg.

In accordance with article 4 of the grand ducal regulation of 7 August 2012, the Inter-ministerial Committee for Development Cooperation gave formal written approval to the appointment or extension of the status of cooperation agents and aid workers, and to requests for cooperation leave, on 57 occasions in 2012.