Luxembourg's development cooperation - Annual report 2013

Official development assistance is certainly but not sufficient to ensure the development of a poor country. With a view to sustainability, ODA should also act to strengthen taxation and the mobilisation of developing countries’ internal resources. Thus Luxembourg development cooperation supports some of its sector-based partner ministries in Burkina Faso, Niger and Senegal in drawing up medium-term expenditure frameworks in order to make multiannual programming and budget management tools available. In Niger, there is a specific project for the support of the official expenditure chain for the Dosso region.

Other programmes put joint participative funds in place. In Cabo Verde, for example, a new support agreement for food security was signed in October 2013 to set up a special account with the Central Bank. After an initial contribution from Luxembourg amounting to a million euros, this account will be funded jointly by the governments of Cabo Verde and Luxembourg and thus create a mechanism to reduce systemic food insecurity in Cabo Verde. In Laos, a joint fund was established and will be funded by the Laotian Ministry of Health and Luxembourg. The fund aims to encourage contributions from the Laotian partner in order to support one-off, additional activities to those specified in the bilateral programme, both during and after the Luxembourgish project.

The support for taxation and the mobilisation of internal resources may also be done via civil society. In El Salvador, Luxembourg development cooperation supports the El Salvador institute for research and development (FUNDE), which is helping to instigate the national debate on fiscal reform in El Salvador and attempting to put it at the heart of the national political agenda. This involves fiscal justice, transparency of the management of public finances and participatory democracy.