Luxembourg's development cooperation - Annual report 2014

Following the lead of the Hyogo Framework for Action, which Luxembourg signed in 2005, the MFA allocates at least 5% of its humanitarian action budget to finance activities in the area of prevention, resilience and reducing the risks of catastrophes. In line with this approach, the Ministry supports its humanitarian partners in implementing preventative measures such as initiatives to strengthen local capacities, risk evaluation, monitoring systems, early warning systems and the prepositioning of emergency items. The Ministry also encourages its partners to protect the environment and to integrate climate change adaptation strategies into their humanitarian projects. Prevention and resilience make up the third pillar of Luxembourg humanitarian action, both upstream and downstream of the emergency and transition stages.

The Ministry has co-financed risk prevention projects in Laos, a country especially exposed to climate change and extreme phenomena such as droughts and floods, which are regarded as the main natural hazards. Thus, Fondation Caritas Luxembourg has continued to implement a multiannual project which is based on a community-based approach and aims to improve the resilience of the inhabitants of the 10 villages in the district of Thathom by introducing more sustainable means of existence and preventing disasters. The Luxembourg Red Cross has also been able to continue its support via the local branch of the Laos Red Cross in Khammouane in order to build its logistics capacities in terms of preparing for disasters. CARE in Luxemburg began a project lasting 3 years which aims to build the local capacities of the village units in preparing for risks, as well as those of the risks and disasters management committees in the Sekong region in Laos.

Other countries in East and South Asia are also affected by recurrent natural disasters. The Ministry also co-financed projects run by Fondation Caritas Luxembourg and Aide à l’Enfance de l’Inde in order to improve the resilience of communities facing situations of drought, flooding and risks of human trafficking in the states of Bihar and Maharashtra in India. In Bangladesh, Fondation Caritas Luxembourg and Friendship Luxembourg received support from the Ministry to implement a project to construct pilot low-cost houses for families affected by natural disasters and for a community-based project to reduce the risks connected with natural disasters in various regions of the country. Handicap International Luxembourg received support to carry out a project to build the capacity of local administrations and vulnerable households in reducing the risks of disaster in the province of Leyte Nord in the Philippines. 

The Ministry also supported prevention projects in the Sahel. The Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery (BCPR) of the UNDP received a contribution from Luxembourg to its programme to strengthen the response capacities for rehabilitation and reconstruction in Niger, Burkina Faso and Cabo Verde. In addition, the Ministry contributed to the Fondation Caritas Luxembourg project to control and prevent malnutrition in the nutritional recovery centres in the dioceses of Niamey and Maradi in Niger.

Furthermore, Fondation Caritas Luxembourg received financial support from the Ministry to implement a prevention and resilience project in Bolivia and the World Bank Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery received support for technical assistance provided to the governments of Bosnia-Herzegovina and Serbia to analyse its needs and to draw up a recovery plan following the flooding of 2014.