Luxembourg's development cooperation - Annual report 2015

The geographical concentration of Luxembourg’s development cooperation on least developed countries (LDC) was increased further in 2015 with the strategy to exit from Vietnam and El Salvador, which are now middle-income countries. Having adopted a strategy to withdraw gradually from overseas development assistance projects, these countries will no longer benefit from an Indicative Cooperation Programme (ICP) after 2015. However, they will retain the status of project countries for a few more years. The partnerships with these already more developed countries are developing and are enabling pilot initiatives in trilateral and South-South cooperation – as in El Salvador – or in combating climate change using the energy and climate fund – as in Vietnam – to be tested out.

The role of the Luxembourg private sector in the development of middle-income countries grew in 2015. This is also the case for Cabo Verde, which remains a privileged partner country, due to its very specific situation as a Small Island Developing State (SIDS). A fund to diversify economic relations was set up to support technology and expertise transfer from Luxembourgish companies to Cabo Verde, especially in the field of renewable energy.

In terms of development cooperation with new countries, we should note the launch of a first development cooperation project in Myanmar in the sector of vocational training in hospitality, which is based on the sound experience acquired in this sector over the last fifteen years in the region, specifically in Vietnam and Laos.

2015 was also a year when development cooperation relations were strengthened with the main partner countries of Luxembourg’s development cooperation, with no fewer than five new Indicative Cooperation Programmes (ICPs) being signed in the year. These ICPs maintain continuity with the main sectors of intervention (e.g. vocational training) and also adopt innovative approaches in terms of cooperation with civil society and the private sector, while still taking into account the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and the Global Partnership for Effective Development Cooperation. In addition, cooperation has been strengthened in the fields of agriculture, renewable energy and good governance.

Coordination between donors and, in particular, joint European programming has also guided the new programmes and the specific matrices for indicators in this area have been appended to the ICPs. In line with good practice initiated in Senegal, the consistency and coordination of the various actions supported by Luxembourg in the partner countries were also strengthened. The signing of a memorandum of understanding between the various actors in the ICPs – bilateral, NGOs and multilateral actors – in effect enabled better alignment with the sectors on which Luxembourg is focusing.

The case of Mali is a good example of increased focus on one area: agriculture and rural development. The ICP ensures that all the actions carried out by the various actors, especially by LuxDev, a Luxembourgish NGO, a consultancy firm under a mandate and several UN agencies, converge on this area. The direct involvement of Luxembourgish or national NGOs in implementing the ICPs has also been achieved in Asia and Latin America.

The five new ICPs were signed by Minister Romain Schneider at the following partnership committees:

On 19 February 2015, Minister Romain Schneider and Véronica Rojas Berrios, Nicaragua’s Deputy Minister for External Relations, signed the rider to the Indicative Cooperation Programme between Luxembourg and Nicaragua ratifying the extension of support to the period 2015-2017. The extension of the ICP aims primarily to consolidate the initiatives in progress and to dovetail Luxembourg’s programming with that of the other European donors with a view to joint programming from 2018. 

The third Indicative Cooperation Programme (2015-2019) with Mali was signed in Luxembourg on 5 March 2015 by Minister Romain Schneider and His Excellency Abdoulaye Diop, Minister for Foreign Affairs, African Integration and International Cooperation of the Republic of Mali. This programme will focus on rural development and agriculture as well as vocational training and occupational integration, decentralisation and good governance.

HRH the Grand Duke made an official visit to the Republic of Cabo Verde from 10 to 12 March 2015. The fourth ICP between Luxembourg and Cabo Verde was signed alongside this visit by Minister Romain Schneider and Cabo Verde’s Minister of External Affairs, Jorge Homero Tolentino Araújo, in the presence of both countries’ heads of state. ICP IV (2016-2020) retains employment and employability as well as water and sanitation among its priority intervention sectors, while including renewable energy as a new intervention sector. As already mentioned, the diversification of bilateral relations into more economic, commercial and cultural cooperation is also one of the aims of this new programme.

The new ICP with Niger (2016-2020) was signed in New York on 26 September 2015 outside the Sustainable Development Goals Summit. This ICP continues to support the primary education, vocational and technical training and rural development sectors, with Luxembourg entering the water sector to a greater extent, especially in Diffa, one of the regions which needs it most. This sector was taken over from Danish development cooperation.

Also in September, Minister Romain Schneider and the Minister of Planning and Investment of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Somdy Douangdy, signed the fourth ICP between Luxembourg and Laos (2016-2020). The priority sectors of this ICP remain the same, i.e. health, rural development, vocational training in tourism, good governance and the rule of law.