Luxembourg's development cooperation - Annual report 2015

2015 was a year of major international meetings with the aim of reformulating the frameworks that define development cooperation and its main objectives. 

The Third International Conference on Financing for Development was held from 13 to 16 July in Addis Ababa and resulted in the adoption of the Addis Ababa Action Agenda on Financing for Development (which in its turn was approved on 27 July by the General Assembly of the United Nations). According to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, the action programme creates a new global partnership for financing sustainable development and sets out incentives for investment in the key areas while also specifying an adequate reporting mechanism.

In particular, the member states are committed to strengthening the mobilisation of national public resources inter alia by enhancing fiscal administration. The developed countries have reaffirmed their commitment to achieve the objective of contributing 0,7% of their gross national income (GNI) to official development assistance and of allocating between 0,15% and 0,20% of that sum to the least developed countries.

Luxembourg, which was represented by Minister Romain Schneider, actively contributed to the reiteration of this commitment – a cornerstone of the country’s development cooperation policy. The Minister was also present at the launch outside the official conference of the Addis Tax Initiative, an initiative created by the OECD and one with which Luxembourg is associated, as a complement to the OECD’s Tax Inspectors Without Borders and BEPS for Development programmes. 

The United Nations Summit from 25 to 27 September 2015 on the adoption of the post-2015 development programme adopted a final document entitled “Transforming our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.” This “plan of action for people, planet and prosperity” is the result of long preparatory negotiations aimed at inclusively reformulating the Millennium Development Goals (MDG), which had become partially obsolete. The Agenda brings together the economic, social and environmental dimensions of sustainable development through the seventeen Sustainable Development Goals with their 169 associated concrete targets. Ending hunger and extreme poverty remains the overriding objective of the SDGs, which address all the major areas of development in a holistic and integrated way. The scope of the SDGs is universal and blurs the boundaries between developed and developing countries. One of the innovative aspects of the 2030 Agenda, which must be implemented and monitored by an annual high-level political forum within the ECOSOC, is a section on the national transposition of the SDGs.

This is the full list of the Sustainable Development Goals:

• 1. End poverty in all its forms everywhere; 
• 2. End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture;
• 3. Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages;
• 4. Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all;
• 5. Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls;
• 6. Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all;
• 7. Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and clean energy for all;
• 8. Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all;
• 9. Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation;
• 10. Reduce inequality within and among countries;
• 11. Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable;
• 12. Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns;
• 13. Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts;
• 14. Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development;
• 15. Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss;
• 16. Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels;
• 17. Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development.

The Luxembourg government was represented at the Summit on 25 September by Prime Minster Xavier Bettel and Ministers Romain Schneider and Carole Dieschbourg. During the negotiations on the final document, Luxembourg focused constantly on obtaining an ambitious consensus on the scope and financing of the Goals, especially in areas where our development cooperation has a traditional focus, such as health, education, rural development and gender equality. We also welcomed the emphasis placed on governance and respect for human rights.

Finally, the third major meeting of the year was the climate conference (COP21), which took place from 30 November to 11 December in Paris. At this conference, the climate and environment dimensions of the SDGs adopted previously in New York were taken into account to ensure an integrated approach to sustainable development.