- Home
- Preface
- European Year for Development
- COP21 and the Paris Agreement
- I. Luxembourg’s official development assistance in 2015
- II. Cooperation with the main partner countries
- III. Regional cooperation and cooperation with other countries
- IV. Multilateral cooperation
- V. European Union
- VI. Cooperation with non-governmental development organisations
- VII. Humanitarian action
- VIII. Programme support
- IX. Development education and awareness raising
- X. Inclusive finance
- XI. Evaluation
- XII. Report on the progress of the work of the Interministerial Committee for Development Cooperation
- Appendices
X. Inclusive finance
Vietnam - Better water use produces higher rice yields (Cao Bang)
Inclusive finance
Luxembourg’s development cooperation is maintaining its commitment to actively support the development of inclusive finance, recognising that these tools constitute important mechanisms for poverty reduction. In 2015, those efforts have continued in order to channel financial support with the aim of deploying them better in specific sectors and improving further the efficiency of the use of the funds in our main development countries. With this efficiency-based approach, in 2015 Luxembourg’s development cooperation continued its multiannual commitments with its various partners such as the national Luxembourgish platform for inclusive finance, the Inclusive Finance Network Luxembourg asbl (InFiNe.lu) network, the European Microfinance Platform (e-MFP), the NGOs ADA and SOS Faim, the Microinsurance Network and the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP).
The Ministry helped InFiNe.lu and e-MFP to organise the European Microfinance Award; the award ceremony took place on the premises of the European Investment Bank (EIB). The aim of the seventh edition of the prize was to reward microfinance institutions working in post-conflict and post-natural disaster zones and fragile states. The 2015 prize was a genuine success, with a record number of entries: 47 from 28 different countries. The High Jury, chaired by HRH the Grand Duchess, was tasked with selecting the winner out of three finalists from Syria, Guinea and the Philippines respectively. Crédit Rural de Guinée was awarded the prize, for having continued to serve its customers during the Ebola crisis which struck West Africa in 2014-2015. In November 2015, the Ministry also contributed to the European Microfinance Week organised by e-MFP.
Together with the Ministry of Finance, Luxembourg’s development cooperation continues to support the Luxembourg Microfinance and Development Fund (LMDF), a microfinance investment fund domiciled in Luxembourg which provides targeted support to small and medium-sized microfinance institutions active in Africa, Latin America and South-East Asia. In addition, the Ministry is supporting LDMF to establish a new sub-fund which aims to invest in forestry projects in tropical forests in Central America. The aim is to restore secondary or degraded forested areas and to make them economically, ecologically and socially viable.
Through the FEMIP Trust Fund, Luxembourg, the EIB and the NGO ADA are supporting the MicroMED Tunisia project, the aim of which is to build inclusive finance institutions’ capacity. Following the signature of a Memorandum of Understanding with the EIB in November 2014 to make technical assistance available to the microfinance sector in the ACP countries, the Ministry financed technical assistance to a microfinance institution in Senegal in 2015 for the first time.
The Ministry also supported “LuxFlag”, the Luxembourg Fund Labelling Agency, which issues quality labels to investment funds dedicated to microfinance and the environment. Finally, the Ministry supported various IFAD (International Fund for Agricultural Development) programmes to develop new tools in the inclusive finance sector, such as funds transfers from migrants to their countries of origin.
