Luxembourg's development cooperation - Annual report 2015

The Committee met six times during 2015, on 6 February, 3 April, 5 June, 11 September, 13 November and 11 December. The final meeting of the year was also attended by the representatives of the development NGOs’ Cercle de Coopération.

At the meetings, major issues were addressed, such as:

a) the broad thrust of development cooperation policy.

• The Committee examined the draft annual report of its work for inclusion in the 2014 Luxembourg’s development cooperation annual report and approved it.
• The Committee was given a presentation on the main points of the 2014 Luxembourg’s development cooperation annual report, including new aspects introduced such as the signature of the fourth-generation Indicative Cooperation Programmes (ICP IV) with Cabo Verde and Mali, the new Health strategy and the 2016-2020 action plan for development effectiveness.
• The Committee attended a presentation of the 2015 European Report on Development, which includes a large section on development financing in the light of the Addis Ababa conference.
• The Committee was informed of the results of the mid-term examination by the Development Assistance Committee on Luxembourg’s development cooperation based on the recommendations of the 2012 peer review. The next peer review is planned for 2016/2017.
• The Committee debated the results of the Addis Ababa conference in July 2015 on development financing and the results of the Summit held in New York at the end of September 2015 to adopt the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. The universality of these goals means that all nations are bound by them and must apply them henceforth in their internal policy and in their development cooperation: thus all ministries are affected by these decisions. The Committee took note that, in Luxembourg, the Interministerial Committee for Sustainable Development would be responsible in general for updating the national sustainable development plan, while the Interministerial Committee for Development Cooperation would continue to be responsible in this context for issues relating to development.
• The Luxembourg development cooperation conference, which was held on 26 and 27 March in Belval and covered post-2015 topic areas and, in that context, social rights and the World Humanitarian Summit, was also the subject of a presentation to the Committee. Given the European Year for Development, the conference was preceded by two conferences on the EPA with West Africa and security and development in the Sahel. Committee members were invited to all of these activities.
• The Committee was invited to take part in the presentation of the 2015 OECD DAC Development Co-operation Report by Erik Solheim, the Chair of DAC, on 10 September in Luxembourg.

b) European Year for Development and Luxembourg Presidency of the Council of the EU

• The Committee was informed of the central role played by policy coherence for development in the programme of the Luxembourg Presidency of the Council of the EU and the resulting activities in various formal and informal fora.
• The Committee was associated with all the activities of the European Year for Development, from the launch of the EYD in January at the Athénée to the closing ceremony in December at the Philharmonie in the presence of HRH the Grand Duke, the Prime Minister Xavier Bettel and high-ranking representatives of the European institutions.
• The inter-institutional declaration on the European Year was presented to the members of the Committee with initial indications on how it should be followed up.

 c) Policy coherence for development

• The Committee was informed of the work of the European network of experts and focal points for policy coherence for development (PCD) that meets regularly in Brussels. As in 2014, the work of the Luxembourg inter-ministerial development committee was also presented at the meeting of this group. 
• The Committee took note of the new report on policy coherence for the five main issues, i.e. trade and finance, climate change, food security, migration and security. The report, to which Luxembourg contributed through its committee members, was jointly presented in Brussels by Commissioner Mimica and the Luxembourg Presidency.
• The Committee also contributed to the OECD’s flagship report on policy coherence for development entitled “Better Policies for Development”, the main subject of which is post-2015 and the Sustainable Development Goals. Various ministries contributed to this report – this enabled Luxembourg to present its national positions, practical examples and lessons learned, as well as to explain the challenges for Luxembourg in the light of the introduction of the Sustainable Development Goals.
• With regard to the new mechanism of policy coherence for development, the Committee held two debates in 2015, the first on the compensation fund and the second on the Economic Partnership Agreement with West Africa. At these two debates, various government experts gave a presentation on the fund, from the perspective of policy coherence for development, to the committee’s delegates, together with the national positions taken. Then the Committee listened to the positions of the representatives of the Cercle of NGOs regarding both subjects before discussing the position to adopt.
• In line with its modus operandi, the Committee was able to issue an opinion on the consistency of the investment of the compensation fund in terms of policy coherence for development. This opinion was communicated to the respective Ministers, in particular to the Minister for Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Action. The complexity of the subject, given the Economic Partnership Agreement with West Africa and the lack of adequate information, the Committee deemed that it requires additional information before issuing an opinion on the subject.
• At its meeting of 11 December, the Committee discussed with the representatives of the Cercle of NGOs the practical application of policy coherence for development. At this annual exchange of views, the representatives of the Cercle gave feedback on policy coherence for development at the political level, the Cercle’s opinion on the implementation of policy consistency in Luxembourg, the 2015 balance sheet for policy consistency and the prospects for 2016. 

d) Tax and development

• The Committee attended a presentation of the OECD’s BEPS (Base Erosion and Profit Shifting) action plan and the OECD Tax and Development Programme. The presentation discussed the origin of the programme, as well as its history and the political context which led to the introduction of the BEPS action plan, the aim of which is to create international tax rules, eliminate double non-taxation and ensure that profits are used where the economic activity and/or value creation takes place.
• The Committee noted the annual financial contributions made by Luxembourg development cooperation in support not only of the Tax and Development Programme in order to improve the taxation systems in developing countries, better control of their revenue in terms of direct and indirect taxation in order to generate more national resources, but also the direct participation of developing countries in the BEPS project and other projects in the capacity-building field, such as the joint OECD and UNDP “Tax inspectors without borders” project. 

e) Staff active within development

Pursuant to Article 4 of the Grand-Ducal Regulation of 7 August 2012, the committee approved in writing:

• 1 application for cooperation official status,
• the extension of 1 cooperation official’s status,
• the extension of 13 aid workers’ status,
• 9 applications for assimilated aid worker status,
• 55 applications for development cooperation leave.