Luxembourg's development cooperation - Annual report 2016

Population 18,11 million
Surface area 274 220 km²
GNP per inhabitant (PPP in $) 1 562
Classification in HDI 185/188

In 2016, bilateral relations between Luxembourg and Burkina Faso were mainly characterised by the high-level talks linked with Luxembourg’s role as President of the troika of technical and financial partners and regular exchanges as part of the identification work for the third Indicative Cooperation Programme between Luxembourg and Burkina Faso for the 2017-2021 period (ICP III).

In effect, the Indicative Cooperation Programme (ICP II), which was initially planned for the 2008-2012 period and has been extended twice, ended in December 2016. Therefore, the identification process for the ICP III between Luxembourg and Burkina Faso for the 2017-2021 period was launched at the start of 2016 and led to the signature of the ICP III document on 21 November 2016. In an attempt to build on the achievements gained in ICP II, the strategic programming of the bilateral cooperation with Burkina Faso is focusing on the previous sectors of concentration, i.e. i) sustainable management of natural resources, ii) education, teaching and technical and vocational training and iii) new information and communication technologies.

For a one-year period (June 2015 – June 2016), Luxembourg held the role of President of the troika of the technical and financial partners, a body which manages coordination and dialogue between the technical and financial partners and the Burkina Faso government; this heightened the visibility of Luxembourg’s development cooperation. In this role, Luxembourg was able to monitor closely the drafting of the new national economic and social development plan (PNDES), which was adopted on 20 July 2016. The extension of the ICP II to the end of 2016 and the identification process of ICP III over the first months of 2016 enabled perfect alignment with this new, unique framework for the development of Burkina Faso.

At the conference for Burkina Faso’s partners on the financing of the PNDES, held in Paris from 7 to 8 December 2016, Luxembourg, represented by Minister Romain Schneider, set out Luxembourg’s development cooperation’s support for Burkina Faso for the next five years. In addition to the 60 million euros reserved for ICP III, 22,3 million euros will be allocated to the implementation of the BKF/021 programme supporting the development of information and communication technologies (ICT). The memorandum of understanding for the programme was signed in the margin of the conference. 

2016 was also full of official visits, in particular the visit by Minister Romain Schneider to Burkina Faso at the end of February and the working visit by President Kaboré to Luxembourg in June.