Luxembourg's development cooperation - Annual report 2016

In the field of multilateral cooperation, annual consultations took place in June 2016 with the UN Agencies based in New York (UNDP, UNICEF, UNCDF). This was also the first time that a structured consultation was organised between Luxembourg and UN Women. The annual consultation with UNFPA took place on 2 November in Luxembourg, due to the annual UNFPA suppliers meeting being held on 3 and 4 November in Kirchberg at the invitation of the Luxembourg government. On 3 November, Minister Romain Schneider had a bilateral meeting with the Executive Director of UNFPA, Babatunde Osotimehin to discuss joint cooperation projects and to announce an increase in Luxembourg’s contribution to UNFPA’s family planning programme.

At the political level, the most important United Nations meeting in 2016 in the field of development was the High Level Political Forum (HLPF) held in New York at the end of July. This was the first HLPF since the adoption the previous year of the Agenda 2030 for sustainable development and provided a platform for countries to present their national strategies for the implementation of the SDGs – the Agenda 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. Luxembourg announced at that meeting that it intended to make its official presentation at the 2017 HLPF.

Luxembourg also had a seat on the boards of UNICEF and UN Women in 2016.

On 3 May 2016, Mark Dybul, Executive Director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, visited Luxembourg. Dr Dybul met the Prime Minister, the Minister for Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Affairs and the members of the Chambre des deputés Foreign Affairs and Health Committees. His visit culminated in a conference entitled “Une ambition pour la santé mondiale : l’investissement du Luxembourg dans le Fonds mondial pour progresser vers une couverture sanitaire universelle” ¹ jointly organised by the Directorate for Development Cooperation and the Friends of the Global Fund Europe. The members of the panel were: Mark Dybul, Minister Schneider, Bounkong Syhavong, Minister for Health of Lao PDR, Marc Angel, Chair of the Foreign and European Affairs, Defence, Cooperation and Immigration Committee, and Khuat T. Oanh, international civil society representative. The aim was to highlight the various leveraging effects of the Global Fund on global health and to show the synergies between the fight against the three pandemics and the movement towards universal health coverage.

During Mark Dybul’s visit, Luxembourg announced an increase of 8% in its annual contribution to the Global Fund, committing to a total contribution of 8,1 million euros for the 2017-2019 period. This commitment was confirmed at the Global Fund Replenishment conference held in Montreal on 16 and 17 September. The new 2017-2019 multinational contribution agreement was signed at the 36^th Board Meeting of the Global Fund in Montreux on 15 November 2016.

Luxembourg signed a new strategic partnership agreement with UNAIDS in May 2016, retaining a voluntary contribution to the organisation’s budget as well as two thematic contributions to gender and the Fast Track/90-90-90 initiative. 

The annual consultations with UNAIDS and the ILO were held on 31 October in Geneva.

In November 2016 a framework agreement for the 2016-2020 period was signed regarding the voluntary contributions and the financing of the International Labour Organisation’s (ILO) projects and programmes. This new agreement, which replaced the 2008 one, confirmed a joint collaboration framework in the field of technical cooperation and the procedural rules for the financing of the ILO’s projects and programmes at the country level, especially for those countries having the status of partner country of Luxembourg’s development cooperation. It is based on the Agenda 2030 Sustainable Development Goals and on other international instruments in force to promote development effectiveness while taking into account the thematic priorities of Luxembourg’s development cooperation.

The annual consultation with the WHO took place in Luxembourg on 2 December in the presence of its new Health Emergencies Programme Executive Director, Peter Salama. The main decision arising from these consultations was also to cooperate with the WHO as a humanitarian aid partner, with an initial contribution of 500 000 euros announced for 2017.

Minister Schneider took part in February 2016 in IFAD’s Governing Council meeting in Rome, alongside which a bilateral meeting was held with the President of IFAD, Kanayo Kwanze. At that meeting it was decided that, alongside its voluntary contribution and its annual contribution to the Financing Facility for Remittances, Luxembourg would add a thematic contribution in the field of nutrition-sensitive agriculture.

DAC’s ministerial meeting, which was held on 18 and 19 February in Paris, continued the modernisation of DAC’s statistical system in line with the conclusions of the 3^rd Financing for Development Conference, held in Addis Ababa in 2015, and the adoption of Agenda 2030.

In this context, the high-level meeting adopted revised directives on including activities in the field of peace and security in ODA accounts. The delegates also assessed the progress of work on the modernisation of ODA in terms of its component regarding private sector instruments and the harmonisation of the notification of the costs of aid to refugees in the donor countries that can be accounted for under ODA. 

In the second half of 2016, the Directorate for Development Cooperation began to collect relevant data to produce the national memorandum in preparation for the peer review of Luxembourg planned for 2017.

¹ Translation: Global health ambition: Luxembourg’s investment in the Global Fund to move towards universal health coverage