Development Effectiveness

© European Union, 2016

Development Effectiveness: strengthening our efforts to create effective development cooperation

Luxembourg development cooperation places its efforts resolutely at the service of the eradication of poverty, especially so in the least developed countries. Taking our investment in humanity and in their future seriously, it is important to not only take stock of the adequate implementation of our various projects and programmes, but also of the concrete progress made both in the short-term and long-term and for the benefit of the populations who are at the heart of our work. In particular, we need to find ways to optimise the use of all the partnerships and resources available to Luxembourg’s development cooperation in order to have a genuine impact on development in the wider sense. In response to the recommendations of the OECD’s DAC peer review in 2012, Luxembourg has developed a first strategic tool, an Action plan for effective development cooperation, which aims to promote a more systematic application of the principles of ownership, alignment, mutual transparency and accountability, inclusive partnership and the coordination and harmonisation of Luxembourg’s development cooperation actions on the ground.

Following the summits in Rome, Paris and Accra, the Global Partnership for Effective Development Cooperation. Luxembourg participated from 28 November to
1 December 2016 in the second high-level meeting of the Global Partnership for Effective Development Cooperation in Nairobi. Bringing together heads of state and government, ministers, heads of international organisations, companies and civil society, the meeting enabled stock to be taken of the implementation of commitments in terms of development effectiveness. Luxembourg’s development cooperation has in fact been used as an example in the brochure “Effective Development Cooperation: Has the European Union delivered?” published by the European Commission. The modality, “budgeted aid”, a national implementation tool developed by Luxembourg’s development cooperation and its Senegalese partners as part of its third Indicative Cooperation Programme (2012-2017) was highlighted, among ten innovative case studies.

While great progress has been made in terms of effectiveness, additional efforts are required in order to respond to the changes in the development landscape and to remove the structural constraints that are preventing progression towards more effective cooperation. Luxembourg’s development cooperation is committed to putting effectiveness at the heart of its work and that of its partners: our aim is to adapt the new Action plan in the light of the commitments made recently in Nairobi and the new development paradigms agreed both at the international level – through Agenda 2030 and the Addis Ababa action programme on financing development – and at the European level through the new European consensus on development.

To that end, the activities of Luxembourg’s development cooperation will be firmly based on the four principles of effective cooperation, i.e. ownership by the developing countries, focus on results, inclusive partnerships and transparency and accountability. In order to establish an adequate monitoring process, a matrix has been developed based on the indicators used by the Global Partnership. Our teams both in the headquarters and in the field have used this matrix to record the degree of achievement of the various indicators and have highlighted pathways to explore in implementing our commitments. The new Action plan (2017-2019), which has been adapted to reflect the realities on the ground while also retaining the specific character of the values and priorities of Luxembourg’s development cooperation, will be finalised in 2017.