Luxembourg's development cooperation - Annual report 2017

In the field of cooperation with multilateral organisations, the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg has been active on several levels. The main feature of 2017 was the peer review by the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) on 20 September 2017 at the OECD in Paris, which produced very satisfactory results. This exercise was complemented by Luxembourg’s participation in the voluntary national review at the High Level Political Forum (HLPF) on Sustainable Development held in New York on 17 July 2017. This was in fact the global platform for the member nations of the United Nations to present their national strategies for the implementation of the Agenda 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. Alongside the presentation of Luxembourg’s voluntary review (entitled “Transformer les vies tout en préservant la planète”) by Ministers Schneider and Dieschbourg, Luxembourg’s development cooperation also jointly organised with the OECD a side event on policy coherence highlighting the importance that Luxembourg gives this crucial subject in terms of sustainable development.

As usual, Luxembourg monitored the meetings of the executive boards of UNDP, UNPF, UNOPS, UN Women and UNICEF. In 2016 and 2017, Luxembourg had a seat on the UNICEF board. In 2017, involvement in these boards was crucial given that the multi-annual strategic plans (2018-2021) of all these agencies were being negotiated and approved. Luxembourg will have a seat on the boards of UNDP, UNPF and UNOPS in 2018.

On 11 July 2017, António Guterres, Secretary-General of the UN, presented the first report on “Repositioning the United Nations development system to deliver on the 2030 Agenda: ensuring a better future for all” in New York. Mr Guterres committed to putting development at the heart of the UN’s work and to ensure that the United Nations can effectively address the many difficulties facing the international community. The reform of the United Nations’ development system is a process of drafting and negotiation, in which Luxembourg’s development cooperation is taking an active part and which will continue in 2018.

All these subjects, as well as Luxembourg’s development cooperation’s thematic priorities and multilateral projects, were discussed during the annual consultations with the New York-based UN agencies that took place from 12 to 14 June 2017. The annual consultations with the UN agencies in Rome took place on 19 and 20 October 2017, with the consultations with the Geneva-based agencies taking place on 23 and 24 October 2017.

Several substantial developments in 2017 deserve to be mentioned: since women’s health is one of the priority intervention areas for Luxembourg’s development cooperation and its health strategy, Luxembourg was one of the first countries to give its support to the “She Decides” initiative via an additional 2 million euros contribution to UNPF for 2017 in order to provide more support for family planning.

“She Decides is a permanent initiative which reminds us all of the impact of political and financial decisions on the lives of over half of the world’s population and the wider issues involved in creating a sustainable planet as emphasized in Agenda 2030.” Minister for Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Affairs Romain Schneider, 2 March 2017.

In 2017, Luxembourg considerably strengthened its links and partnerships with the International Labour Organization, in particular through its contribution to the “Decent Jobs for Youth” initiative, in order to support young people in the rural economy and to ensure they have access to high-quality learning – one of the priorities of Luxembourg’s development cooperation. Luxembourg also committed to extend the social protection project with the ILO to the entire region of South-East Asia, starting with Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam.

The EU-Luxembourg-WHO partnership for universal health coverage developed considerably in 2017, in particular through new members joining, which had the effect of strengthening the partnership’s activities aimed at creating universal health coverage that is even more substantial, effective and lasting.

Luxembourg was pleased to continue to collaborate with the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria in an effort to meet the ambitious objectives that the international community has set, namely, to put an end to the three pandemics as a public health threat by 2030.

Finally, throughout 2017, IFAD held four major consultations to replenish IFAD’s resources for the 2019-2021 period (i.e. IFAD 11). Luxembourg decided that, in addition to the net increase in its annual contributions, it would strengthen its cooperation with IFAD by adding a contribution in the field of nutrition-sensitive agriculture.