Luxembourg's development cooperation - Annual report 2018

The Grand Duchy of Luxembourg is a passionate defender of multilateralism and its commitment to multilateral organisations remains one of the mainstays of Luxembourg’s development cooperation in its action on the international stage. Luxembourg’s development cooperation’s new cooperation strategy “The road to 2030”, adopted in September 2018, places Agenda 2030 and the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) adopted by the United Nations at the heart of Luxembourg’s development cooperation’s involvement.

With this approach in mind and as in previous years, Luxembourg participated in the board meetings of the UNDP, UNFPA, UNOPS, UN Women and UNICEF. In 2018, Luxembourg also had a seat on the board of the first three UN agencies mentioned above. During the annual UNFPA board meeting, Luxembourg facilitated a resolution regarding the UNFPA budget, a hotly discussed topic following the withdrawal of certain leading international partners.

Luxembourg’s development cooperation also continued to closely monitor the process of repositioning the United Nations development system launched by Secretary-General Guterres in July 2017, the resolution of which was adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations on 31 May 2018. This repositioning envisages in particular a new generation of United Nations Country Teams, a revitalisation of the role of the Resident Coordinator System, a re-working of the regional approach, a strategic direction, supervision and responsibility for obtaining results at a systemic level, improved financing and monitoring of action carried out in order to reposition the United Nations system at various levels.

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 9 to 10 July 2018. The annual consultations with the UN agencies in Rome took place on 27 and 30 November 2018, with the consultations with the Geneva-based agencies taking place on 23 and 24 October 2018. In contrast, the annual consultations with UNCDF and UNAIDS were held this year in Luxembourg on 15 March 2018 and 17-18 October 2018 respectively, in the presence of the Executive Secretary of UNCDF, Judith Karl, and Michel Sidibé, Executive Director of UNAIDS.

Health remains a major priority for Luxembourg. The EU-Luxembourg-WHO partnership for universal health coverage continues to develop considerably: Luxembourg has re-committed to a third phase of the partnership covering the 2019-2021 period. Universal health coverage, the main objective of its health strategy, is the backbone of SDG 3, “Good health and well-being”.

With UNAIDS, Luxembourg enhanced its efforts to combat HIV/AIDS in its priority region of West Africa via an annual contribution of 1 million euros to the western and central Africa catch-up plan. This regional programme aims to achieve the objective of 90-90-90 treatment through increased support to local civil society. Respect for human rights and paediatric care are at the heart of the programme. In addition, Luxembourg intensified its collaboration with the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria in order to achieve the ambitious goals of ending the three pandemics as a public health threat by 2030.

During 2018, Luxembourg continued its long-term partnership with the International Labour Organization (ILO), among other things through the “Decent Jobs for Youth” initiative. Another priority of Luxembourg’s development cooperation is the extension of its involvement with the ILO in the social protection project covering an entire region of South-East Asia, starting with Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam. In addition, in 2018, Luxembourg researched a project in collaboration with the ILO in Tunisia on social, inclusive entrepreneurship.

Luxembourg’s development cooperation remains committed to the work accomplished by UNRWA in the Middle East. The UN agency continues to be the main partner in the region with a total budget 4 750 000 euros. At the end of 2018, a new agreement was signed in Luxembourg in the presence of UNRWA’s Commissioner General, Pierre Krähenbühl, for a project in Gaza.

In line with the approach recommended in the new strategy concerning the promotion of multi-actor partnerships, there were numerous discussions and consultations with IFAD, the European Commission and AGRA over the course of 2018 to establish the new ABC Fund. The aim of the Fund is to mobilise public and private funding to finance the agricultural value chains in developing countries, with a view to stimulating growth, developing new markets and preserving/creating job opportunities in rural areas for young people and women. The ABC Fund is an illustration of an innovative public-private partnership enabling initial investment to be multiplied and its impact on development to be maximised while still remaining financially profitable.

Women’s health continues to be among the priorities of the interventions, with Luxembourg being one of the countries to maintain its support for the “She Decides” initiative. Luxembourg’s development cooperation also participated in the #SheIsEqual awareness-raising campaign initiated by Global Citizen, a campaign that aims to mobilise the citizens of the whole world to commit to gender equality, health and the independence of women and girls. Finally, Luxembourg helped to establish the first national Action Plan for Women, Peace and Security.

Luxembourg’s development cooperation has contributed to raising awareness of international development by supporting the organisation by the Athénée du Luxembourg of the first “LuxMUN” Model United Nations.