Gender

WOMENATTHEHEARTOFTHELUXEMBOURG’S DEVEL­OP­MENTCOOP­ER­A­TIONAGENDA

Gen­der equal­i­ty is one of the main pre­req­ui­sites for achiev­ing sus­tain­able and inclu­sive devel­op­ment. For exam­ple, the gen­der dimen­sion of devel­op­ment aid is an absolute pre­con­di­tion for a fair­er and more equal world, as well as for the achieve­ment of the 2030 Agen­da for sus­tain­able development.

Gen­der inequal­i­ties and their mul­ti­ple impacts per­sist, par­tic­u­lar­ly in the most vul­ner­a­ble coun­tries, espe­cial­ly in the Sahel, despite remark­able progress in the con­text of the MDGs in improv­ing people’s well-being. While gen­der equal­i­ty is vital in mak­ing eco­nom­ic sys­tems pros­per­ous and inclu­sive, address­ing major health prob­lems, fight­ing pover­ty and mit­i­gat­ing the effects of cli­mate change, women and girls con­tin­ue to suf­fer dis­pro­por­tion­ate­ly from the con­se­quences of pover­ty and exclusion.

As part of the government’s fem­i­nist for­eign pol­i­cy, Luxembourg’s Devel­op­ment Coop­er­a­tion has a focus on pro­mot­ing SDG5 — gen­der equal­i­ty as a human right and the empow­er­ment of all women and girls. These two intrin­si­cal­ly linked con­cepts will be sys­tem­at­i­cal­ly adopt­ed in all devel­op­ment coop­er­a­tion poli­cies and programmes.

Luxembourg’s Devel­op­ment Coop­er­a­tion is com­mit­ted to ensur­ing that the gen­der dimen­sion is tak­en into account in a cross-cut­ting way, par­tic­u­lar­ly in frag­ile and con­flict zones, such as in the Sahel region. Only inte­grat­ed polit­i­cal, secu­ri­ty, devel­op­ment and women’s rights action can lead to a sus­tain­able sta­bil­i­sa­tion of women’s and girls’ rights. To achieve sus­tain­able results, the gen­der dimen­sion is imple­ment­ed through both bilat­er­al part­ner­ships and mul­ti­lat­er­al agen­cies. Many Lux­em­bour­gish and local NGOs oper­ate direct­ly at the EU level. 

GEN­DERINLATINAMERICA

In Nicaragua, Lux­em­bourg is a found­ing mem­ber of and a major donor to the Com­mon Fund for Civ­il Soci­ety in Nicaragua (FASOC), man­aged by Oxfam. In 2019, the Fund sup­port­ed six projects by local NGOs (with a total bud­get of USD500,000) for the social, polit­i­cal and eco­nom­ic rights of women and for com­bat­ing all forms of vio­lence against women and girls.

In Cen­tral Amer­i­ca, Lux­em­bourg sup­ports a region­al pro­gramme (2018−2020, USD1.5 mil­lion) for female entre­pre­neurs with CEN­PROMYPE (region­al cen­tre for the pro­mo­tion of micro, small and medi­um-sized busi­ness in Cen­tral Amer­i­ca) in SICA’s eight mem­ber coun­tries. The main objec­tive is to strength­en women’s eco­nom­ic auton­o­my and thus reduce eco­nom­ic inequal­i­ties between men and women.

In 2019, Lux­em­bourg pledged to sup­port a new pro­gramme with the Inter­na­tion­al Orga­ni­za­tion for Migra­tion (IOM) (2019−2022, with a total con­tri­bu­tion from Lux­em­bourg of EUR1.4 mil­lion) aimed at strength­en­ing insti­tu­tions for the pro­tec­tion of female vic­tims of vio­lence dur­ing migra­tion process­es in Cen­tral Amer­i­ca. Women account for 53% of the Cen­tral Amer­i­can migrant pop­u­la­tion, where social and phys­i­cal vio­lence are both rea­sons trig­ger­ing migra­tion and risk fac­tors dur­ing the migra­tion process. This region­al pro­gramme aims to pro­mote the inclu­sion of mea­sures to pro­tect migrant women in pub­lic poli­cies in Cen­tral Amer­i­ca and the Domini­can Repub­lic and to pre­vent gen­der-based violence.

GEN­DERINAFRICA

In Sene­gal, Burk­i­na Faso and Niger, Lux­em­bourg is part­ner­ing with UNF­PA to strength­en the deliv­ery of mater­nal health, fam­i­ly plan­ning, nutri­tion and sex­u­al and repro­duc­tive health ser­vices to women and ado­les­cents, par­tic­u­lar­ly the most vul­ner­a­ble. Through sup­port to the NGOECPAT, since 2017 Luxembourg’s Devel­op­ment Coop­er­a­tion has been sup­port­ing a project to reduce the sex­u­al exploita­tion of chil­dren in West Africa and South Asia.

GEN­DERIN LAOS

In the con­text of ICPIV inter­ven­tions, there is a par­tic­u­lar focus on the spe­cif­ic needs of women and the poten­tial impacts on their liveli­hoods. To this end, OECDDAC pol­i­cy mark­ers have been incor­po­rat­ed into Luxembourg’s Devel­op­ment Coop­er­a­tion project eval­u­a­tion and mon­i­tor­ing sys­tems. These indi­ca­tors thus pro­vide dis­ag­gre­gat­ed data on gen­der. The tourism and hos­pi­tal­i­ty human resources devel­op­ment project in Laos has even made gen­der one of its pri­or­i­ties and is devel­op­ing a gen­der-based strat­e­gy. Lux­em­bourg is thus a part­ner and sup­port­er of the LGBTQI move­ment in Laos, through the asso­ci­a­tion Proud to be us Laos.