Intro

For 2019, the Min­istry of For­eign and Euro­pean Affairs allo­cat­ed a total bud­get of EUR53.94 mil­lion for huma­niar­i­an inter­ven­tion, includ­ing con­tri­bu­tions for human­i­tar­i­an issued from the muti­lat­er­al bud­get line and from the devel­op­ment coop­er­a­tion fund. The year was dom­i­nat­ed by the response to human­i­tar­i­an crises, par­tic­u­lar­ly in Syr­ia and Yemen, but also in the Sahel and the Lake Chad regions, Mozam­bique and Bangladesh. For all these human­i­tar­i­an crises, the gov­ern­ment made sub­stan­tial fund­ing avail­able to sup­port the human­i­tar­i­an oper­a­tions of UN agen­cies and the Inter­na­tion­al Com­mit­tee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and to car­ry out emer­gency projects run by Lux­em­bour­gish NGOs. A total of EUR53.94 mil­lion has been dis­bursed to sup­port such human­i­tar­i­an inter­ven­tions in var­i­ous coun­tries and in the three phas­es of human­i­tar­i­an crises as defined in Luxembourg’s human­i­tar­i­an action strat­e­gy: emer­gency, tran­si­tion and prevention.

A total of EUR53.94 mil­lion has been dis­bursed to sup­port such human­i­tar­i­an inter­ven­tions in var­i­ous coun­tries and in the three phas­es of human­i­tar­i­an crises as defined in Luxembourg’s human­i­tar­i­an action strat­e­gy: emer­gency, tran­si­tion and prevention.

Lux­em­bourg con­tin­ued to hon­our the four-year strate­gic part­ner­ship agree­ments con­clud­ed in 2017 with the World Food Pro­gramme (WFP), the Unit­ed Nations High Com­mis­sion­er for Refugees (UNHCR), the Unit­ed Nations Office for the Coor­di­na­tion of Human­i­tar­i­an Affairs (OCHA), the Unit­ed Nations Office for Dis­as­ter Risk Reduc­tion (UNDRR) and the Inter­na­tion­al Com­mit­tee of the Red Cross (ICRC). In addi­tion to the annu­al finan­cial sup­port, the agree­ments with the WFP, UNHCR and OCHA also pro­vide for the pos­si­bil­i­ty of deploy­ment of the emer​gency​.lu plat­form and the devel­op­ment of solu­tions in the field of infor­ma­tion and com­mu­ni­ca­tion tech­nolo­gies, thus con­tribut­ing in an inno­v­a­tive way to the effec­tive­ness of the coor­di­na­tion of emer­gency efforts on the ground.

In May 2019, Lux­em­bourg sub­mit­ted its sec­ond report on the imple­men­ta­tion of the com­mit­ments made at the World Human­i­tar­i­an Sum­mit held in May 2016. Lux­em­bourg had sub­scribed to all the fun­da­men­tal com­mit­ments on the basis of the ​‘Agen­da for human­i­ty’ and had made 45 nation­al com­mit­ments. Lux­em­bourg has thus con­tin­ued to fol­low the ​‘Grand Bar­gain’ ini­tia­tive, an agree­ment between imple­ment­ing agen­cies and donors aimed at mak­ing human­i­tar­i­an aid more effec­tive, part­ly by mak­ing it more pre­dictable. As in pre­vi­ous years, the Lux­em­bourg gov­ern­ment has pro­vid­ed an annu­al con­tri­bu­tion to the Cen­tral Emer­gency Response Fund (CERF), which allows the UN to ensure that human­i­tar­i­an aid reach­es the world’s cri­sis-affect­ed peo­ple as quick­ly as pos­si­ble. Sup­port for the coun­try-based pooled funds enables Lux­em­bourg to hon­our its com­mit­ment to sup­port­ing the local­i­sa­tion of human­i­tar­i­an assis­tance and to hav­ing reli­able fund­ing mech­a­nisms avail­able in order to reach those most in need. In 2019, new sup­port for the Ukraine Human­i­tar­i­an Fund was put in place, bring­ing the num­ber of funds sup­port­ed by Lux­em­bourg to nine.

Inter­nal­ly, as part of the update to Luxembourg’s human­i­tar­i­an action strat­e­gy, the human­i­tar­i­an affairs depart­ment con­duct­ed a self-assess­ment based on the fun­da­men­tal human­i­tar­i­an stan­dards of qual­i­ty and account­abil­i­ty, under the aegis of the Core Human­i­tar­i­an Stan­dard Alliance, and joined the Human­i­tar­i­an Qual­i­ty Assur­ance Ini­tia­tive (HQAI) in Decem­ber 2019. 

In addi­tion, Lux­em­bourg par­tic­i­pat­ed in the 33^rd Inter­na­tion­al Con­fer­ence of the Red Cross and Red Cres­cent held in Gene­va from 9 to 12 Decem­ber 2019, which brought togeth­er the com­po­nents of the Inter­na­tion­al Move­ment of the Red Cross and Red Cres­cent as well as rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the States par­ties to the Gene­va Con­ven­tions of 1949 and the Addi­tion­al Pro­to­cols there­to, to dis­cuss key human­i­tar­i­an issues, includ­ing respect for and the strength­en­ing of inter­na­tion­al human­i­tar­i­an law and the chal­lenges faced in the dig­i­tal age. The core objec­tive of the 33^rd Inter­na­tion­al Con­fer­ence in 2019 was to improve the lives of peo­ple affect­ed by armed con­flict, dis­as­ters and oth­er emer­gen­cies, and in this con­nec­tion eight res­o­lu­tions were adopt­ed by con­sen­sus on the final day. On the side­lines of the inter­na­tion­al con­fer­ence, Lux­em­bourg chaired the par­al­lel event enti­tled ​‘Reg­u­la­tion, Ethics and Account­abil­i­ty in Data Part­ner­ships for Human­i­tar­i­an Aid’ organ­ised by the ICRC and the IFRC.

The Glob­al Refugee Forum, held in Decem­ber 2019 in Gene­va under the aus­pices of UNHCR, was the begin­ning of a process to imple­ment the Glob­al Com­pact on Refugees, adopt­ed under res­o­lu­tion ⁷³⁄₁₅₁ in 2018. The forum pro­vid­ed an oppor­tu­ni­ty to devel­op and strength­en arrange­ments for the imple­men­ta­tion of the Glob­al Com­pact in the long term. Lux­em­bourg high­light­ed its finan­cial sup­port for UNHCR and pledged to con­tin­ue sup­port­ing inno­va­tion and resilient solu­tions for refugees in the area where devel­op­ment and human­i­tar­i­an aid overlap.

As a sig­na­to­ry to the Char­ter on Inclu­sion of Per­sons with Dis­abil­i­ties in Human­i­tar­i­an Action, Lux­em­bourg had sup­port­ed the devel­op­ment of the guide­lines, an exer­cise head­ed by the Unit­ed Nations Inter-Agency Stand­ing Com­mit­tee (IASC). The pub­li­ca­tion of these guide­lines in 2019 marked an impor­tant step in pro­mot­ing the inclu­sion of per­sons with dis­abil­i­ties in human­i­tar­i­an action.