Emergency aid

In preparation for possible natural disasters and humanitarian emergencies and also to respond to growing humanitarian needs in the context of prolonged crises, Luxembourg reserves about 75% of its humanitarian aid budget for emergencies. This aid is allocated according to need and with a particular focus on the most vulnerable people, taking account of several indicators such as the classification of humanitarian crises, risk management indices (INFORM) and the indicators for forgotten crises published by ECHO and OCHA. In 2020, EUR 8,150,000 million was allocated to respond to humanitarian emergencies worldwide.

In view of the complexity of the crises and the worsening of the humanitarian situation, in 2020 the Sahel remained the priority region for Luxembourg’s humanitarian action. Thus, Luxembourg supported humanitarian responses in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger with a budget of approximately EUR 8,858,000 million. Luxembourg also continued to provide a humanitarian response to the Syrian crisis and the impact of this prolonged conflict on the region, the crisis of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh and the conflict in Yemen, which has been ravaging the country since 2014. In addition, in the face of a new era of global vulnerability,

Luxembourg’s humanitarian response in 2020 covered many other fragile and complex contexts, including South Sudan, Sudan, Somalia, Ethiopia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Central African Republic, Iraq, the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Ukraine, Afghanistan and Colombia. Finally, in the humanitarian sphere, the year 2020 saw not only the crisis linked to COVID-19 but also the explosion in the port of Beirut in Lebanon, the intensification of the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh, the disastrous impact of the Eta and Iota hurricanes in Central America, and the emergence of a new conflict in the Tigray region in Ethiopia. The implementation of emergency humanitarian assistance in these countries and regions was achieved through contributions to the UN agencies, the ICRC and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), and projects by Luxembourgish and international NGOs.

In addition to the financial contributions, the Ministry also provided in kind contributions, particularly through emergency.lu, as well as technical assistance from experts. In this context, following the explosion in the port of Beirut in August 2020, a co-worker from the Directorate for Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Affairs was sent to Lebanon as part of the mission of experts for the United Nations Disaster Assessment and Coordination (UNDAC) to help with the work to coordinate national and international support and rescue.