Introduction
The Republic of Cabo Verde and the Grand Duchy have long-standing relations, mainly founded upon development cooperation links. There have been about 15 high-level visits, including the visit to Cabo Verde by His Royal Highness Grand Duke Henri, in March 2015. Luxembourg has been working in this partner country since 1993 and is now one of the main donors to Cabo Verde, because since it joined the category of middle-income countries in 2008 most other donors have withdrawn.
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In terms of recent bilateral visits, Minister Fayot visited the country from 14 to 19 February 2020. This was his first working visit to a Luxembourg’s Development Cooperation partner country in his capacity as Minister for Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Affairs. He was accompanied by Carole Dieschbourg, Minister for the Environment, Climate and Sustainable Development, and by Claude Turmes, Minister for Energy and Spatial Planning. The visit’s main aim was to strengthen bilateral discussions concerning the methods for implementing the new ‘country approach’. This approach seeks, primarily, to provide better coherence between Luxembourg’s public policies and increased synergy between the actions of Luxembourg’s Development Cooperation and other policy areas, in particular the fight against the adverse effects of climate change, and the energy transition. This aim was reflected in the signing of a new indicative cooperation programme (ICP) entitled ‘Development – Climate – Energy’, covering the 2021-2025 period, at the 20th partnership committee meeting between Luxembourg and Cabo Verde. This was held on 8 July 2020 by video-conference. Structured around five pillars of intervention – Employment and Employability, Water and Sanitation, Climate Action, Energy Transition and Local Development – this is the first time that a cooperation programme between Luxembourg and a partner country has combined development cooperation actions with actions linked to the climate and energy transition. The latter will be financed both by the Cooperation Development Fund and the Climate and Energy Fund, with a total indicative budget of EUR 78 million.
In 2020, there were three Luxembourgish NGOs working in Cabo Verde, funded by the MFA: Beetebuerg Hëlleft (primary education), ECPAT Luxembourg (gender-based violence) and OGBL Solidarité Syndicale (trade union training).
Priority areas of intervention
- Water and sanitation
- Affordable and clean energy
- Decent work and economic growth
Development of PDA
As part of combating the COVID-19 pandemic and in order to support Cabo Verde to tackle the health, economic and social challenges caused by the health crisis, Luxembourg decided to advance the disbursement of its sectoral budgeted aid allocated to the field of employment and employability to the tune of EUR 2 million, while granting additional emergency aid of EUR 1.6 million. This made it possible to deploy a specialised medical team and to fund a response plan for the municipalities.
Similarly, following the torrential rain that hit the archipelago, causing considerable damage to property, extraordinary emergency aid was allocated to the municipality of Praia, amounting to EUR 200,000.
Reference data
- Population (MIO): 0.6
- GNI (per resident): USD 7330
- Human Development Index (HDI): 126/189
- Life expectancy: 73
- Indicative Cooperation Programme: 2021-2025
Key achievements 2020
- Joint working visit to Cabo Verde by Minister Fayot with Ministers Dieschbourg and Turmes, 14 to 19 February 2020
- Holding of the 20th partnership committee meeting, 8 July 2020
- Signing of the "Development-Climate-Energy" ICP, with an indicative budget of EUR 78 million, on 8 July 2020
- Support of EUR 1.6 million for the COVID-19 response
- Extraordinary emergency aid of EUR 200,000 allocated to the municipality of Praia to deal with damage to property following the torrential rain of 2020
Sector breakdown
2020
