Coherence of development policies

Lux­em­bourg Devel­op­ment Coop­er­a­tion sub­scribes to an approach based on pro­mot­ing and sup­port­ing the coher­ence of devel­op­ment poli­cies, which enables it to con­tribute to the over­all coher­ence of Luxembourg’s actions in a giv­en part­ner coun­try and to eval­u­ate its effec­tive con­tri­bu­tion to sus­tain­able development.

The 3D approach (diplo­ma­cy, devel­op­ment and defence) imple­ment­ed in the con­text of Luxembourg’s for­eign pol­i­cy, as well as more recent­ly the imple­men­ta­tion of the coun­try approach, notably in Cabo Verde, are the main ref­er­ence frame­works for ensur­ing coher­ence between nation­al and for­eign poli­cies, with the pri­ma­ry aim of con­tribut­ing to sus­tain­able growth and stability.

This involves assess­ing whether and to what extent nation­al poli­cies effec­tive­ly con­tribute to the attain­ment of the aims set in Agen­da 2030 in devel­op­ing coun­tries. In this sense, Lux­em­bourg Devel­op­ment Coop­er­a­tion sup­ports the inclu­sion of impact on devel­op­ing coun­tries with­in the Nohal­tegkeetscheck, which will make it pos­si­ble to test the sus­tain­abil­i­ty of leg­isla­tive ini­tia­tives, thus boost­ing the syn­er­gies between nation­al poli­cies and inter­na­tion­al cooperation.

Nation­al­ly, the Inter­min­is­te­r­i­al Com­mit­tee for Devel­op­ment Coop­er­a­tion (ICDC) is respon­si­ble for pan-gov­ern­men­tal coor­di­na­tion on devel­op­ment coop­er­a­tion and the coher­ence of devel­op­ment poli­cies. The ICDC works in close part­ner­ship with both the Inter­de­part­men­tal Com­mis­sion on Sus­tain­able Devel­op­ment (ICSD) and the Inter­min­is­te­r­i­al Com­mit­tee on Human Rights (ICHR). In this con­text, in 2021 Lux­em­bourg Devel­op­ment Coop­er­a­tion adopt­ed two the­mat­ic strate­gies, name­ly the ​“Gen­der Strat­e­gy” and the ​“Envi­ron­ment and Cli­mate Change Strat­e­gy”, which will serve as a com­pass for its interventions.

In order to strength­en the mech­a­nisms that are vital for pol­i­cy coher­ence, such as the ICDC, Lux­em­bourg is sup­port­ed by the OECD, which for­mu­lates rec­om­men­da­tions for adjust­ing Luxembourg’s mech­a­nisms in order to make them even more effec­tive and efficient.

The Cham­ber of Deputies con­tin­ues to play an impor­tant role in gov­er­nance and pol­i­cy coher­ence by pro­vid­ing over­all over­sight through reg­u­lar liai­son with the government.

The state of progress regard­ing devel­op­ment pol­i­cy coher­ence is also close­ly mon­i­tored by the NGOs’ Cer­cle de Coopéra­tion, which, with the sup­port of Lux­em­bourg Devel­op­ment Coop­er­a­tion, reg­u­lar­ly makes obser­va­tions and imple­ments aware­ness-rais­ing activ­i­ties, par­tic­u­lar­ly in the areas of fair trade and social­ly respon­si­ble clothing.