Coherence of development policies

The Lux­em­bourg Devel­op­ment Coop­er­a­tion is active­ly com­mit­ted to pro­mot­ing and sup­port­ing the coher­ence of poli­cies for devel­op­ment in the con­text of the imple­men­ta­tion of Agen­da 2030. This enables it to con­tribute to the coher­ence of all Luxembourg’s actions in devel­op­ing coun­tries and to eval­u­ate its effec­tive con­tri­bu­tion to sus­tain­able development.

In terms of exter­nal poli­cies in a devel­op­ment coop­er­a­tion con­text, Lux­em­bourg has devel­oped sev­er­al tools to ensure it adopts a coher­ent pol­i­cy in sup­port of the sus­tain­able devel­op­ment goals (SDGs). The 3D approach (diplo­ma­cy, devel­op­ment and defence) imple­ment­ed in the con­text of Luxembourg’s for­eign pol­i­cy, as well the whole-of-gov­ern­ment approach intro­duced with the coali­tion agree­ment, con­sti­tute the main ref­er­ence frame­work for ensur­ing coher­ence between nation­al and for­eign poli­cies, with the pri­ma­ry aim of con­tribut­ing to sus­tain­able growth and sta­bil­i­ty. The ​“Devel­op­ment – Cli­mate – Ener­gy” Indica­tive Coop­er­a­tion Pro­gramme (DCE ICP, 2021 – 2025) between Cabo Verde and Lux­em­bourg marks the first oppor­tu­ni­ty for the imple­men­ta­tion of a whole-of-gov­ern­ment approach by the Lux­em­bourg Devel­op­ment Coop­er­a­tion, aim­ing to strength­en the impact of pub­lic invest­ment in sus­tain­able devel­op­ment, inte­grat­ing all stake­hold­ers and sources of Lux­em­bourg financ­ing like­ly to con­tribute to it.

In 2018, the Lux­em­bourg Devel­op­ment Coop­er­a­tion adopt­ed a gen­er­al devel­op­ment coop­er­a­tion strat­e­gy enti­tled ​“Road to 2030”, which is inspired by the SDGs and aims to help erad­i­cate extreme pover­ty and pro­mote eco­nom­ic, social and envi­ron­men­tal sus­tain­abil­i­ty. Since 2021, three the­mat­ic strate­gies have been added to it to pro­mote the more sys­tem­at­ic inte­gra­tion of cross-cut­ting pri­or­i­ties relat­ing to gen­der equal­i­ty, envi­ron­men­tal sus­tain­abil­i­ty and finan­cial inclu­sion, which will serve as a com­pass for inter­ven­tions by the Lux­em­bourg Devel­op­ment Coop­er­a­tion. Human rights are a cross-cut­ting pri­or­i­ty in the ​“Road to 2030” strategy.

The SDGs reit­er­ate the com­mit­ment to improve pol­i­cy coher­ence for devel­op­ment in terms of goals, sec­tors and actors, there­by encour­ag­ing a favourable envi­ron­ment for sus­tain­able devel­op­ment. 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, The Lux­em­bourg Devel­op­ment Coop­er­a­tion sup­ports the inclu­sion of impact on devel­op­ing coun­tries with­in the Nohal­teg- keetscheck, 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 coher­ence of devel­op­ment policies.

Inter­na­tion­al­ly, as part of its mon­i­tor­ing and review mech­a­nisms, the Unit­ed Nations ​“2030 Agen­da for Sus­tain­able Devel­op­ment” encour­ages Mem­ber States to con­duct reg­u­lar and inclu­sive reviews of progress at nation­al and sub-nation­al lev­els (“Vol­un­tary Nation­al Review/​VNR”). These nation­al reviews serve as the basis for reg­u­lar reviews by the High-Lev­el Polit­i­cal Forum on Sus­tain­able Devel­op­ment (HLPF), con­vened under the aus­pices of the Unit­ed Nations Eco­nom­ic and Social Coun­cil (ECOSOC). Lux­em­bourg car­ried out an ini­tial Vol­un­tary Nation­al Review in 2017 and a sec­ond in 2022. The results of Luxembourg’s 2022 VNR were pre­sent­ed joint­ly by Min­is­ters Fay­ot and Wel­fring in New York on 15 July 2022 at the High-Lev­el Polit­i­cal Forum on Sus­tain­able Devel­op­ment, with Min­is­ter Fay­ot speak­ing about the Grand Duchy’s efforts and ini­tia­tives to advance the attain­ment of the SDGs in devel­op­ing coun­tries. In Sep­tem­ber 2022 there was an exchange between the min­is­ters and the Joint Par­lia­men­tary Com­mit­tee on For­eign and Euro­pean Affairs, Coop­er­a­tion, Immi­gra­tion and Asy­lum and the Com­mit­tee on the Envi­ron­ment, Cli­mate, Ener­gy and Spa­tial Plan­ning on the results of the VNR.

In order to strength­en pol­i­cy coher­ence, Lux­em­bourg is sup­port­ed by the Organ­i­sa­tion for Eco­nom­ic Co-oper­a­tion and Devel­op­ment (OECD), which makes rec­om­men­da­tions for the adjust­ment of Luxembourg’s mech­a­nisms to make them even more effec­tive and effi­cient. For exam­ple, Lux­em­bourg has launched, under the aegis of the Min­istry of the Envi­ron­ment, Cli­mate and Sus­tain­able Devel­op­ment and the Direc­torate for Devel­op­ment Coop­er­a­tion and Human­i­tar­i­an Affairs, an insti­tu­tion­al analy­sis process on pol­i­cy coher­ence for sus­tain­able devel­op­ment, togeth­er with the OECD. The aim is to strength­en exist­ing mech­a­nisms and insti­tu­tion­al capac­i­ties for pol­i­cy coher­ence in order to achieve sus­tain­able devel­op­ment objec­tives, both nation­al­ly and inter­na­tion­al­ly. Thus, two work­shops were held in the for­mat of a joint meet­ing between the ICDC and the ICSD, in April and July 2022.

All devel­op­ment coop­er­a­tion actions fea­ture a mul­ti-stake­hold­er approach in order to increase their effec­tive­ness. This approach fos­ters dynam­ic and diverse part­ner­ships with inter­na­tion­al, nation­al and local NGOs and also seeks to pro­mote increased col­lab­o­ra­tion with pri­vate sec­tor and research actors (includ­ing through pub­lic-pri­vate part­ner­ships that can mobilise addi­tion­al resources), in par­tic­u­lar with­in its part­ner coun­tries. The state of progress regard­ing devel­op­ment pol­i­cy coher­ence is also close­ly mon­i­tored by the NGOs’ Cer­cle de Coopéra­tion, which, with the sup­port of the Lux­em­bourg Devel­op­ment Coop­er­a­tion, reg­u­lar­ly makes obser­va­tions and imple­ments aware­ness-rais­ing activ­i­ties, par­tic­u­lar­ly in the areas of fair trade and social­ly respon­si­ble clothing.