Foreword by the Minister

Dear friends of Luxembourg’s Devel­op­ment Cooperation,

It is my great plea­sure to present to you the Luxembourg’s Devel­op­ment Coop­er­a­tion annu­al report for 2023. This is my first time pre­sent­ing the annu­al report since tak­ing office as Min­is­ter for Devel­op­ment Coop­er­a­tion and Human­i­tar­i­an Affairs. In view of the key role played by devel­op­ment coop­er­a­tion and human­i­tar­i­an aid in Luxembourg’s for­eign pol­i­cy, as well as the recog­ni­tion accord­ed to the Grand Duchy on the inter­na­tion­al stage as a result, I am hon­oured to be lead­ing this department.

We were once again remind­ed of the impor­tance of inter­na­tion­al coop­er­a­tion and sol­i­dar­i­ty in 2023, a year that unfor­tu­nate­ly saw per­sis­tent and emerg­ing con­flicts, the effects of cli­mate change and var­i­ous nat­ur­al dis­as­ters. The con­se­quences have been cat­a­stroph­ic: in 2023, human­i­tar­i­an crises pushed more than 350 mil­lion peo­ple into sit­u­a­tions of vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty and depen­dence on human­i­tar­i­an aid.

In the face of these mul­ti­ple crises, Lux­em­bourg has endeav­oured to pro­vide imme­di­ate emer­gency aid, includ­ing finan­cial aid and in-kind con­tri­bu­tions. In addi­tion to sup­port­ing peo­ple affect­ed by nat­ur­al dis­as­ters, such as the earth­quakes in Turkey, Syr­ia and Moroc­co, as well as fatal floods in Libya, we con­tin­ued our sup­port to Ukraine in the ongo­ing Russ­ian war of aggres­sion. Lux­em­bourg has also con­tributed to the human­i­tar­i­an response to the esca­la­tion of exist­ing con­flicts that has placed civil­ian pop­u­la­tions in increas­ing­ly pre­car­i­ous and alarm­ing sit­u­a­tions, par­tic­u­lar­ly in the Occu­pied Pales­tin­ian Ter­ri­to­ries and in Sudan. In total, near­ly EUR99.78 mil­lion was devot­ed to human­i­tar­i­an action, rep­re­sent­ing more than 15% of offi­cial devel­op­ment assis­tance in 2023, which is in line with the tar­get set in Luxembourg’s human­i­tar­i­an strategy.

Bilat­er­al coop­er­a­tion activ­i­ties con­tin­ued to be the bedrock of our work, although 2023 was an event­ful year in that regard. On the one hand, exist­ing and new coop­er­a­tion rela­tions have been fur­ther strength­ened, notably by the sign­ing of the fifth Indica­tive Coop­er­a­tion Pro­gramme with Sene­gal and the open­ing of new embassies in Cos­ta Rica and Benin. In con­trast, after the coup d’état of 26 July 2023, Lux­em­bourg sus­pend­ed its bilat­er­al coop­er­a­tion rela­tions with Niger, one of the Grand Duchy’s long-stand­ing part­ner coun­tries. Unfor­tu­nate­ly, that putsch was only one of many in the region, putting our bilat­er­al coop­er­a­tion in the cen­tral Sahel to the test. I have also decid­ed not to sign any new bilat­er­al com­mit­ments with regimes that have emerged from coups d’état. In that con­text, it is there­fore dou­bly impor­tant that in that region we can con­tin­ue to rely on numer­ous Lux­em­bourg and inter­na­tion­al NGOs as well as on mul­ti­lat­er­al and human­i­tar­i­an part­ners which make an impor­tant con­tri­bu­tion to our bilat­er­al interventions.

I would also like to stress the key role that our mul­ti­lat­er­al part­ners play in our work and in the attain­ment of our goals. About 30% of offi­cial devel­op­ment assis­tance is ear­marked each year to sup­port the pro­grammes and projects of mul­ti­lat­er­al organ­i­sa­tions in order to con­tribute to the imple­men­ta­tion of the 17 Sus­tain­able Devel­op­ment Goals set out in the Unit­ed Nations Agen­da 2030. Col­lab­o­ra­tion with a large num­ber of mul­ti­lat­er­al agen­cies is based on mul­ti­an­nu­al part­ner­ship agree­ments, and through these we com­mit to pro­vid­ing pre­dictable, long-term sup­port to facil­i­tate the effi­cien­cy and impact of our part­ners’ actions.

As for NGOs, their prox­im­i­ty to local com­mu­ni­ties, their in-depth knowl­edge of the con­texts and needs of the ben­e­fi­cia­ry pop­u­la­tions and their sec­toral exper­tise are impor­tant assets in the imple­men­ta­tion of Lux­em­bourg Devel­op­ment Cooperation’s gen­er­al strat­e­gy. In 2023, 24 mul­ti­an­nu­al devel­op­ment frame­work agree­ments were co-financed, while 29 new devel­op­ment projects were sup­port­ed fol­low­ing two calls for pro­pos­als launched by the Direc­torate for Devel­op­ment Coop­er­a­tion and Human­i­tar­i­an Affairs.

In addi­tion to our part­ners, one of the strengths of Luxembourg’s Devel­op­ment Coop­er­a­tion is undoubt­ed­ly the con­ti­nu­ity we are able to main­tain in our actions. Lux­em­bourg has dis­tin­guished itself for years through its con­sis­tent efforts to com­bat pover­ty and pro­mote more sus­tain­able devel­op­ment, and I am pleased to say that 2023 was no excep­tion. With a record total of EUR536.47 mil­lion, Lux­em­bourg con­tin­ued to allo­cate near­ly 1% of gross nation­al income to offi­cial devel­op­ment assis­tance in 2023, an under­tak­ing that we have adhered to since 2009 and which places the Grand Duchy among the coun­tries with the great­est com­mit­ment to assist­ing the most vul­ner­a­ble individuals.

Although we are right to be proud of this accom­plish­ment, it is cer­tain­ly true that there is still a long way to go to achieve the glob­al devel­op­ment goals. Giv­en this sit­u­a­tion, it is essen­tial that we, as a coun­try, con­tin­ue to uphold our inter­na­tion­al respon­si­bil­i­ties. That is why the Lux­em­bourg gov­ern­ment has clear­ly reaf­firmed, in the coali­tion agree­ment, its com­mit­ment to devot­ing 1% of gross nation­al income to offi­cial devel­op­ment assis­tance in the com­ing years.

Final­ly, I would like to take this oppor­tu­ni­ty to thank all those form­ing part of Luxembourg’s Devel­op­ment Coop­er­a­tion, and to express my respect for what they do. It is thanks to their hard work and unstint­ing deter­mi­na­tion that we are able to achieve real and pos­i­tive change through our inter­ven­tions. I look for­ward to our future col­lab­o­ra­tion and am con­vinced that, togeth­er, we will be able to meet the key chal­lenges of the future.