Humanitarian Action

In 2023, the Directorate for Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Affairs allocated a total budget of EUR 99.78 million to humanitarian interventions.

Luxembourg has maintained its commitment to major humanitarian crises around the world.

In 2023, Luxembourg allocated a total of EUR 6.49 million for humanitarian protection and emergency humanitarian aid projects in the OPT, including EUR 3.25 million in support of the humanitarian response in the Gaza Strip and the region following the war triggered by the Hamas terrorist attacks in Israel on 7 October 2023.

Following the earthquakes of 6 February 2023 in Turkey and Sweden, at the request of OCHA and within the framework of the International Humanitarian Partnership (IHP), several members of the Humanitarian Intervention Team (HIT) of the Grand Ducal Fire and Rescue Corps (CGDIS), including an information and communication technology expert and a logistics support expert, left for the area affected by the earthquake.

In the context of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, in 2023 Luxembourg supported the humanitarian operations of its various partners with financial and in-kind aid totalling around EUR 6 million.

In 2023, food and agri-food systems continued to experience disruptions.

In June 2023, Luxembourg took over the chairmanship of the OCHA Donor Support Group (ODSG) from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

In view of the constantly increasing humanitarian needs globally, Luxembourg, in close collaboration with the WFP and the Austrian development agency, has decided to promote innovative solutions in the fields of artificial intelligence, space, healthtech, the supply chain, logistics and data science that can help tackle current humanitarian challenges.

Luxembourg was represented by Xavier Bettel, Minister for Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Affairs, at the second Global Refugee Forum (GRF) organised by the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) from 13 to 15 December 2023.

Luxembourg increased its commitment to Luxembourgish and international humanitarian NGOs in 2023.

A little more than a year after the inauguration of the Delegation for Cyberspace at the end of 2022, on 19 September 2023, as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Summit was taking place in New York, the Minister for Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Affairs met Mirjana Spoljaric Egger, President of the ICRC, for a bilateral exchange that helped to move the ICRC Delegation for Cyberspace in Luxembourg towards being a “Global Cyber Operational Hub”, strengthening the potential and scope of this pioneering initiative.

In 2023, Luxembourg’s humanitarian action department continued to provide telecommunication services in support of humanitarian organisations in the Central African Republic, Nigeria, Niger, Chad, Tonga, in Venezuela and Syria, at the request of the WFP, the Emergency Telecommunications Cluster (ETC), UNHCR and UNICEF.

In 2023, the Ministry welcomed 159 participants from 24 different humanitarian organisations for eight training courses held in the Grand Duchy.