SOUTH-EAST ASIA

The MRC’s man­date is to ensure that the riv­er and nat­ur­al resources are prop­er­ly man­aged, to pro­vide a favourable eco­nom­ic envi­ron­ment and social­ly just devel­op­ment, while pro­tect­ing the environment.

Lux­em­bourg, in coop­er­a­tion with Switzer­land and Ger­many, has also con­tin­ued to imple­ment the third phase of the Mekong Region Land Gov­er­nance (MRLG) sub­re­gion­al project. Through sup­port for the devel­op­ment of laws and legal reme­dies, the project aims to enable small-scale farm­ers, espe­cial­ly those from eth­nic minori­ties, to have sus­tain­able and equi­table access to and con­trol over their agri­cul­tur­al and for­est lands. The project thus con­tributes to improved poli­cies and prac­tices imple­ment­ed in Laos, Cam­bo­dia, Myan­mar and Viet­nam, sup­port­ed by region­al platforms.

In 2013, Luxembourg’s Devel­op­ment Coop­er­a­tion co-found­ed the Uni­verse Health Cov­er­age Part­ner­ship (UHC‑P), and is one of the nine donors to the body.

Its sec­re­tari­at is host­ed by the World Health Orga­ni­za­tion (WHO). UHC‑P’s aim is to sup­port ben­e­fi­cia­ry coun­tries to achieve uni­ver­sal health cov­er­age, i.e. access to high-qual­i­ty health ser­vices that are afford­able for all.

Since 2017, Lux­em­bourg has sup­port­ed the pro­mo­tion of inclu­sive finance. Thus, through the Respon­si­ble Inclu­sive Finance Facil­i­ty (RIFF-SEA), the Social Per­for­mance Task Force (SPTF) con­tin­ues to sup­port micro­fi­nance insti­tu­tions in Laos, Cam­bo­dia, Indone­sia, the Philip­pines and Viet­nam in man­ag­ing their social and envi­ron­men­tal per­for­mance. RIFF-SEA offers co-financ­ing and train­ing in social per­for­mance man­age­ment, with the aim of rais­ing aware­ness among reg­u­la­tors, investors and micro­fi­nance insti­tu­tions to ensure that finan­cial ser­vices in the region pro­tect and ben­e­fit low-income clients.

In Myan­mar, in view of the ongo­ing polit­i­cal cri­sis, sup­port for mul­ti­lat­er­al human­i­tar­i­an projects con­tin­ued in 2023. Thus, Luxembourg’s Devel­op­ment Coop­er­a­tion is assist­ing the Office of the Unit­ed Nations High Com­mis­sion­er for Human Rights to sup­port Myanmar’s civ­il soci­ety in pre­vent­ing human rights vio­la­tions and strength­en­ing account­abil­i­ty measures.

Lux­em­bourg is also posi­tion­ing itself as a key part­ner in the ​“Build­ing Fed­er­al Democ­ra­cy in Myan­mar” pro­gramme (2023 – 2024), which seeks to estab­lish a new con­sti­tu­tion­al frame­work in Myan­mar, by estab­lish­ing effec­tive and account­able insti­tu­tions and by pro­mot­ing inclu­sive and par­tic­i­pa­to­ry gov­er­nance at all lev­els. Since 1 Decem­ber 2023, Lux­em­bourg has held the annu­al Pres­i­den­cy of Inter­na­tion­al IDEA’s Coun­cil of Mem­ber States.