DIGITAL FOR DEVELOPMENT (D4D)

The Digital4Development (D4D) con­cept seeks to pro­mote the inte­gra­tion and cap­i­tal­i­sa­tion of dig­i­tal tools by devel­op­ment assis­tance and human­i­tar­i­an action oper­a­tors, both in regard, for exam­ple, to basic social ser­vices, major inno­v­a­tive devel­op­ment projects or as a tool for the for­mal­i­sa­tion and mon­i­tor­ing of devel­op­ment poli­cies. Africa is at the heart of these devel­op­ments and it is wide­ly recog­nised that infor­ma­tion and com­mu­ni­ca­tion tech­nolo­gies (ICTs) will play a vital role for its pop­u­la­tions as they seek to become emerg­ing States.

With­in this con­text, the Direc­torate for Devel­op­ment Coop­er­a­tion and Human­i­tar­i­an Affairs for­mal­ly signed up to the ​‘9 Prin­ci­ples for Dig­i­tal Devel­op­ment’, the result of a con­cert­ed dia­logue among the main dig­i­tal actors in the inter­na­tion­al community.

In 2020, Luxembourg’s Devel­op­ment Coop­er­a­tion made a com­mit­ment to greater mobil­i­sa­tion of inno­v­a­tive part­ner­ships, approach­es and instru­ments in the areas where Lux­em­bourg has a spe­cif­ic com­par­a­tive advan­tage, par­tic­u­lar­ly in the ICT sec­tor. The empha­sis placed on digi­ti­sa­tion with­in Luxembourg’s Devel­op­ment Coop­er­a­tion is, of course, not a new devel­op­ment, but the top­ic has gained fresh impe­tus in recent years. This is in line with the Euro­pean Commission’s wish to make Digital4Development a pri­or­i­ty for inter­na­tion­al part­ner­ships in the com­ing years.

Cur­rent­ly, Luxembourg’s Devel­op­ment Coop­er­a­tion is imple­ment­ing about 40 projects ded­i­cat­ed to the dig­i­tal and ICT sec­tor. The D4D projects tar­get, above all, dig­i­tal finan­cial ser­vices, telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions, telemed­i­cine and cybersecurity.

Among the flag­ship projects of Luxembourg’s Devel­op­ment Coop­er­a­tion in the D4D area is the part­ner­ship with the Uni­ver­si­ty of Luxembourg’s Inter­dis­ci­pli­nary Cen­tre for Secu­ri­ty, Reli­a­bil­i­ty and Trust (SnT), launched on 30 Octo­ber 2020 by Franz Fay­ot, Min­is­ter for Devel­op­ment Coop­er­a­tion and Human­i­tar­i­an Affairs. At the same event, the LuxWays project was launched. Its aim is to train a cohort of West African experts in cyber­se­cu­ri­ty in part­ner­ship with the uni­ver­si­ties of Burk­i­na Faso and Senegal.

In the telemed­i­cine sec­tor, the SATMED plat­form, a tele-health tool devel­oped by SES Tech­Com, and based on the equip­ment, tech­nol­o­gy and con­nec­tiv­i­ty of emer​gency​.lu, con­tin­ued to put in place telemed­i­cine ser­vices and appli­ca­tions (e‑learning, patient data stor­age, online con­sul­ta­tions, etc.) that aim to improve pub­lic health in devel­op­ing coun­tries. The instal­la­tion of SATMED satel­lite anten­nas makes it pos­si­ble to reach com­mu­ni­ties liv­ing in remote areas where access to the inter­net via ter­res­tri­al infra­struc­ture is not avail­able, in order to link them to doc­tors and health insti­tu­tions across the world, through an inno­v­a­tive ICT solution.

In 2020, Lux­em­bourg worked proac­tive­ly with oth­er devel­op­ment part­ners to put in place a Europe-wide D4D Hub, which pro­motes a mul­ti-actor approach by bring­ing togeth­er the pri­vate sec­tor, civ­il soci­ety and acad­e­mia. This Digital4Development plat­form aims to make Europe a world leader in dig­i­tal trans­for­ma­tion, pro­mot­ing a fair and com­pet­i­tive dig­i­tal econ­o­my that puts peo­ple and the prin­ci­ples of human rights at the heart of its actions. On 8 Decem­ber 2020, Ursu­la von der Leyen, Pres­i­dent of the Euro­pean Com­mis­sion, offi­cial­ly launched the D4D Hub in the pres­ence of rep­re­sen­ta­tives of five EU Mem­ber States. At the launch, Prime Min­is­ter Xavier Bet­tel stressed the impor­tance of sup­port­ing the African part­ner coun­tries in their dig­i­tal trans­for­ma­tion with the ulti­mate aim of reduc­ing the dig­i­tal divide and using dig­i­tal inno­va­tions for inclu­sive sus­tain­able devel­op­ment in these countries.