Interministerial commitee for development cooperation

The law also asks the government to submit an annual report to the Chamber of Deputies on the work of the Committee, including the issue of the coherence of development policies. The Grand Ducal Regulation of 7 August 2012 lays down the make-up and mode of operation of the Interministerial Committee for Development Cooperation.

In 2021, the ICDC met six times. The meetings were chaired by the Director for Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Affairs. In addition to the routine updating on the flagship activities of Luxembourg Development Cooperation at each meeting, including, in particular, the reorientations of projects and programmes as a result of the pandemic, the work of the ICDC placed special emphasis on policy coherence.

As in the previous year, a joint meeting between the ICDC and the Interdepartmental Commission on Sustainable Development (ICSD) was held. The joint session was facilitated by two experts from the OECD who presented the “Strengthening existing institutional mechanisms and capacities for policy coherence in Luxembourg” project. Over a 24-month period this project will make it possible to work on the following aims: (a) strengthening Luxembourg government capacities to identify synergies, manage policy trade-offs and avoid negative spillovers when implementing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and (b) improving understanding among policy makers and key stakeholders on how to apply policy coherence and integrated policy-making in practice to achieve the SDGs in Luxembourg and abroad. This work continued in 2021 and included the workshop held on 26 March 2021, which was part of the second phase of the project aimed at facilitating a self-assessment of existing institutional mechanisms for policy coherence for sustainable development (PCSD), developing an understanding of its implementation, the roles of each in the process and how to put the mechanisms into practice. The results of the discussions at this second workshop will in turn inform a review of the policy-making processes and the various tools related to PCSD in achieving the SDGs in Luxembourg and beyond, which will be produced following the project’s second phase.

One of the meetings of the ICDC also presented the two new strategies on gender and environment/climate. The main challenges that these strategies address are preventing the threats that climate change and gender inequalities pose to the healthy development of Luxembourg Development Cooperation’s partners. The benefits of gender equality are many and varied. It is a key element of sustainable development, playing an important role in reducing poverty significantly. Increased gender equality will lead to better collective health and education, with a view to building more adaptive communities. However, the fact is that gender-based violence is increasing. In part, this can be explained by the fact that we are currently experiencing a period of crisis related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Other meetings of the ICDC have also provided an update on the international climate strategy (presented by the Ministry of the Environment, Climate and Sustainable Development), and have presented the ongoing work on formulating a sectoral strategy on inclusive finance and the private sector for development. In addition, the new partnership agreements with international agencies have been presented.

Representatives of the NGDOs’ Cercle were invited to the ICDC’s meetings for all discussions on policy coherence, and one of the meetings was facilitated by the Cercle. At this meeting there was a presentation of the role of CONCORD, and an analysis of the data from the AidWatch 2021 initiative. The reports of these meetings are public and can be found on the website of the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs.