Cabo Verde

Luxembourg has been working in this partner country since 1993 and is now one of the archipelago’s main donors, because since it joined the category of middle-income countries in 2008 most other donors have withdrawn.

As a result of the health crisis, the programmes of the fourth Indicative Cooperation Programme (ICP), which were to close at the end of 2020, were extended for an additional year. The memoranda of understanding for the programmes of the new “Development – Climate – Energy” ICP (DCE ICP, 2021-2025) were signed at the 21st partnership committee meeting, held in January 2022 in Luxembourg in the presence of six ministers from both countries, including Minister Fayot, Carole Dieschbourg (Minister of Environment, Climate and Sustainable Development) and Claude Turmes (Minister of Energy and Spatial Planning). The DCE ICP marks the first opportunity for the implementation of a whole-of-government approach to Luxembourg Development Cooperation, intended to strengthen the impact of public investment in sustainable development. This includes all the Luxembourg actors and sources of financing likely to contribute to it, in order to improve the coherence of development actions and synergies between them. The programmes will be financed by both the Development Cooperation Fund and the Climate and Energy Fund, with a total indicative budget of EUR 80 million.

As part of the response to the COVID-19 pandemic in Luxembourg Development Cooperation’s partner countries and following the needs expressed by the Cabo Verde authorities, Luxembourg supported Cabo Verde through several actions as soon as the pandemic reached the archipelago. In September 2021, 56 000 doses of AstraZeneca/Vaxzevria and 60 000 syringes and needles were donated to Cabo Verde by Luxembourg. Cabo Verde is the first of the seven Luxembourg Development Cooperation partner countries to receive vaccines from Luxembourg. In December 2021, Luxembourg decided to increase the volume of the aid budget for the health sector planned for 2021, thus doubling the contribution from EUR 1 million to EUR 2 million. Within the framework of the DCE ICP, the Grand Duchy undertook to contribute EUR 6 million to the public budget for health over the five-year duration of the DCE ICP.

In 2021, there were five Luxembourgish NGOs working in Cabo Verde, funded by the MFA: Beetebuerg Hëlleft (basic education), ECPAT Luxembourg (gender-based violence), OGBL Solidarité Syndicale (trade union training), Athenée Action Humanitaire (education and promotion of renewable energies), and Guiden an Scouten fir eng Welt (education and vocational training).