Cabo Verde

There have been about 15 high-level visits, including the visit to Cabo Verde by His Royal Highness Grand Duke Henri, in March 2015. 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main donors, because since it joined the category of middle-income countries in 2008 most other donors have withdrawn.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 for the Environment, Climate and Sustainable Development) and Claude Turmes (Minister for Energy and Spatial Planning). The DCE ICP marks the first opportunity for the implementation of a whole-of-government approach to the 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 both by the Development Cooperation Fund and the Climate and Energy Fund, with a total indicative budget of EUR 84 million.

In 2022, the National Statistics Institute of Cabo Verde (INE) began preparing for the implementation of the fourth national survey on household revenue and expenditure, which will be co-financed by the government of Cabo Verde in collaboration with the World Bank, the United Nations and the Luxembourg Development Cooperation. The updated data collected will be used to improve poverty reduction policies, such as social protection. The survey will also provide important data for monitoring the DCE ICP. The Luxembourg Development Cooperation also decided in 2022 to support the creation of this system in order to enable employees of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Regional Cooperation and Integration (MNECIR) to have all the tools required for carrying out their daily tasks available in a single environment. While the direct beneficiaries of the project are mainly MNECIR workers, international development partners and civil society organisations also benefit from this new system.

In 2022, 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).