Digital for Development (D4D)

The Dig­i­tal for Devel­op­ment (D4D) con­cept seeks to pro­mote the inte­gra­tion of dig­i­tal tools by those work­ing in devel­op­ment assis­tance and human­i­tar­i­an action, whether in regard, for exam­ple, to basic social ser­vices, major inno­v­a­tive devel­op­ment projects or as a tool for the for­mal­i­sa­tion and mon­i­tor­ing of devel­op­ment poli­cies. The Direc­torate for Devel­op­ment Coop­er­a­tion and Human­i­tar­i­an Affairs thus aims to sup­port part­ner coun­tries in their inclu­sive, green, human-cen­tric and trust­wor­thy dig­i­tal trans­for­ma­tion, to con­tribute to their sus­tain­able devel­op­ment. To that end, the Lux­em­bourg Devel­op­ment Coop­er­a­tion has con­tin­ued its com­mit­ment to fur­ther mobilise inno­v­a­tive part­ner­ships, approach­es and instru­ments in areas where Lux­em­bourg has exper­tise at nation­al lev­el, par­tic­u­lar­ly in the sec­tor of dig­i­tal finan­cial ser­vices, ICT, telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions and cybersecurity.

The Direc­torate for Devel­op­ment Coop­er­a­tion and Human­i­tar­i­an Affairs, togeth­er with LuxDev, imple­ments a num­ber of projects in the fields of e‑education, e‑government, e‑agriculture and e‑health. Those areas cor­re­spond to the Lux­em­bourg Devel­op­ment Coop­er­a­tion main areas of inter­ven­tion in the D4D sec­tor. The SATMED project, led by SES and the Lux­em­bourg Devel­op­ment Coop­er­a­tion, is an exam­ple of how Lux­em­bourg exper­tise can be used in devel­op­ing coun­tries: SATMED is an open telemed­i­cine plat­form. Serv­ing non-gov­ern­men­tal organ­i­sa­tions, hos­pi­tals, uni­ver­si­ties of med­i­cine and oth­er health­care providers active in resource-poor regions, it pro­vides free online health ser­vices. Its tools can be used to sup­port projects in areas such as e‑care, e‑learning, e‑surveillance, e‑health man­age­ment and e‑health financing.

In 2022, the Lux­em­bourg Devel­op­ment Coop­er­a­tion con­tin­ued its com­mit­ment to the Euro­pean Commission’s Dig­i­tal for Devel­op­ment (D4D) Hub net­work, of which it has been a found­ing mem­ber since it was launched in Decem­ber 2020. The D4D Hub aligns the Euro­pean Union’s (EU) dig­i­tal ini­tia­tives in order to increase their impact. This strate­gic mul­ti-stake­hold­er plat­form pro­motes new inter­na­tion­al part­ner­ships in the field of dig­i­tal trans­for­ma­tion between the EU and part­ner coun­tries, par­tic­u­lar­ly in Africa. The shared aim is a human-cen­tric approach to dig­i­tal trans­for­ma­tion: facil­i­tat­ing mul­ti-stake­hold­er part­ner­ships, shar­ing dig­i­tal exper­tise and encour­ag­ing invest­ments from var­i­ous Euro­pean and glob­al part­ners. In this con­text, the Lux­em­bourg Devel­op­ment Coop­er­a­tion is active­ly con­tribut­ing to activ­i­ties with­in the Africa branch as well as to the cyber­space work­ing group, which Lux­em­bourg co-chairs togeth­er with the Euro­pean Commission.

In this con­text, Lux­em­bourg has also con­tin­ued its com­mit­ment with­in the African Union — Euro­pean Union (AU-EU) D4D Hub. Imple­ment­ed by five Euro­pean devel­op­ment agen­cies, includ­ing LuxDev, and with EUR8 mil­lion under Euro­pean fund­ing, this project aims to help bridge the dig­i­tal divide, includ­ing the gen­der divide, and to use dig­i­tal inno­va­tions for sus­tain­able and inclu­sive devel­op­ment in Africa. The AU-EUD4D Hub also ben­e­fits the Lux­em­bourg Devel­op­ment Coop­er­a­tion part­ner coun­tries, in 
par­tic­u­lar Niger, thus con­sti­tut­ing an excel­lent exam­ple of how Lux­em­bourg can ben­e­fit from the Euro­pean or inter­na­tion­al net­work in the frame­work of its activities.

Togeth­er with its nation­al part­ners such as the Lux­em­bourg House of Cyber­se­cu­ri­ty (LHC), Lux­em­bourg con­tin­ued its com­mit­ment in 2022 to the Glob­al Forum on Cyber Exper­tise (GFCE), which it joined in 2021. The pur­pose of this mul­ti-stake­hold­er plat­form is to build capac­i­ty and exper­tise in cyber­se­cu­ri­ty. The Forum has more than 115 mem­bers and part­ners, includ­ing gov­ern­ments, inter­na­tion­al organ­i­sa­tions and oth­er civ­il soci­ety and pri­vate-sec­tor oper­a­tors, as well as the aca­d­e­m­ic com­mu­ni­ty. Its aim is to strength­en glob­al cyber­se­cu­ri­ty capa­bil­i­ties through knowl­edge-shar­ing, includ­ing through work­ing groups, a cyber knowl­edge por­tal and its func­tion as an infor­ma­tion exchange cen­tre, as well as through prac­ti­cal ini­tia­tives. The GFCE aims to be a prag­mat­ic, action-ori­ent­ed and flex­i­ble plat­form for inter­na­tion­al collaboration.

The Lux­em­bourg Devel­op­ment Cooperation’s D4D projects focus pri­mar­i­ly on the mod­erni­sa­tion of pub­lic admin­is­tra­tion, dig­i­tal finan­cial ser­vices, telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions, telemed­i­cine and cyber­se­cu­ri­ty. With regard to cyber­se­cu­ri­ty, the open­ing of a del­e­ga­tion for cyber­space by the Inter­na­tion­al Com­mit­tee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Lux­em­bourg in Novem­ber 2022 is a sig­nif­i­cant step. Efforts to imple­ment these areas in a cross-cut­ting man­ner in bilat­er­al pro­grammes will con­tin­ue beyond 2022.