Coherence of development policies

This enables it to con­tribute to the coher­ence of all Luxembourg’s actions in devel­op­ing coun­tries and to eval­u­ate its effec­tive con­tri­bu­tion to sus­tain­able development.

In terms of exter­nal poli­cies in a devel­op­ment coop­er­a­tion con­text, Lux­em­bourg has devel­oped sev­er­al tools to ensure it adopts a coher­ent pol­i­cy in sup­port of sus­tain­able growth with­in the con­text of meet­ing the Sus­tain­able Devel­op­ment Goals (SDGs). The 3D approach (diplo­ma­cy, devel­op­ment and defence) imple­ment­ed in the con­text of Luxembourg’s for­eign pol­i­cy, as well as the gov­ern­men­tal strat­e­gy of tak­ing a prac­ti­cal and holis­tic approach to social, secu­ri­ty, cli­mate and migra­tion issues, as set out in the coali­tion agree­ment, con­sti­tute the main ref­er­ence frame­work for ensur­ing coher­ence between nation­al and for­eign poli­cies. The ​“Devel­op­ment – Cli­mate – Ener­gy” Indica­tive Coop­er­a­tion Pro­gramme (DCE ICP, 2021 – 2025) between Cabo Verde and Lux­em­bourg marks the first oppor­tu­ni­ty for the imple­men­ta­tion of an approach by Luxembourg’s Devel­op­ment Coop­er­a­tion that involves all Lux­em­bourg actors and sources of financ­ing like­ly to be able to con­tribute to the sus­tain­able devel­op­ment of Cabo Verde. Sene­gal, fol­low­ing the exam­ple of Cabo Verde, is the sec­ond Luxembourg’s Devel­op­ment Coop­er­a­tion part­ner coun­try in which a holis­tic approach has been imple­ment­ed: in July 2023, the two coun­tries signed ICP V (2024−2030), which includes the inter­ven­tions of all Lux­em­bourg stake­hold­ers in the ser­vice of Senegal’s sus­tain­able development.

All devel­op­ment coop­er­a­tion actions fea­ture a mul­ti-stake­hold­er approach in order to increase their effec­tive­ness. This approach fos­ters dynam­ic and diverse part­ner­ships with inter­na­tion­al, nation­al and local NGOs and also seeks to pro­mote increased col­lab­o­ra­tion with pri­vate sec­tor and research actors (includ­ing through pub­lic-pri­vate part­ner­ships that can mobilise addi­tion­al resources), in par­tic­u­lar with­in its part­ner coun­tries. The state of progress regard­ing devel­op­ment pol­i­cy coher­ence is also close­ly mon­i­tored by the devel­op­ment Cer­cle des ONGD de Coopéra­tion.

Nation­al­ly, the Inter­min­is­te­r­i­al Com­mit­tee for Devel­op­ment Coop­er­a­tion (ICDC) is respon­si­ble for inter­min­is­te­r­i­al coor­di­na­tion on devel­op­ment coop­er­a­tion and the coher­ence of devel­op­ment poli­cies. The Com­mit­tee meets at least six times a year.

Inter­na­tion­al­ly, as part of its mon­i­tor­ing and review mech­a­nisms, the Unit­ed Nations ​“2030 Agen­da for Sus­tain­able Devel­op­ment” encour­ages Mem­ber States to con­duct reg­u­lar and inclu­sive reviews of progress at nation­al and sub-nation­al lev­els (“Vol­un­tary Nation­al Review/​VNR”). These nation­al reviews serve as the basis for reg­u­lar reviews by the High-Lev­el Polit­i­cal Forum on Sus­tain­able Devel­op­ment (HLPF), con­vened under the aus­pices of the Unit­ed Nations Eco­nom­ic and Social Coun­cil (ECOSOC). Lux­em­bourg has already car­ried out two vol­un­tary nation­al reviews (2017, 2022).

In order to strength­en pol­i­cy coher­ence, Lux­em­bourg is also sup­port­ed by the Organ­i­sa­tion for Eco­nom­ic Co-oper­a­tion and Devel­op­ment (OECD), which makes rec­om­men­da­tions for the adjust­ment of Luxembourg’s mech­a­nisms to make them even more effec­tive and effi­cient. Thus, under the joint aegis of the Direc­torate for Devel­op­ment Coop­er­a­tion and Human­i­tar­i­an Affairs and the Min­istry of the Envi­ron­ment, Cli­mate and Sus­tain­able Devel­op­ment, Lux­em­bourg has under­tak­en, togeth­er with the OECD, an insti­tu­tion­al analy­sis process on pol­i­cy coher­ence for sus­tain­able devel­op­ment. The aim is to strength­en exist­ing insti­tu­tion­al mech­a­nisms for pol­i­cy coher­ence in order to achieve sus­tain­able devel­op­ment objec­tives, both nation­al­ly and inter­na­tion­al­ly. In this con­text, between 2021 and 2023 Lux­em­bourg car­ried out the project enti­tled ​“Strength­en­ing exist­ing insti­tu­tion­al mech­a­nisms and capac­i­ties for pol­i­cy coher­ence in Lux­em­bourg to deliv­er on the SDGs at home and abroad”. Three work­shops were held, in which mem­bers of the Inter­de­part­men­tal Com­mis­sion on Sus­tain­able Devel­op­ment (ICSD) and the ICDC, as well as rep­re­sen­ta­tives of civ­il soci­ety, par­tic­i­pat­ed. These joint inter­ac­tive ses­sions pro­vid­ed an oppor­tu­ni­ty to analyse and dis­cuss the exist­ing mech­a­nisms in Lux­em­bourg in terms of pol­i­cy coher­ence, to share exam­ples of good prac­tice from both Lux­em­bourg and oth­er OECD mem­ber coun­tries and to iden­ti­fy pos­si­ble avenues for build­ing capac­i­ty in this area. The results of the project were pre­sent­ed at a joint ses­sion of ICDC and the ICSD in ear­ly 2023.