Luxembourg, Costa Rica Formalise Development Cooperation Relations

On Monday 17 July 2023, Luxembourg's Minister for Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Affairs, Franz Fayot, signed a Framework Cooperation Agreement with the Government of Costa Rica in Brussels. 

Minister Fayot signed this agreement with Arnoldo André Tinoco, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Worship of Costa Rica. The agreement formalises development cooperation relations between the two countries and determines the framework for the activities and presence of Luxembourg development cooperation in Costa Rica.

Costa Rica will thus serve in particular as a geographical base for the implementation of regional interventions by Luxembourg development cooperation in Central America, activities which will be supplemented by bilateral efforts, particularly in El Salvador and Costa Rica, the Luxembourg Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported.

According to the ministry, the priority areas of Luxembourg's development cooperation programme in Central America are the socio-economic inclusion of women and young people, climate resilience and environmental sustainability, as well as social cohesion, migration and human rights. These areas are supported by two cross-cutting themes, which will guide interventions in the priority areas and facilitate the achievement of their objectives, namely digitalisation, including cybersecurity, as well as inclusive and innovative finance.

Among the support that Luxembourg's development cooperation programme is currently providing at the regional level in Central America is, among other things, the implementation of a regional programme to promote women's entrepreneurship with the Regional Center for the Promotion of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (CENPROMYPE), whose overall objective is to support women entrepreneurs by promoting the genesis of an entrepreneurial spirit and more competitive micro, small and medium-sized enterprises.

Luxembourg also reportedly will continue its support for the Forestry and Climate Change Fund (FCCF), which aims to restore secondary or degraded forest areas and make them economically, ecologically and socially viable, while aiming to guarantee a long-term return for investors. This Luxembourg support to the FCCF is part of a broader project for sustainable forest management, aimed in particular at the development of complementary value chains for local communities and the promotion of youth employment in forest management, social inclusion and digitalisation.

At the end of 2022, Luxembourg's development cooperation programme also launched a pilot project with the Alliance for Financial Inclusion (AFI) in Latin America and the Caribbean, which aims to implement innovative financial inclusion strategies in the region and to promote knowledge sharing in this area, with a focus on digital financial services, inclusive fintech, national plans in inclusive finance, green inclusive finance and gender inclusive finance.

According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, at the level of bilateral cooperation between Costa Rica and Luxembourg, the formulation of projects aimed at supporting the management of migration and the socio-economic inclusion of migrants, South-South and Triangular Cooperation, as well as the digital transformation of the Costa Rica, is ongoing.