Luxembourg Presents 2023 Humanitarian Initiatives on World Humanitarian Day

On Saturday 19 August 2023, at a press conference on World Humanitarian Day, Luxembourg Minister for Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Affairs, Franz Fayot, gave an update on the activities of the Luxembourg Humanitarian Action carried out so far in 2023.

Minister Fayot’s update focused in particular on the perspectives and priorities in the humanitarian field concerning his chairmanship of the Donor Support Group of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA DSG), which he has assumed since July 2023 and until the end of June 2024. The Minister announced an additional contribution of €250,000 in favour of OCHA, one of the long-standing humanitarian partners of Luxembourg Humanitarian Action, bringing Luxembourg's total contribution to €10.4 million for the year 2023.

Humanitarian needs continue to grow worldwide, reaching unprecedented levels, the Luxembourg Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs noted. According to OCHA, at the end of 2022, the number of people in need of humanitarian assistance was 349 million. By the end of July 2023, that figure had risen to 363 million, meaning that one in every 22 people in the world needed help – a new record. The climate crisis, the global rise in food prices, as well as the war in Ukraine exacerbate the situation.

As Russian aggression continued in Ukraine, Luxembourg continued in 2023 its humanitarian support to Ukraine, which it has been providing since the start of the war in February 2022. Since the beginning of the war, Luxembourg's humanitarian contribution to Ukraine amounts to a total of €12 million and was notably provided through non-profit organisations, the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, as well as a number of UN agencies.

Financial support to Ukraine was complemented by in-kind contributions worth €9.8 million, including medical equipment, medicine, generators and materials to provide connectivity services. Minister Fayot also announced that the Directorate for Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Action will make available to Ukraine a donation of 100 electric generators worth €300,000, to be delivered at the beginning of September 2023 by the European Civil Protection Mechanism in close collaboration with the Luxembourg Ministry of Home Affairs and the Grand-Ducal Fire and Rescue Corps (CGDIS).

In February 2023, in response to the earthquakes that struck Turkey and Syria, Luxembourg provided humanitarian support to the affected populations through a financial contribution of €2.9 million, through donations in kind to Turkey, as well as through the deployment of devices from the emergency.lu mobile satellite telecommunications platform and CGDIS Humanitarian Intervention Team members.

The Sahel remains one of the main areas of intervention for Luxembourg Humanitarian Action. In 2023, Luxembourg has so far provided humanitarian assistance of nearly €6 million to Burkina Faso, Niger and Mali, with a planned minimum increase to €10 million minimum by the end of the year.

Overall, in 2023, Luxembourg Humanitarian Action has so far provided humanitarian assistance in 27 countries, including countries experiencing persistent humanitarian crises often described as "forgotten". Thus, in 2023 alone, Luxembourg has already participated in around ten conferences for humanitarian assistance contributions relating to humanitarian situations operating in Yemen, Afghanistan, the Sahel and Lake Chad, Pakistan, the Horn of Africa , Ukraine, Sudan, Syria, Venezuela and the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT). In total, the announcements made within the framework of these conferences amount to €14 million.

According to the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs, Luxembourg continues to strive to focus on innovation, digitalisation and research at the service of the humanitarian community. Following the inauguration of the first delegation of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) for cyberspace in Luxembourg in November 2022, in 2023 Humanitarian Innovation Accelerator (HIA) Pitch Event took place in Luxembourg at the end of June. Sixteen international organisations presented their innovative projects from the fields of space technology, data science and artificial intelligence, health technology, supply chain and logistics. At this stage, all the projects are in the selection phase, the winning projects of which will be known at the beginning of October.

In line with its new humanitarian strategy presented in 2022, which set the objective of devoting at least 15% of Official Development Assistance (ODA) to humanitarian purposes, Luxembourg has devoted a total of more than €87 million for humanitarian purposes, i.e. 17.39% of ODA, in 2022. According to the recent Global Humanitarian Assistance Report, Luxembourg is at the top of the list of the largest donors of humanitarian aid per inhabitant, behind Turkey, which also includes in its report the expenses related to the care of Syrian refugees on its territory.

The press conference also allowed Franz Fayot, together with Anja Nitzsche, OCHA Chief of Partnerships and Resource Mobilization Branch, to present the partnership between Luxembourg and OCHA as well as Luxembourg's priorities for its presidency of OCHA.

As Chair of the OCHA DSG, Luxembourg aims to support OCHA's efforts towards a more affected-centred and context-specific humanitarian system, as well as a more efficient and less bureaucratic system. The Luxembourg Presidency will also focus on OCHA's role in relation to the humanitarian system's response to internally displaced persons, as well as emerging risks and challenges related to the use of data in the field of humanitarian aid.

On the occasion of this day, Esther Leick, Director of Communication and Fundraising at Médecins Sans Frontières Luxembourg also highlighted the necessity for humanitarian action recalling "how much humanitarian aid actors, such as MSF, are more essential than ever to the lives of thousands of people.” Notably, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) teams are recording a worrying increase in cases of measles and malnutrition in the organisation's structures in South Sudan, in particular among returnees fleeing the Sudanese conflict and host communities. MSF medical facilities in Upper Nile, Unity, Northern Bahr El Ghazal and Warrap states receive patients, especially children under five, suffering from measles and other serious conditions. During the first half of 2023, the number of measles patients seen in MSF-supported structures almost tripled, to nearly 4,000, compared to the whole of 2022. Given the impact of nearly nine years of conflict and economic hardship plaguing the country, this issue is probably only “the tip of the iceberg,” the organisation noted.