Minister Fayot Confirms Luxembourg to Fund €1m Food Security Project in Ukraine

On Friday 8 September 2023, Luxembourg's Minister for Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Affairs, Franz Fayot, travelled to Ukraine, as part of efforts to identify avenues to strengthen and adapt the Grand Duchy's support to Ukraine's needs in terms of reconstruction and humanitarian support.

In Kyiv, Minister Fayot met with Ukraine's First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy, Yuliia Svrydenko, the Deputy Prime Minister for Restoration of Ukraine and Minister of Infrastructure, Oleksandr Kubrakov, as well as the Minister of Finance, Serhiy Marchenko, for bilateral exchanges. During these three meetings, the ministers discussed the needs and priorities of the Ukrainian government.

Minister Fayot emphasised Luxembourg's firm desire to support Ukraine in its reconstruction process, in addition to offering humanitarian aid, and noted that the Grand Duchy had recently intensified its efforts in this direction. He noted that Luxembourg was set to finance a new €1 million project from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO); this project aims to rebuild shelters for livestock and preserve agricultural production in Ukraine. He also announced that Luxembourg would make an additional contribution to the HALO Trust humanitarian NGO, which is committed to clearing areas of mines and/or unexploded ordnance to ensure the safe return of displaced populations. This support is in addition to humanitarian financial contributions amounting to approximately €11.4 million and in-kind donations worth approximately €10 million, which Luxembourg has provided to Ukraine since the beginning of the war in February 2022.

Also on the agenda of the meetings with Ministers Svyrydenko and Marchenko was the importance of supporting small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in order to stimulate the Ukrainian economy. In this regard, Minister Fayot indicated that Luxembourg's development cooperation programme was currently studying different support possibilities, among others in partnership with the European Investment Bank (EIB). Discussions during the meeting between Ministers Fayot and Kubrakov focused in particular on the region and the specific sectors that Luxembourg could support in terms of reconstruction.

In addition to his meetings with the three Ukrainian ministers, Minister Fayot met with the committee for economic development of the "Verkhovna Rada", the parliament of Ukraine, during which he highlighted Luxembourg's resolute commitment to the Ukrainian people.

The trip was also an opportunity for Minister Fayot to meet representatives of several humanitarian partners active in Ukraine, namely the Luxembourg Red Cross, the Ukrainian Red Cross, Caritas Luxembourg, Caritas-Spes, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. A field visit to the village Myla provided Minister Fayot with an overview of the mine clearance activities of the HALO Trust, which has received support from Luxembourg's development cooperation programme since 2022.

Demining activities of the HALO Trust NGO (Credit: MAEE)