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LuxDev, the Luxembourg Agency for Development Cooperation, is 40 years old!
It has been 40 years since LuxDev, the Luxembourg Agency for Development Cooperation, actively started participating in the implementation of the development cooperation policy of the Luxembourg government. Mainly active in the sectors of education and vocational training, health, renewable energies, agriculture and food security, decentralization and local governance, natural resource management as well as water and sanitation, the Agency is present in 12 countries on four continents.
Working primarily for the Luxembourg Cooperation, the Agency has, thanks to its know-how and experience, evolved and developed over time. In fact, it has gradually gained international renown and has been entrusted with the implementation of cooperation projects and programs by other donors such as, for example, the European Union, Switzerland or Denmark.
But the main evolution of LuxDev, whose mission aims nowadays to contribute to strengthen the capacity of Luxembourg's partner countries in order to allow them take ownership of their own development policies and strategies, lies in changing the way it operates.
This major development has been highlighted recently at the 40th anniversary conference entitled:
When the rhythm of the drums changes, the steps of the dancer also change
LuxDev, or the art of being proactive in a constantly changing environment.
During this event, whose interest and relevance were hailed by all the actors of the cooperation of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg as well as by the partners of the countries in which LuxDev is active, the Agency had brought together speakers from its field staff and eminent representatives of the governments with which it cooperates.
Thus we could hear:
- Dr. Nao Boutta, Director of the Department of Health of Vientiane Province at the beginning of the cooperation between Laos and Luxembourg in 1996, who is currently Director of the Ministry of Health in Laos;
- Peter Heimann, expert in the development of health systems strengthening mechanisms and the implementation of quality improvement programmes with over 20 years of experience in health system development, international assistance and the management of projects and programmes for development assistance;
- Professor Abdelkader Galy, who is affiliated to the Office of the Prime Minister of Niger and coordinator of the support unit for the implementation and monitoring of the sectoral plan for education and training;
- Mrs. Kadidja Oujdi, Senior Technical Advisor of the Education Program (NIG / 023) implemented by LuxDev, a specialist in institutional capacity building and improved management of education systems;
- Mr. Mamour Ousmane Bâ, senior consultant in training class planning who has been a member of the Ministry of Economy, Finance and Planning for 30 years and general coordinator of cooperation between Senegal and Luxembourg over the last decade; and
- Mr. Yann Nachtmann, a member of the Luxembourg Cooperation for 18 years in West Africa and currently Technical Assistant in Senegal in support of capacity building for LuxDev.
Following a speech by Messrs Romain Schneider, Minister for Cooperation and Humanitarian Action and Gaston Schwartz, LuxDev's Managing Director, the speakers discussed successively the evolution of the Agency's modus operandi in the areas of health in Laos and education in Niger, before concluding by highlighting the modalities that allowed the Agency to move from a project approach to national execution in Senegal.
In each of these three cases, the speakers have allowed the public to understand why and how LuxDev has evolved from an approach that consists mainly of implementing development actions under governance, to a modus operandi making the national actors the owners and the first ones responsible for their development.
The evening then ended with a cocktail dinner whose musical entertainment was provided by Aboubakar Traoré, a true prodigy of kamelé n'goni and exceptional singer from Burkina Faso.
