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Christopher Lilyblad explained his association's mission in an interview with radio 100,7Pictured: Romain Schneider, minister for development, centre, Christopher Lilyblad, left at the "assises de la coopération on 13 September.Picture credit: MFA Luxembourg on Twitter 

Mick Entringer explained on Wednesday 13 September that €300 million, 2% of the state budget, was set aside for development aid in Luxembourg.

The cercle de cooperation has around 80 private NGO members, from multinational NGOs who have a branch in Luxembourg, to small initiatives which act locally and sporadically. He said it’s not a hierarchical organisation, and that it helps members to get involved in the framework of the objectives on sustainability and other initiatives, to exchange models of good practice, and to provide information.

He denied that there were tensions within the association, and instead pointed out that there was exchange of information and ideas.

Lilyblad said that the professionalisation of the sector was subject to debate. Many small NGOs need volunteers, who do not necessarily have much training, but who learned through hands-on experience. Sometimes it is hard to fulfil the increasingly strict criteria, especially on the European level. There are numerous rules and regulations that NGOs need to respect when they do a project, and he said that this is “where we can help”.

Mick Entringer, journalist at 100,7, explained that NGOs can get their projects subsidised to up to 80% by the state. The government announced last year that NGOs can only get these subsidies if they are taking place in one of the government’s designated target countries. If the project is not in a target country, there are other subsidy rates.

Lilyblad explained that the new rates of subsidies have been defined but not implemented because the law has not been voted on yet.

NGOs had already incorporated the new rates in their planning, so this posed a few administrative problems for NGOs as they need certainty for planning. Lilyblad underlined the very good relations with the ministry and department of development, and said they collaborated in working groups.

Lilyblad said:

“In Luxembourg, we are lucky that development aid plays a big role in our society. We are aware that development cooperation is nothing else than the means we give ourselves to shape the world in the way we would like it to be in 15 or 30 years.”

He added that they have a programme through which volunteers can go abroad, and welcome anyone who wants to get involved in any way.

Fair politics

Entringer then went on to ask Lilyblad about the report FALC, written in 2009, which analysed the impact of Luxembourg’s financial sector on poverty in developing countries. The cercle de cooperation was criticised because it withdrew it under political pressure.

She asked: “Is the coherence between financial policy and development policy not a subject anymore?”

Lilyblad replied that it was a big subject for them, but that they were not out to confront, but to provide constructive criticism.

He announced that his association would publish a “fair politics barometer” in a few months, and this would bring the subject of coherent policies back to the front.