Climate change and environmental degradation exacerbate gender inequality and aggravate socio-economic risks. In 2021, Luxembourg developed co-operation strategies for the systematic integration of environmental, climate and gender equality considerations throughout its co-operation efforts. Thanks to this approach, bilateral commitments addressing these three dimensions simultaneously increased from 6.5% in 2021 to 9.2% in 2023.
Luxembourg's leadership in the gender, environment and climate nexus
Abstract
Climate change and environmental degradation have a multiplier effect that exacerbates gender inequalities and aggravate socio-economic risks, placing certain groups of people in contexts of heightened vulnerability. These challenges have a disproportionate impact on women and girls, not least because of structural gender inequalities, limiting their access to natural resources, their participation in decision-making processes and their livelihoods, particularly in rural areas. Faced with this reality, Luxembourg adopts an integrated approach that systematically takes account of these cross-cutting issues. In particular, it seeks to analyse how different groups and individuals of all kinds suffer the consequences of natural disasters or climate change, to facilitate their capacity to adapt and their role as agents of change.
In 2020-21, Luxembourg developed co-operation strategies in the areas of environment, climate change and gender equality. These were presented to parliament and partners as new guiding principles for Luxembourg's development co-operation. In developing these strategies, Luxembourg's development co-operation encouraged different partners to reflect on common indicators to monitor implementation, thus facilitating the inclusion of the gender, environment and climate nexus in the strategic objectives of development co-operation at both political and institutional levels. This nexus is now reflected by a twin-track approach to systematically consider these cross-cutting issues throughout Luxembourg’s development co-operation portfolio and to design new activities focused on the gender, environment, climate nexus.
Luxembourg has developed tools to address the nexus between gender equality, the environment and climate change, including:
Operational guidelines on gender, environment, and climate for programming, with a list of recommendations to better integrate these across sectors.
Guidance for non-governmental development organisations (NGOs) on the systematic integration of the gender, environment and climate nexus. It proposes, for example, key questions on gender, environment and climate change around the four stages of the project cycle: identification, formulation, implementation, monitoring and evaluation.
Sector factsheets on the nexus in English and in French for areas such as health, education and vocational training, and water and sanitation, with more to come.
A guide to the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) markers, which help to measure the contribution of development co-operation activities to various cross-cutting themes. It presents the OECD/DAC policy markers, focusing on the Rio markers and the markers for environmental aid and gender equality.
Increase in commitments: the proportion of bilateral official development assistance commitments that integrate gender equality, environment and climate change simultaneously rose from 6.5% in 2021 to 14.4% in 2022 to 9.2% in 2023, according to data provided by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Figure 1).
Impact studies of environmental and climate risks on vulnerable groups: as part of the climate action programme in Cabo Verde, a series of studies examine the risks faced by vulnerable groups and propose a targeted adaptation plan for them. For example, a vulnerability study for the implementation of the adaptation plan for the health sector was conducted in five pilot municipalities where households are run by women (the majority of men having emigrated). These analyses are among the positive factors recognised in the gender analysis of the nationally determined contribution of Cabo Verde for 2021 and allow the country to better design health interventions to support these populations.
Note: Circles are not drawn to scale. “Climate” refers to climate change adaptation and/or climate change mitigation. Volumes represent activities where gender equality, environment and/or climate change are principal or significant objectives.
Source: OECD (2024), Data Explorer, Creditor Reporting System (database), https://oe.cd/dx/5RG.
A number of factors have enabled this approach to be successfully adopted to date, including:
Flexible co-operation and being intentional about addressing cross-cutting issues collectively. The nexus approach is a logical approach for a country like Luxembourg, whose small size and the flexibility of its development co-operation programme and humanitarian assistance mean that it is keen to identify synergies. However, the lack of specialised staff is a risk for the future of the initiative.
Ongoing awareness-raising at the global policy level and in partner countries. Luxembourg knows how to make its voice heard to promote the gender, environment and climate nexus with other members of the OECD's Development Assistance Committee and within the various committees of multilateral bodies. This nexus is a priority issue in Luxembourg's bilateral co-operation, for example with Cabo Verde and Rwanda, which benefit from additional resources from the Climate and Energy Fund, which is additional to the Official development assistance (ODA) and outside the development co-operation budget.
Practical training for stakeholders. In November 2023, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs organised a mandatory workshop for its employees to take stock of the implementation of the environment, climate change and gender strategies, present the tools and discuss recommendations relevant to each department. A workshop for development NGOs with gender and climate experts from Luxembourg's bilateral development cooperation agency (LuxDev) took place in June 2024. In the future, the plan is to set up a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC), so that all new partners of Luxembourg's cooperation can be trained on cross-cutting priorities.
OECD (2024), Self-evaluation of Luxembourg, https://one.oecd.org/official-document/DCD/DAC/AR(2024)1/13/en.
Luxembourg Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs (2023), Gender and Environment/Climate Nexus, Directorate for Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Affairs, https://cooperation.gouvernement.lu/dam-assets/cooperation-au-developpement/thmatiques-transversales/gender-environment-nexus/gender-and-environnement-climate-nexus-en.pdf.
Luxembourg Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs (2023), Guide sur le marquage CAD/OCDE - outil pour l'intégration systématique du nexus genre et environnement/climat, Directorate for Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Affairs, https://cooperation.gouvernement.lu/dam-assets/cooperation-au-developpement/thmatiques-transversales/cad/marquage-cad-ocde-fr.pdf.
Luxembourg Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs (2023), Guide/Manual for NGDOs: tool for the systematic integration of the gender and environment/climate nexus, Directorate for Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Affairs, https://cooperation.gouvernement.lu/dam-assets/cooperation-au-developpement/thmatiques-transversales/ngdo/2023-manual-for-ngdo-en.pdf.
OECD (2025), OECD Development Co-operation Peer Reviews: Luxembourg 2025, OECD Development Co-operation Peer Reviews, OECD Publishing, Paris, (forthcoming).
OCDE (2024), Data explorer, Creditor Reporting System (database), https://data-explorer.oecd.org/?pg=0&bp=true&snb=19&lc=en&fs[0]=Topic%2C1%7CDevelopment%23DEV%23%7COfficial%20Development%20Assistance%20%28ODA%29%23DEV_ODA%23&fc=Topic.
OECD (2023), "The Gender Equality and Environment Intersection: An overview of development co-operation frameworks and financing", OECD Development Perspectives, No. 38, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/c16d8fe8-en.
OECD (2022), Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women and Girls: DAC Guidance for Development Partners, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/0bddfa8f-en.
To learn more about Luxembourg's development co-operation, see:
OECD, "Luxembourg", in Development Co-operation Profiles, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/87b15adf-en.
See more In Practice examples from Luxembourg here: https://www.oecd.org/development-cooperation-learning?tag-key+partner=luxembourg#search.
