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Fair trade is on the way up. Last year, Belgians spent 14.30 euros on average on fair trade products: a nice improvement four years in a row. At the political level as well, fair trade and the ‘Make Belgium a Fair Trade Country by 2020’ receive a boost. This morning, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Development Cooperation Alexander De Croo kicked off the sixteenth Fair Trade Week in Aalst with a visit to JBC, which promotes fairer clothing.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Development Cooperation Alexander De Croo received today representatives of the National Episcopal Conference of Congo (CENCO), among whom Mgr. Marcel Utembi, Archbishop of Kisangani and President of the CENCO.

Today, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Development Cooperation Alexander De Croo received the First Lady of Benin Claudine Tallon. Mrs Tallon is on a working visit to our country this week in the framework of her Claudine Tallon Foundation, which aims to improve women’s and children’s rights in Benin. Last week, Belgium, Benin and Senegal organised a high-level event at the United Nations in New York on the use of digital data for better access to family planning.

Deputy Prime Minister Alexander De Croo presents today in New York , at the United Nations, MolenGeek to the rest of the world. MolenGeek is a Molenbeek tech incubator that focuses on young people. They can enhance their digital skills, learn coding and strengthen their digital entrepreneurship. "It's a great example of how to prepare vulnerable youngsters to make up their way in the digital economy."

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Development Cooperation Alexander De Croo announced that Belgium will cooperate with its partner countries, Benin and Senegal, to improve access to family planning services through the use of big data and satellite imagery. Belgian data company Bluesquare and the universities of Brussels and Namur will also participate. Today, Belgium, Benin and Senegal jointly present the partnership at the United Nations in New York.

At the initiative of Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Development Cooperation Alexander De Croo, our country allocates an additional 6 million euros to the alarming humanitarian situation in the DRC. The Minister makes this announcement today in New York, at the occasion of a meeting with the UN Special Envoy for the Great Lakes Region Said Djinnit and with UN humanitarian coordinator Mark Lowcock. 

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Development Cooperation Alexander De Croo announced in New York that Belgium will double its investment in humanitarian innovation next year. The Minister was speaking at New York University in front of a thousand-strong audience at Global Citizen Live!, a musical event with performances by Paul Simon and others.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Development Cooperation Alexander De Croo makes ten million euro available over the next four years for innovative agricultural research conducted by the ‘Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR)’, a worldwide network of research centers contributing to enhanced productivity, food security and sustainability in the agriculture. The funding will support, among others, the further development of the banana genebank of the…

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) issued formally today, with the support of Belgium, the very first Humanitarian Impact Bond. Belgium is, together with the ICRC, the groundbreaker of this new financing mechanism which will be rolled out to build three physical rehabilitation centers in conflict zones.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Didier Reynders and Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Development Cooperation Alexander De Croo condemn the demolition by Israeli authorities of a school in Area C of the occupied Palestinian territory, in Jubbet Ad-Dib, near Bethlehem, which had been financed by various international donors, including Belgium.