OECD Development Co-operation Peer Reviews: Sweden 2019
The OECD's Development Assistance Committee (DAC) conducts periodic reviews of the individual development co-operation efforts of DAC members. The policies and programmes of each DAC member are critically examined approximately once every five years. DAC peer reviews assess the performance of a given member, not just that of its development co-operation agency, and examine both policy and implementation. They take an integrated, system-wide perspective on the development co-operation and humanitarian assistance activities of the member under review.
This review commends Sweden for its consistently generous levels of official development assistance and its global development leadership on peace and conflict prevention, environmental sustainability and gender equality. It also welcomes Sweden’s strong focus on and comprehensive toolbox for leaving no one behind. The review suggests that Sweden could benefit from consolidating its development co-operation policy framework and further enhancing the connections between its country, regional and thematic co-operation strategies.
Sweden’s delivery modalities and partnerships
This chapter reviews Sweden’s approach to delivering in partner countries and through partnerships to determine whether its approach is in line with the principles of effective development co-operation. Sweden is a highly-valued partner who bases its relationships on dialogue, flexibility and trust, and supports donor co-ordination. It favours long-term partnerships with multilateral organisations and civil society organisations (CSOs), but could expand its partnerships with the private sector and partner country governments. Sweden also struggles to gain a clear overview of its funding in any one country due to its multitude of strategies and could rationalise its funding further to improve effectiveness and oversight.Sweden is committed to the development effectiveness principles, as demonstrated by its partnership approach and its support for partner country ownership and capacity development. However, it struggles to improve performance against some development effectiveness indicators and Sweden could consider establishing criteria to encourage staff to use partner countries systems more and put more aid on budget.