13 June 2019
OECD Reviews Sweden’s ODA Performance for Sustainable Development
Photo by IISD/ENB | Kiara Worth
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The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's DAC conducted a peer review of Sweden’s Official Development Assistance, highlighting Sweden’s ambition to be a leader in implementing the 2030 Agenda.

The review notes Sweden’s national action on the SDGs, including the establishment of a multi-stakeholder ‘Delegation for the 2030 Agenda’ coalition, which is monitoring progress and promoting awareness of the SDGs.

June 2019: The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) conducted a peer review of Sweden’s Official Development Assistance (ODA), which highlights Sweden’s ambition to be a leader in implementing the 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development.

The review, conducted by the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC), praises Sweden’s commitment as the most generous OECD donor in relative terms, and its support of the least developed countries (LDCs) and civil society. The review also notes Sweden’s national action on the SDGs, including its establishment of a multi-stakeholder ‘Delegation for the 2030 Agenda’ coalition, which is monitoring progress and promoting awareness of the SDGs.

Providing suggestions for strengthening Sweden’s use of ODA for sustainable development, the report calls for: greater involvement of Swedfund, the country’s development finance institution, in the design and execution of Sweden’s development strategies; taking a “joined-up approach” to addressing development, humanitarian and peace needs in fragile contexts; increasing the use of independent evaluations; and partnering directly with country governments and using country systems, where appropriate.

The review notes the expansion and increasing complexity of Sweden’s ODA-supported programmes. It proposes narrowing the scope of assistance to a prioritized set of partner countries, as well as recruiting sufficient staff capacity and appropriate skill-sets to meet these increased needs.

Overall, the review commends Sweden for its commitment to maintaining a high level of ODA, which was 1.02% of gross national income (GNI) during the review period.

The OECD’s DAC reviews the policies and programmes of its members every five years. The DAC peer review process takes a system-wide approach that focuses on the performance of each government overall, not only on the work of its development cooperation agency. [Report Webpage] [Main Findings and Recommendations] [Publication: OECD Development Co-operation Peer Reviews: Sweden 2019]

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