UN development assistance in the wake of the financial crisis
Both countries and organisations working with development cooperation are feeling the effects of the financial crisis.
"What is important is to safeguard the achievements made in poverty reduction. We perhaps need to find more ways in which to work", says Joakim Stymne, State Secretary responsible for international development cooperation.
With new, rapidly changing conditions in the world, greater flexibility in development assistance will be increasingly important", says Mr Stymne. Photo: MFA
Joakim Stymne has recently arrived home from discussions in New York with UN organisations such as UNDP, UNICEF and UNCDF. This time, most of the talks were held together with Sida's Director-General Anders Nordström.
"It is important to us that our cooperation partners in the field of development assistance understand that our actions are based on a common policy. Sweden has to speak with one voice, regardless of whether support comes from the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, another ministry, from Sida or another Swedish agency - this is part of our strategy for development cooperation," says Joakim Stymne.
Many developing countries risk being more seriously affected by the global financial crisis. The general impression from Mr Stymne's talks in New York is that the UN development assistance actors are now heavily engaged in finding new methods to alleviate the negative effects of the financial crisis.
"These countries have been hit through no fault of their own. We must be prepared to strengthen support to the social sectors, and ensure that areas such as education, health and medical care do not lose ground but continue to develop.
With new, rapidly changing conditions in the world, greater flexibility in development assistance will be increasingly important, such as that between sectors and policy areas", says Mr Stymne.
"Here, the multilateral organisations can make a valuable contribution - they can make use of large development assistance volumes and a broad presence in the field. In the long term, I envisage support that will be somewhat different, perhaps more focused on the humanitarian sector, and initiatives to prevent new humanitarian disasters from arising."
The organisations take a positive view of the fact that Sweden has undertaken assessments of the relevance and effectiveness of its multilateral cooperation partners.
"We have been engaged in a dialogue with the multilateral organisations for many years, informing them that we would undertake these assessments - they came as no surprise. Several of our cooperation partners have stated that it has sometimes been unclear what Sweden wanted in the field of development assistance, and to whom they should talk. We are already seeing that our assessments may be able to function as a sound basis for a clear and deeper dialogue."
Mr Stymne spent a large part of his time in a bilateral dialogue with UNDP. Their discussions included the organisation's strategic focus, its work on climate issues, gender equality and human rights as well as the way in which UNDP evaluates its activities and how feed-back from what is learned is used in the organisation.
"UNDP is a major actor in the development area, with a broad mandate. It is extremely important that the organisation's strategic focus has an impact in its operations. It is also important that UNDP takes an active approach towards its cooperation partners, particularly with regard to communicating the results of its work."
Mr Stymne says that UNDP has a role to play in the environment and climate areas.
"There are several actors here. We think that UNDP should particularly focus on adaptation - integrating a broad climate awareness into decision-making, assessing the vulnerability of various sectors and identifying climate risks, etc - rather than helping developing countries to reduce their emissions."
UNDP efforts to increase democracy and human rights are an issue for ongoing discussion.
"We are in agreement with UNDP centrally, and it is important that the organisation systematically puts this into practice in the field. The objective of Sweden's development assistance funds is ultimately to see results on the ground - that the conditions of life of poor people are improved."
Gender equality is another important development issue for the Government.
"Here the division of labour between the UN organisations in the field may sometimes be diffuse. Sweden considers that the UN and other multilateral organisations should work on integrating a gender equality perspective into all their activities, rather than working specifically with women's projects. Things have improved, but there is more to do in this area," concludes Mr Stymne.
