Cooperation through international banks
By means of their mandates and their extensive resources, the international financial institutions are of vital importance to many developing countries. For Sweden, the banks represent an important channel for promoting Swedish development policy.
For Sweden, contact with the banks enriches and develops Swedish efforts and thoughts on development cooperation, which is why Sweden has always maintained a high profile, not least in the institutions' policy work.
Below is a description of the most important banks of which Sweden is a member and in which Sweden pursues its polices.
World Bank Group
The World Bank Group consists of five institutions: the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), the International Development Association (IDA), the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) and the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID).
The World Bank Group works to reduce poverty and promote economically sustainable development by providing loans and advice. The Group is presently the largest individual financier of development assistance among the development banks.
African Development Bank, AfDB
The main task of the African Development Bank is to promote economic and social development in the African member countries, with the overall aim of reducing poverty. The bank currently has 77 member countries, of which 53 are African.
Asian Development Bank, AsDB
The Asian Development Bank is a multilateral financial institution whose main task is to fight poverty in Asia and the Pacific by promoting economic and social development in the region. Sweden, along with the other Nordic countries, Canada and the Netherlands, is part of a joint constituency group.
Inter-American Development Bank
The Inter-American Development Bank aims to promote economic and social development in Latin America and the Caribbean. The Bank currently has 46 member countries. Sweden has been a member since 1977 and is part of a joint constituency group that includes Austria, Denmark, Finland, France, Norway and Spain. In its work, Sweden emphasises the importance of highlighting poverty reduction as an overall goal of the entire organisation. Sweden also works for better integration of issues concerning gender equality and environment into the Bank's activities.
International Fund for Agricultural Development, IFAD
IFAD is the UN specialised agency for rural development. IFAD activities are focused on making it possible for poor men, women and children in rural areas to escape from poverty. At present, about 75 per cent of the world's poor people live in rural areas. The Fund thus plays an important role with regard to achieving the Millennium Declaration's goal of halving the number of people who live on less than a dollar a day. The President of IFAD is Lennart Båge from Sweden, who was elected at the 2001 session of the Governing Council.
Nordic Development Fund, NDF
The Nordic Development Fund is a multilateral Nordic development organisation whose goal is to reduce poverty through measures that promote social and economic development. The NDF provides loans on favourable terms to poorer developing countries, financed by means of contributions from the Nordic countries. These loans are given to projects that are of Nordic interest and which promote development. The NDF works to reduce poverty by means of its lending activities, while at the same time giving great consideration to the environment, sustainable development, human rights and gender equality.
