Report on results in Swedish development assistance

The Swedish Government is conducting a new focus on management and performance in Sweden's international development cooperation. This is an effort that began in 2006 and was initiated by Minister for international development cooperation, Gunilla Carlsson.

Partner country strategies are now more result-oriented, based on the partner country's goals and results framework. In addition, requirements for monitoring and evaluation have been made more stringent. A further aim is for Swedish development assistance to make more extensive use of performance data.

In a communication document to the Riksdag on May 7, 2009, the Government presented a comprehensive report on performance in development cooperation, for the very first time.

The drafting process of the report encountered several difficulties in its aim to establish a causal connection between a specific activity and change in a partner country. In many cases it proved impossible. The conditions are particularly difficult in some countries because of lack of capacity, poor statistics, etc.

Furthermore, the positive connection between development assistance and development at an aggregated level is also hard to substantiate. It is this cautious assessment of the development impact of Sweden's performance that characterises the reporting in the Communication.

Main findings of the report

1. The results of development assistance should primarily be sought in the context in which they are expected to be effective - when a partner country is to implement a poverty reduction strategy, when child soldiers are to be demobilised after an armed conflict or when democratic actors for change attempt to make themselves heard in a society with authoritarian rule.

These are some examples of situations in which development assistance, with its special tools, can be expected to contribute to development.

2. Development assistance initiatives benefit people's lives. This applies to everything from the 44 000 agricultural households in Zambia who have acquired improved food safety and higher incomes as a result of Swedish support in the agricultural sector, to the millions of children who are now receiving elementary schooling in Afghanistan, partly with assistance supported by Sweden.

3. The performance culture in development assistance must be strengthened.