Strategy for Sweden's multilateral development cooperation

Currently more than half of Sweden's development cooperation is channelled via multilateral organisations. In 2006, Sweden's contributions to multilateral organisations totalled SEK 13 billion.

The aim of the Swedish Government's new strategy, approved on 3 April 2007, is to ensure the quality and effectiveness of Swedish development cooperation, which overall objective is to enable poor people to improve their living conditions. It also empasizes the global priority for reaching the established Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015. The strategy is a demonstration of the government's increased level of ambition in the area.

There are several strong arguments for channelling aid through organisations that have high multilateral legitimacy, are working towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and are highly effective. These include shared goals and methods, increased aid volumes, advantages of scale from coordination of aid, and a greater focus on developing countries' own strategies.

Why a strategy for multilateral development cooperation?

The new strategy builds on Sweden's Global Development Policy, which was adopted by the Riksdag in December 2003. This policy emphasises the importance of greater cooperation with multilateral bodies, and it states that Sweden should strengthen its involvement in the EU's common development cooperation.

Several studies had noted some deficiencies in the management of multilateral development assistance in recent years; these include the follow-up of multilateral development cooperation presented by the Riksdag Committee on Foreign Affairs (2005/06:RFR6) and the report Sveriges internationella utvecklingssamarbete (Sweden's international development cooperation), published by the Swedish Agency for Public Management (2005:31). These studies called for more strategic action, a greater focus on results, enhanced reporting and evaluation functions and a clearer division of roles between different actors in the Swedish system.

How will the strategy be implemented?

The strategy provides guidance for Ministry officials and government agencies that come into contact with the UN system, the international financial institutions or development cooperation conducted through the European Union. It gives normative guidance on defining and developing criteria for priorities, financial principles and methods for strategic influence on multilateral work.

Sweden's reform agenda for the multilateral system requires continued proactive and strategic action. The strategy proposes that relevance and effectiveness should be the main criteria in assessing and deciding on aid to all multilateral channels. Relevance means, firstly, the compatibility of the activities with Swedish development goals and, secondly, the role of the organisation in the international multilateral architecture. Effectiveness means, firstly, whether the organisation contributes to the relevant goals set and, secondly, whether the activities are organised so as to lead to results and employ aid resources effectively.

Thus, the strategy places great emphasis on strategic governance, influence and evaluation and makes proposals on EU cooperation, the UN and the IFIs. It states that work within the formal steering bodies must be supplemented by upstream work in the decision-making process and the creation of strategic alliances in advance. Measures are also proposed to promote follow-up and evaluation of multilateral actions and channels.

In line with the strategy, a number of principles will apply to the financing of development cooperation, as agreed in the Paris Declaration. This financing should contribute to adequate and predictable funding - non-earmarked contributions and long-term financing are preferred. Humanitarian financing should follow the internationally agreed principles of good practices of humanitarian donorship.

The strategy will be reviewed in 2010.