Sweden aims to offer aid to fewer countries

from the Gulf Times

STOCKHOLM: The Swedish centre-right government that took office a year ago said yesterday that it aims to halve the number of countries that receive bilateral aid to increase efforts to combat poverty, phasing out aid to Vietnam and China.

International Development Co-operation Minister Gunilla Carlsson cited “better efficiency” as one of the arguments for reducing the number of bilateral aid recipients from the current 70 to 33.

Future bilateral recipients were grouped according to three categories.


One category included 12 countries – mainly in Africa – that Sweden has had long-term development co-operation with and included Tanzania, Ethiopia and Bangladesh, she said when presenting the proposal.

Another group of 12 countries or regions were those impacted by conflict – recent or ongoing – and included Liberia, Somalia, Sudan, Afghanistan, East Timor, Iraq, the West Bank and Gaza, while nine countries mainly in Eastern Europe would receive support to shore up democratic reforms, Carlsson said.

About a third of Sweden’s annual aid budget, worth some 30bn kronor ($4.3bn), is earmarked for bilateral aid.

Along with its Nordic neighbours Norway and Denmark, Sweden is one of five countries that has committed more than 0.7% of its gross national income to aid, according to the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) Development Assistance Committee.

On Africa, the minister said “the needs to combat poverty were the greatest on that continent”, citing challenges like conflicts, HIV/Aids and the risk of famine.
Countries that would be dropped from bilateral aid programmes such as Sri Lanka, Nicaragua, South Africa or Namibia would receive Swedish funding via the UN, the European Union or other multilateral agencies, Carlsson said, adding that the transition period would likely take up to five years.

Anders Forsse, former head of the government aid agency SIDA, welcomed the initiative, saying “development aid is not just a matter of sending money to poor countries with incomplete administrations and quite extensive corruption”.
Forsse said he even favoured reducing the number of bilateral aid recipients to some 20 countries to ensure a proper overview.

Reactions from non-governmental aid agencies were cooler.
Birgitta Silen of the Olof Palme International Centre that has close ties with the country’s opposition Social Democrats said the reductions could weaken support for generous development aid among the Swedish public.