This chapter examines Sweden’s approach to global sustainable development including its response to global challenges, action to ensure coherence between domestic policies and global sustainable development objectives, and efforts to raise awareness of global development issues at home.Sweden is a committed, adept and influential actor on sustainable development at the international level and is working hard to meet its ambitious goal of being a leader in implementing the 2030 Agenda. A renewed political commitment to policy coherence for sustainable development, as well as reformed organisational processes, have enhanced its ability to identify and address domestic policy incoherence. To further improve its coherence Sweden could do more to analyse the impact of its policies in key partner countries.Sweden continues to prioritise development communication, and there is strong public support for development co-operation in Sweden and a growing recognition of the Sustainable Development Goals.

This chapter assesses the extent to which clear political directives, policies and strategies shape Sweden’s development co-operation and are in line with international commitments, including the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Sweden has established a coherent but broad framework for its development policies since the last review. The new framework focuses on areas where Sweden has comparative advantages, and helps deliver on its commitment to leaving no one behind by addressing rights and multidimensional poverty. Sweden is a global leader on gender equality, confirmed through its Feminist Foreign Policy. At the same time, Sweden maintains a large number of thematic priorities and has developed a multitude of strategies. There is scope for Sweden to consolidate its policy priorities and better capitalise on synergies among its strategies. Sweden takes a strategic approach to engaging at the country or regional level and aims to select partners on the basis of how well they can contribute to its policy goals and achieve sustainable results. Sweden’s selection of partner countries is overall well aligned with its policy focus on LDCs and the most vulnerable countries. However, Sweden’s bilateral ODA is thinly spread across its priority countries.Sweden takes an informed approach to selecting priority multilateral partners but makes limited use of governments as implementing partners.

This chapter considers how international and national commitments drive the volume and allocations of Sweden’s official development assistance (ODA). It also explores Sweden’s other financing efforts in support of the 2030 Agenda.Sweden is a generous donor who meets and goes beyond its international ODA commitments. In response to a sharp increase of in-donor refugee costs, Sweden has taken action to maintain predictable aid flows for its development agencies and aid partners.Sweden’s bilateral aid supports least developed countries, especially those in sub-Saharan Africa, and is strongly focused on supporting democracy building and civil society and gender equality. This is in line with its policy priorities. However, there is room to allocate a higher share of Sweden’s bilateral ODA to a prioritised set of partner countries. Sweden is a valued multilateral donor, providing flexible and predictable resources to international institutions. Its allocations are coherent with its policy priorities, and the largest share of its multilateral aid is allocated to the United Nations System. Sweden is actively engaged in promoting financing for development and is increasingly using its ODA to catalyse private sector flows.

This chapter reviews Sweden’s organisational structures and management systems for its development co-operation, and examines the extent to which these are fit for purpose and have appropriate capabilities to deliver on Sweden’s development objectives.Sweden has strengthened co-ordination between the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and its main implementing agency, Sida, enabling a more coherent and cohesive programme. Steps have also been taken to better align the Ministry and its other implementing agencies, but further work remains to be done, particularly with respect to strengthening the alignment of Swedfund’s investments to its development policy, including creating closer links between Swedfund and Sida’s activities.Sida is working hard to ensure a better balance between efficiency, quality control and risk management within its programming processes. A comprehensive toolbox for tackling corruption is in place and Sweden has given priority to addressing this issue. Sida is engaging in innovative partnerships and financial instruments.Sweden has enhanced its human resource planning and improved its staff capacity since the last review, but it needs to adopt a more long-term plan to ensure adequate staff capacity in light of a growing ODA budget and increasingly complex programme. Its decentralised workforce remains a major asset.

This chapter reviews Sweden’s approach to delivering in partner countries and through partnerships to determine whether its approach is in line with the principles of effective development co-operation. Sweden is a highly-valued partner who bases its relationships on dialogue, flexibility and trust, and supports donor co-ordination. It favours long-term partnerships with multilateral organisations and civil society organisations (CSOs), but could expand its partnerships with the private sector and partner country governments. Sweden also struggles to gain a clear overview of its funding in any one country due to its multitude of strategies and could rationalise its funding further to improve effectiveness and oversight.Sweden is committed to the development effectiveness principles, as demonstrated by its partnership approach and its support for partner country ownership and capacity development. However, it struggles to improve performance against some development effectiveness indicators and Sweden could consider establishing criteria to encourage staff to use partner countries systems more and put more aid on budget.

This chapter considers how Sweden plans and manages for results in line with the Sustainable Development Goals, building evidence of what works, and using this to learn and adapt.Sweden has adopted a pioneering approach to results-based management, which focuses on achieving long-term, sustainable results through learning and adaptive programming. In order for this approach to be realised, Sweden needs to build staff and partner capacity and strengthen its systems. Sweden helps to build partner countries’ statistical, evaluation and research capacity, However, it could do more to use partner country results frameworks to monitor and evaluate its country programmes.Sweden’s evaluation system is in line with OECD DAC principles, and steps are being taken to improve the relevance of its independent strategic evaluation. Decentralised programme evaluations, context analysis and reviews are being used by teams to improve individual programmes and enhance portfolios at the country and thematic level. However, there is scope to strengthen knowledge management systems to ensure this learning is shared more systematically.

This chapter looks at how Sweden minimises the impact of shocks and crises, as well as how it works to save lives, alleviate suffering and maintain human dignity in crisis and disaster settings.Sweden has a strong humanitarian tradition and actively works to drive a more efficient, principled and co-ordinated humanitarian system at the global level. Its policies and strategies are aligned to its international commitments, and Sweden is making good progress in ensuring greater coherence among its development, humanitarian and peace work. Organisational reforms and a more coherent approach to risk and resilience analysis are driving a more joined-up approach. These should be built upon.Sweden has strengthened the quality of its partnerships with the humanitarian community, notably with more multiyear framework agreements that provide much-needed predictability for its partners engaged in protracted crises.