DEVELOPMENT-EXCLUSIVE: Swedish aid to Africa will focus on quality and some country's will be dropped, says Minister

subscriber | 11 January, 2007

JOHANNESBURG. The new Swedish Centre-Right government is planning to refocus Swedish aid and look more at “quality” than “quantity”, say’s Joakim Stymne, the Deputy Minister of Development Cooperation, in an interview with Africascan.

Mr. Stymne, who’s been on a maiden tour to Southern Africa, where he’s been looking at some NGO projects in South Africa and met up with South Africa’s deputy minister of foreign affairs, Aziz Pahad, said that there was a great need to look at efficiencies in the disbursement of aid – a kind of wording that often is used by conservatives as it is seen as a way of cutting back on aid.

Joakim Stymne said that the new government would prioritise aid that would assist developing countries to increase trade and investments. The Government owned private equity fund Swedfund, has been given SEK 1 billion over three years to expand its investments in development countries. The fund, said, Mr. Stymne, had a successful track record and he had high hopes that Swedfund could be part of the key to more successful delivery of aid.

He also said that Swedish aid would concentrate its efforts in countries where it could make a meaningful contribution.

Africascan's best guess is that Sweden would probably phase out recent additions such as Senegal and Mali, while long term cooperation partners such as Mozambique, Zambia, Tanzania and Kenya would be more likely to stay onboard. Other new countries, such as DR Congo and Sudan, would also be likely to be kept onboard, as they both would make good fits.

On the issue of creating partnerships with countries that are deemed to be too rich, such as South Africa and Angola, Mr. Stymne believed that technical cooperation and so called three-party cooperation was the way to go. Such cooperation already exists with South Africa, who’s aid will be phased out by 2009 – except for cooperation in certain areas such as HIV-aids as well as support via NGO’s.

The Deputy Minister emphasized that there would be a lot of effort made in analyzing and increase efficiencies. He believed that one of the main ways of disburse money, direct budget support (11-12 percent of Sida’s disbursements are in the way of budget support) would continue and even increase to countries where there were institutional mechanisms in place so that citizens and local pressure groups could take over the role of monitor accountability.

In some countries, with too weak democratic institutions, budget support however could be more of a problem, said Mr. Stymne.

The Deputy Minister was cautious on the issue of how Swedish business could benefit from development aid. As much as “Swedish business should be given as much of a chance as anyone else” there is no going back on e.g giving Swedish business any preference. “The truth is that e.g. Swedish consultants are getting a large share of the cake anyway as there is always a tendency to hire people you know with a track record”.

Swedish financial institutions have never really been able to benefit from Swedish aid as the Swedish legislation prohibits aid money from flowing into private companies. There may however be an opening there, as Sweden have not been able to contribute towards the growth of micro-finance movements to the same extent as many other countries.

Africascan Comment
Swedish development aid has been more or less a sacred cow over the years and previous centre-right governments have not made any significant changes. Within the government alliance there are disparate views. The conservative’s have always advocated that “quality” must come first, while the other three parties in the government, the Centre Party, the liberals and the Christian democrats, are more uncompromising on the issue of keeping up with the goal to disburse one percent of GDP to development aid.

However, as both the Minister and the Deputy Minister are from the conservative party the likelihood is that the government will be harder nosed than previous centre-right governments. The task of if not downsizing, so at least slimming the aid apparatus in Sweden, is probably an easier task this time around as Swedish opinion has been tired and un enthusiastic about aid for a long period of time, though recent opinion polls are picking up more positive signals in a recent survey.

It would be safe to say that as much as the new government is likely to largely stay on a similar course as the previous one, there is no likelihood of any increases in disbursements, but rather consolidation.