In 2025, The Convention on the Rights of the Child turned 35, and in 2020 it became Swedish law. Children and young people under the age of 18 are in many contexts a particularly vulnerable group, and at the same time, children and young people in many low-income countries make up around half of the population. Children and children’s rights have long been a priority area in Swedish development assistance policy—but what does this look like in practice? How much emphasis is actually placed on children and children’s rights?
EBA has initiated a mapping of Swedish development aid directed at children and at strengthening children’s rights. The aim is to identify the volumes and shares of aid that have been allocated to children over a ten-year period. It will describe how aid is distributed in terms of implementing actors, as well as map how aid is allocated by age, gender, countries, and sectors. Children’s issues are a cross-cutting theme in development assistance and may relate to many thematic areas, such as education, health, peacebuilding and conflict prevention, humanitarian assistance, gender equality, and social protection.
The study is guided by two overarching questions:
- What proportion of Swedish development assistance (ODA) during the period 2015–2025 has been directed at children and children’s rights, and how has the aid been distributed geographically and across sectors, actors, age groups, and gender?
- How have children’s rights been reflected in the governance and strategic direction of Swedish development assistance during the period 2015–2025, and how have these objectives been promoted at the global, regional, and local levels during the period?
The second question also includes an analysis of whether, and how, the Convention on the Rights of the Child becoming Swedish law has influenced development assistance.
The mapping will use a combination of registry data, reviews and analysis of various policy documents, and interviews with key stakeholders, for example at Sida.
Authors:
Matthew Gichohi, Sarah Tobin, Charlotte Ringdal and Arne Tostensen. Chr. Michelsen Institute (CMI)
Reference group chair:
Jenny Deschamps-Berger
Project managers at EBA:
Malin Ahrne and Ravneet Singh