The overall objective of Swedish development cooperation is to ‘create conditions for improved living conditions for people living in poverty and oppression’. Poverty has many dimensions and should therefore not be measured solely in monetary terms. Since 2017, Sida has analysed poverty using the analytical framework for multidimensional poverty analysis (MDPA).
The study examines whether and how Sida’s MDPA influences the overall governance of poverty reduction. Have the analyses contributed to focusing aid on poverty reduction, and have the MDPA processes been institutionalised within Sida?
The results show that the MDPA mainly produces indirect results in the form of a generally shared view of poverty within Sida, with visibility for partners. The authors recommend:
- Developing a theory of change for the MDPA
- Clarifying and integrating the use of the MDPA in Sida
- Re-evaluate the format and role of MDPA. To make the tool more effective and less cumbersome to use, they propose four different future models to choose from.
We hope that this evaluation will be useful to management and staff at Sida and the Ministry for Foreign Affairs when designing strategies for partner countries and development cooperation programmes.