Poverty Focus in Selected Swedish Aid portfolios

The aim of Swedish international development assistance is to help reduce poverty. The purpose of this paper is to assess whether projects and programmes in a selected number of Swedish partner countries focus on what research have found to be effective poverty reducing interventions. The discussion is restricted to whether the relevant kinds of interventions to reduce poverty have been chosen or not.

To assess the poverty focus of Swedish aid portfolios, a scheme over policies that are effective at reducing poverty has been created. This scheme is mainly built from the analysis and conclusions made in The Chronic Poverty Report 2014 – 2015.

The findings were presented during the seminar Svenskt bistånd – för de fattiga?

• There has not been enough focus on poverty on what works in poverty reduction when Swedish bilateral aid allocation decision have been made in the 12 partner countries where Sweden supports long term development.
• Few country programs are comprehensive enough.
• More specific programs are not focused enough and may be possibly be less coordinated with others’ interventions.