Sweden’s international development aid – monitoring, evaluation and reporting

The Government steers development aid through more than 60 strategies, with hundreds of different objectives, spanning numerous countries, thematic areas and different types of activities. Reporting on the results of development aid is resource-intensive and partly unclear. The Swedish NAO finds that the Riksdag needs appropriate documentation to support decision-making and that governance of development aid should be adapted to the operations. Sida needs to be given the best possible conditions for delivering on its remit, and not be impeded by an excessive reporting burden. The Swedish NAO therefore considers that the Government needs to perform a review of the monitoring, evaluation, reporting and governance of development aid.

The Swedish NAO notes that it is difficult to assess the results of Swedish development aid in relation to the long term target for Swedish development aid due to shortcomings in the Government’s reporting. The Riksdag has repeatedly requested that the government improve reporting and, in recent years in particular, a clearer link between results and policy direction. However, the Government’s reporting of results to the Riksdag is poorly adapted to such a complex area as development aid. The Swedish NAO therefore considers that the Government should improve its reporting on aid to the Riksdag.

The way in which the Government devises development aid through strategies and appropriations is largely based on political priorities and other considerations. While results may have a bearing in such decisions, it is not possible to follow whether this is the case. While the Swedish NAO accepts that political trade-offs are an inevitable part of the design of development aid policy, at the same time it is important that development aid be designed on the basis of an analysis of the results achieved, in line with the wishes of the Riksdag. Therefore, the Government should ensure that development aid is designed based on such an analysis and that the Ministry for Foreign Affairs has the means to contribute to that analysis.

Sida puts a lot of effort into monitoring development contributions. This monitoring provides Sida with a large volume of information about the initiatives, including information about their results. Sida uses this information to design and continuously adjust development contributions to enable them to achieve their goals and contribute to fulfilling strategic objectives. However, in order to achieve the goals at the strategy level, and provide sufficient supporting documentation for decision-makers, the Swedish NAO considers that Sida needs additional information about the long-term impact of its aid.

Sida does not systematically collect information on the long-term impact of its initiatives and strategies. The Swedish NAO finds that information on the long-term impact of Sida’s aid can lead to important adjustments in how Sida designs its contributions, and ought also to be of interest to the Government, the Riksdag and the general public. For this reason, Sida needs to collect such information, but in a strategic manner, as impactevaluations are often resource-intensive.

The audit shows that analyses by the EBA provide useful expertise that the Government has used to some extent, including in its reporting to the Riksdag.

Since the EBA is a committee under the Government, it can never be entirely independent from the Government. However, the Swedish NAO considers that the Expert Group for Aid Studies essentially has a high degree of independence, both in relation to the Government and to other entities reviewed by the EBA, and thus fulfils the Riksdag’s desire for an independent reviewer of development aid. At the same time, the Swedish NAO notes that the EBA’s governing documents are unclear in some respects as to how decisions are to be made within the committee, and do not sufficiently ensure that it deals with any issues of conflicts of interest and impartiality in a proper manner.