Unnecessarily complicated processes for Swedish humanitarian aid
Allocation of humanitarian aid by the Swedish International Development Agency (Sida) is based on where needs are most urgent, but takes an unnecessary amount of time and resources. In addition, Sida’s decision-making process is not always entirely clear, and monitoring is not sufficiently systematic, according to the Swedish National Audit Office’s audit.
The Swedish National Audit Office has examined the effectiveness of the humanitarian aid of the Swedish International Development Agency (Sida) that is allocated to acute crises and disasters. The audit does not address the impact of interventions in the affected areas.
Sweden is one of the world’s largest humanitarian donors and Swedish humanitarian aid amounted to SEK 9.6 billion in 2024. The audit shows that Sida focuses on ensuring that aid is directed at crises where the needs are most urgent, which is a key principle of humanitarian aid.
At the same time, the Swedish National Audit Office considers that Sida’s previous process for selecting strategic humanitarian partners, and the processes of allocating funds among them, have required an unnecessary amount of time and resources for both Sida and the organisations concerned. In many cases, funding is allocated to the same crises and partners year after year. Nevertheless, Sida has several processes each year for allocating funds, and usually only grants funding for one year at a time.
“Our assessment is that it is possible to simplify these processes and still be able to make informed decisions. There is room to improve efficiency here,” says Auditor General Christina Gellerbrant Hagberg.
The audit also shows that Sida’s decision-making does not always meet the principles of administrative law in terms of clarity and transparency. In some cases, it is unclear who made the decision, or why Sida chose to fund a certain partner or intervention.
“It is essential that Sida fulfils the demands placed on government agencies’ decision-making in terms of transparency. Not least because the decisions can have a major impact on humanitarian organisations’ activities,” says Auditor General Christina Gellerbrant Hagberg.
Although Sida monitors activities in numerous ways, it is the assessment of the Swedish National Audit Office that monitoring is insufficiently systematic, and that the extent to which it affects fund disbursement is difficult to gauge.
“If Sida does not take sufficient account of partners’ past results and costs, there is a risk of failing to allocate funding for the activities that achieve the best possible results with available funds,” says Hanna Mellergård, project leader for the audit.
The Swedish National Audit Office also notes that Sida’s Humanitarian Operations Department could benefit more from the work of other departments at Sida when working with the same partners and countries. This would allow for more efficient use of common resources.
Recommendations in brief
The Swedish National Audit Office’s recommendations to the Swedish International Development Agency include:
- making the process of selecting strategic partners in humanitarian aid less protracted and without overlapping assessments
- simplifying processes for the allocation of humanitarian aid, for example by increasing the proportion of multi-annual interventions and simplifying application requirements
- ensuring that decision-making in humanitarian aid complies with administrative law principles
- clarifying how information from Sida’s monitoring is considered when allocating humanitarian aid
- systematising monitoring based on risk and materiality
- taking better advantage of the work of other departments within Sida regarding the same partners and countries.