Swedish Development Cooperation in Perspective

This paper summarizes some salient features of Swedish foreign aid with particular emphasis on the recent decade. We point to a number of problems – including selection of partner countries, changes induced by the EU membership, lack of an explicit development theory to guide the choice of modalities, and inconsistencies between rhetoric and practice on a number of issues. Although Swedish development cooperation is progressive in comparison to that of other DAC members, there are signs of policy convergence and the existing situation still leaves a lot to be desired. In particular, a number of recent reforms have either not been implemented on the ground or simply been a reformulation of old ideas in modern terminology. In a sense, then, Swedish aid philosophy is – despite frequent and major reforms – characterised by stability and continuity.