Inadequate basis for decisions to grant aid

The efforts of the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) to develop public administration in countries that receive aid are governed by decisions taken on an inadequate basis. It is therefore difficult to assess whether Sida’s efforts yield long-term results and reduce dependence on aid. These are some of the findings of a new audit by the Swedish National Audit Office.

The Swedish National Audit Office (NAO) has audited Sweden’s support for capacity development in the public administration of eleven partner countries. Its audit shows that the documentation drawn up by Sida ahead of its decisions to grant aid for capacity development was incomplete and did not meet the requirements of aid effectiveness laid down in the Paris Declaration. The documentation often did not include assessments of a partner country’s absorptive capacity or its influence on the design of the support. Further, it was also not assessed whether the objectives of the support were explicit and realistic or whether the intervention would be coordinated with support from other donors. These shortcomings make it more difficult to perform evaluations, meaning that it is impossible to determine whether Sida’s efforts contribute to good results and will help reduce the partner country’s dependence on aid in the longer term. The Swedish NAO considers that the Government should have made the importance of the Paris Declaration clear to Sida earlier and more explicitly, and that it should have more effectively integrated the objectives of the Declaration in the direction it exercised over Sida. For three of the countries included in the Swedish NAO’s audit, the Government has in fact not yet adopted new cooperation strategies even though the Swedish NAO has previously stressed the urgency of doing so. The incompleteness of the documentation underlying Sida’s decisions can be explained to some extent by the fact that Sida has too many governance and guidance documents in the field of capacity development, making it difficult for individual officials to know what aspects must be addressed in the documentation they draw up in support of a future decision. ‘Sida and the Government should develop their work on capacity support. Otherwise, partner countries will not be able to handle aid funds so that they can break their dependence on aid and eliminate poverty in the longer term." Background: Sweden’s development cooperation each year amounts to just over SEK 30 billion. The Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness is an important international agreement in the field of aid and governs Sweden’s actions. It aims to enhance the effectiveness of aid and to ensure that the aid policies of donor countries are adapted to each partner country’s own poverty-reduction strategy. This principle makes it more important than before to support the development of partner countries’ capacity. Report title: Sidas stöd till utveckling av kapacitet i mottagarländernas statsförvaltningar [‘Sida’s support for capacity development of public administration in partner countries’] (RiR 2009:15) An English version of the report will be available later on at www.riksrevisionen.se. Auditor General responsible: Claes Norgren, +46 8 51714030 Project Manager: Charlotta Edholm, +46 8 51714169, +46 73 4452169