Sweden’s total development aid budget for 2013 is about SEK 38,2 billion, which is one per cent of BNI.
About SEK 18,3 billion of this is administered by Sida, and another SEK 11 billion is targeted to multilateral support decided upon by the Prime Minister's Office but channelled through Sida.
Three thematic issues are given priority in the development
cooperation:
a) democracy and human rights
b) gender equality and the role of women in development
c) climate and environment.
The letter of appropriation sets out how Sida is to carry out its work, reporting on specific areas and preparing new cooperation strategies.
It is important to check how taxpayers’ money is being used in combating poverty and that the work funded by Sida is of high quality and achieves results. It is the responsibility of Sida, partner countries and cooperation partners to report on how funds are being used.
Scrutiny of Sida’s work
Sida has an Evaluation unit which decides which interventions to evaluate. In addition to internal scrutiny carried out by this unit, Sida’s operations are also reviewed by the National Audit Office and the Swedish Agency for Development Evaluation, SADEV.
The National Audit Office has the task of reviewing the operations of all government authorities and ensuring that funds are used efficiently and effectively. Sida is required to develop remedial plans for any deficiencies found by the National Audit Office.
SADEV is a government agency that initiates, performs and distributes analyses and evaluations of international development cooperation work.
