The Swedish government’s new strategy for humanitarian assistance, implemented through Sida, will come into effect on 1 October 2025, and cover the period between 2025-2029.
To implement the strategy, Sida invited organisations providing humanitarian assistance and protection to express interest for multi-year central operational partnerships. The aim is to select partners with the capacity required to operate in many crises and rapidly respond to severe humanitarian needs around the world.
In January 2025, Sida shortlisted 25 organisations for the next step in the process. Sida has conducted and reviewed the results of an external assessment of the applicant organisations’ strengths and capacities and commenced a portfolio analysis.
Sida is also conducting an assessment to ensure that organisations support democratic values and human rights, in line with the Government’s new instructions. This new agency-wide routine has unfortunately caused a slight delay in the selection process for humanitarian partnerships.
Once this assessment and the portfolio analysis is completed, Sida will shortlist the organisations that will be proceed to the appraisal phase and contact the 25 applicant organisations which are currently under consideration individually with information on the outcome of their application.
Sida sincerely thanks all organisations for their time, effort and dedication throughout this process.
The process might change
Please note that the timeline, process, and the conditions for how organisations are appraised may be altered based on further instructions from the Swedish government.
Application Process
The process is divided into three steps:
Step 1: Call for expression of interest
Sida invited humanitarian organisations to submit applications for the call for expression of interest for humanitarian partnership with Sida.
The call closed 10 November 2024 at 23:59 CET.
Sida assessed all applications based on internal scoring criteria. See more information about the assessment and scoring method below.
25 organisations were shortlisted for the second step of the application process. The list of organisations concerned can be found here.
All applicants were informed on the outcome of their applications by 30 January 2025.
Step 2: External assessment, democratic values and human rights assessment, and portfolio analysis
Following Sida’s own review of applications, an external assessment of shortlisted organisations was conducted between February and July 2025. The aim was to collect, analyse, and present information about the shortlisted organisations’ operational strengths and capacities, providing Sida with a more comprehensive basis for making the final shortlist of potential future humanitarian partners. The assessment did not include recommendations regarding the selection of partners. Sida has reviewed the findings of the external assessment against criteria drawn from the goals and priorities outlined in the humanitarian strategy.
Step 2 also includes a risk assessment to ensure that a cooperation partner does not conduct or support anti-democratic activity, violent extremism, Islamism, anti-semitism, terrorism, activities that undermine the rights of women and girls, or hate speech directed towards individuals or groups.
These assessments inform the portfolio analysis, that ultimately determines the selection of organisations which will proceed to an organisational appraisal. The portfolio analysis is guided by the goals set out in the humanitarian strategy. its purpose is to ensure that the organisations selected as central operational partners have the capacity to collectively deliver strong results based on their comparative strengths and roles within in the humanitarian system.
Step 3: Organisational appraisal
Organisations that are selected to proceed to the appraisal stage will be invited to submit a multi-year organisational application. This is a required part of Sida's organisational appraisal process, and must be completed before entering into a partnership with Sida. The organisations invited to the appraisal process will receive more information and guidelines on the appraisal and necessary documentation.
Please note that in this step, Sida will engage an audit firm to contribute to the overall appraisal process.
Humanitarian assistance through Sida
Sida's humanitarian assistance is guided by the Swedish government's strategy for Sweden's humanitarian assistance, implemented by Sida (2025-2029). The strategy is part of the Swedish government’s reform agenda for development and humanitarian assistance outlined in the policy framework: Development assistance for a new era – freedom, empowerment and sustainable growth.
Humanitarian assistance in the policy framework
Humanitarian assistance is one of seven thematic priority areas in the Swedish government’s reform agenda.
The objective of Sweden’s humanitarian assistance:
The Swedish government’s reform agenda prioritises effectiveness, efficiency and transparency in humanitarian action, focusing on reaching the most vulnerable people.
Key priorities include:
Swedish humanitarian assistance should not support non-democratic actors or those undermining the rules-based world order or Swedish interests. Organisations that partner with Sida must uphold democratic values and human rights and have no links to violent ideologies, extremism or Islamism.
The Swedish government aims to increase the delivery of humanitarian assistance through civil society organisations globally, including local and national humanitarian organisations.
Need more information?
Sida will update this page with frequently asked questions and answers. In the meantime, you are welcome to contact Sida: