Mr. Chairman,
First of all, allow me to thank the panellists for their presentations.
In Stockholm, my colleagues are currently preparing for a big event with 5000 participants called European Development Days, to be held 22-24 October. It is a policy forum, which serves as a platform for discussion with partner countries, global civil society and the development community. Many items on their agenda are related to the discussions that we have had the past three days.
In order to give examples of national policies and efforts within the area of policy coherence in international assistance and cooperation in combating poverty, let me give a few points of information about Sweden’s development assistance. It aims to contribute to an environment supportive of poor people’s own efforts to improve their quality of life. Combating poverty is a constant focus in that endeavour.
Sweden’s ODA levels exceed the internationally agreed target of 0.7 percent of Gross National Income. We find it important that all donor countries live up to their ODA commitments. Later this autumn EU Development Ministers will review the progress made in this regard. It is of equal importance that our development cooperation is made more effective, not least in the EU. Aid effectiveness is therefore also a priority during the Swedish presidency.
Increased ODA levels alone will however not be enough. Trade, investment, agriculture and migration are policy areas that have large impacts on development. The Swedish government has decided that all our policies should be coherent and mutually supportive of development. During our current Presidency of the EU, we are also working to strengthen the EU agenda on Policy Coherence for Development, a work that is important since the European Union is an international actor whose policies have considerable impact on development in partner countries. The EU is also the world’s largest donor of development assistance contributing with almost 60 percent of the total ODA.Mr Chairman,
In view of the current challenges in the world economy, Sweden has taken many steps to ensure assistance in the efforts to combat poverty and to improve policy coherence for development For example, we are planning:
- An additional contribution of $92 million to the International Development Association of the World Bank, in order to assist the poorest countries in addressing challenges related to climate change and the financial crisis.
- Sweden will increase its’ financial contribution to counter the effects of high, volatile food prices in the poorest countries.
- We will also increase our support for trade and microfinance in the poorest countries. We know that the most vulnerable groups must be protected and, hence, we will earmark funds for nutrition and the promotion of social protection for the most vulnerable.
- Moreover, we have distributed funds to improve maternal health through promoting Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights.
- Our government has given supplementary funds to Swedfund, i.e. Sweden’s risk capital company, to support private sector investments in developing countries.- In order to make use of the expertise and experience of Swedish enterprises that are engaged in developing countries, we have the intention to set up a high level advisory council with the Swedish private sector.These are just a few examples of measures that have been taken by the Swedish government and we would encourage other donors to also continue their efforts on improving their international assistance and live up to the ODA commitments that have been made.Thank you.