Svenskt bistånds geografiska flöden - Landfokusering
BiståndseffektivitetFattigdomsminskningLandfokuseringLåginkomstländerMedelinkomstländerMotivNyaGivareResursfördelningAidEffectivenessAllocatingCountryFocusingEmergingDonorsLowMiddleIncomeCountriesMotivesPovertyReductionResourceAllocation
This paper aims to describe the geographical changes of Swedish international aid politics since 2007, which was the year the new aid reform of decreasing collaborating countries, came up. To decrease the number of aid receiving countries due to efficiency is not a new idea within Swedish aid politics, but Sweden received criticism from the (DAC) Development Assistance Committee, saying Sweden was active in too many countries, and the government established a policy to decrease the amount of countries given aid. Despite the government?s recent work, science has shown on a failed country focusing. This is followed up in the paper trough examination of statistics to measure the extent of the reduction. The work proceeds from existing science but policy documents have also proven to be necessary to follow up the work. Thereafter several players have been interviewed to get different perspectives on the country focusing.The result to date is that the aid has been focusing on Sub Saharan Africa, while middle income countries are not prioritized. Several countries in both Asia and Africa are planned to be phased out during the next year and there are propositions for a total phase out of Latin America. Despite the new policies several new collaborations have started with middle income countries in Eastern Europe and North Africa. The actions interpret prioritization of security policies and economic interests before continuing existing partnerships. Inconsistency within the aid guidelines form poor transparency and several new guidelines are based on inefficient causes, says critics. The country focusing may be justified to carry out but the world is in a consistent state of change which aggravates the implementation. The process of country selection reflects many ambiguous decisions made by the Foreign Department, which in many cases makes the whole concept of country focusing noteworthy.