Sida is a government agency working on behalf of the Swedish parliament and government, with the mission to reduce poverty in the world. Through our work and in cooperation with others, we contribute to implementing Sweden’s Policy for Global Development (PGU).
We work in order to implement the Swedish development policy that will enable poor people to improve their lives. Another part of our mission is conducting reform cooperation with Eastern Europe, which is financed through a specific appropriation. The third part of our assignment is to distribute humanitarian aid to people in need of assistance.
We carry out enhanced development cooperation with a total of 33 countries in Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America. Our selection of cooperation countries are based on political decisions made by the Swedish government.
Sida’s mission is to allocate aid and other funding. Our operations are managed by the government’s guidelines, describing the goals for each year’s operations and the size of the development aid budget.
Our staff members and their expertise assist the government with the assessments and the information it needs, in order to decide and implement its development assistance policy. We participate in the advocacy work for Sweden’s prioritised issues within the international development cooperation field, and we are in constant dialogue with other countries and international organisations. Part of our assignment is also to report statistics and disseminate information about our operations.
Our work is financed by tax money and we administer approximately half of Sweden’s total development aid budget. The other part is channelled through the ministry for Foreign Affairs. All our work should be performed in a cost-effective way with a strong focus on results.
Sida has more than 700 employees, located in our three offices in Sweden as well as abroad in our cooperation countries.
Members:
Resources
Displaying 251 - 255 of 273SWE-2012-137: Land Grabbing or Agricultural Investments: the Two Sides of the Coin
General
During the last decade land acquisitions by foreign investors in developing countries have accelerated tremendously. This project aims to enhance our understanding about the determinants and effects of this process. First, what determines where the acquisitions are taking place, their size when they do take place, and what characterizes the countries from which the investors come will be investigate using a macro-level approach. Second, how small-scale farmers in Zambia adapt to the introduction of larger farms will be investigated using a micro-level approach. Since Zambia during the last decade attracted large quantities of agricultural FDI of several different kinds it is very well suited as a case. Preliminary work indicates that large-scale land deals results are more likely in countries that are poor and closer to the sea or a navigable river.
SWE-2012-020: WATER POLITICS IN THE NILE BASIN: EMERGING LAND ACQUISITIONS AND THE HYDROPOLITICAL LANDSCAPE
General
This research aims to investigate the water and land nexus in the Nile Basin seeking to understand how the current surge in land acquisitions and investments by foreign countries, sovereign wealth funds, private corporations and domestic investors will af
UNDERSTANDING THE RATIONALES OF DONORS-FUNDED CIVIL SOCIETY IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES: A GAME THEORY APPROACH
General
This project questions the view, mainly based on Putnam´s theory of social capital that civil society in form of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in developing countries can act as agency for social change. Based on this view, large funds have been channeled to NGOs with the assumption that NGOs can advance development and stimulate democracy. Where corruption is the social norm due to the lack of appropriate rules, empirical evidence does not correspond to social capital theory. There is often a discrepancy between the assumed role of NGOs according to the premises of social capital and their behavior that has been described as being corrupt and self-serving. There is however no conducted studies to explain from a theoretical point of view why NGOs often perform the way described. Thus our research aims to bridge this academic gap. We put forward and examine the applicability of game theory to explain the behavior of NGOs. We explore the different rationales of NGOs in relation to their specific context. The research is designed as case studies and will use the described qualitative and quantitative methods. We aim to contribute to theoretical development of our understanding of civil society, in particular regarding the role of the social context and linking theory with practice. The research will also generate knowledge for policy measures on the usefulness of aid to fulfill the purposes of advancing development and democracy goals.
Ir Amim - Land rights in East Jerusalem
General
Core support to Ir Amim for their work with the protection of Palestinian rights to land and socio-economic development in East Jerusalem. Ir Amim is an Israeli NGO based in Jerusalem that monitors settlement expansion and Palestinian land rights in the city. The organization was founded in the year 2000 with the aim of supporting Jerusalem as a current home and a future shared capital for both Israelis and Palestinians. Continued expansion of settlements in and around Jerusalem, demolition and eviction threats against Palestinians and the challenging of the status quo in relation to the Temple Mount / al-Haram al-Sharif make it increasingly difficult for Palestinians living in East Jerusalem and undermines a future two-state solution. Ir Amim’s work aims to counteract these events and to promote the Palestinian people’s socio-economic rights in East Jerusalem.Ir Amim has received grants from the Ministry for Foreign Affairs since 2009. For the past five years, the support has been between SEK 500,000 and SEK 850,000 per year but in 2021 an increase was granted for a total grant of 1.2 MSEK. The MFA considers the activities well implemented and reported and has a favorable opinion of working with Ir Amim. Given the strategic significance and long term commitment to Ir Amim, MFA has asked Sida to consider taking over the support to the organization. This would enable a more long term support that will allow the organization better opportunity for planning ahead. It would also allow supporting capacity building measures for the organization. Sida intends to provide core support to Ir Amim, as has also been the support-form that the Ministry for Foreign Affairs has used in the last few years. Sida proposes to raise the level of support to Ir Amim to 2 MSEK per year for a period of 3 years. That would equal a bit more than 10% of the organization's total budget and make Sida the 3rd largest donor.Sida's assessment is that the work of Ir Amim is aligned to the Swedish strategy for Palestine and well complements the Human Rights portfolio. The Swedish Strategy for development cooperation with Palestine 2020-2024 highlights East Jerusalem as a prioritised geographical area and the support to Ir Amim responds to the expectation expressed in the strategy that Sida should be prepared to "respond to small scale initiatives of a strategic nature including initiatives aimed at following developments regarding settlement expansion".
Objectives
Objective 1: Safeguarding the conditions for an agreed two state solution and the character of Jerusalem as the present home and future capital of the two peoples, while impeding unilateral and formal and de-facto annexation steps. Objective 2: Protecting the individual and collective home of Palestinians in East Jerusalem including their physical and communal space, socio-economic rights and their right to the city. Objective 3: Local and international target audiences are informed, mobilized and subsequently act with regard to on-the-ground developments that affect the current reality in Jerusalem and the prospect for a negotiated solution.
OKACOM 2014-2017; OKACOM 5-year plan institutional and organizational capacity
General
Support to Okavanago Basin Commission (OKACOM) for part of their five year plan and capacity support to the secretariat. Expected results: i)strengthened secretariat in administration, knowledge management, policy analysis and programme coordination, and ii)a joint decision-making and management framework established within livelihoods, water and land management, environment, biodiversity.