As part of an overall strategy to increase aid and make development assistance a pillar of foreign policy, the Icelandic Foreign Minister Ingibjörg Sólrún Gísladóttir has expressed her intention to make Iceland a member of the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC).

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Auditor General scrutinises Swedish budget support

The Swedish Auditor General has delivered a critical verdict on the way budget support is handled by Sida.

Norway plans to exit from the formalisation and land rights programme in Tanzania that is being carried out by the Peruvian Institute for Liberty and Democracy (ILD).

In this year's Letter of Appropriation to Sida, Development Minister Gunilla Carlsson wants more staff in the field. She also calls for an independent review of consultancy procurement with special focus on "competition neutrality" between state agencies and private companies.

The Norwegian Development Minister Erik Solheim (Socialist Left) has financed SN Power’s buy-up strategy in international hydropower, committing 5 per cent of this year’s aid budget to these purchases. Confronted with the issue by Development Today, the Minister claimed to be unaware of the scale of aid money involved.

The largest recipient of Swedish budget support is Tanzania. Last year, Sida decided to support the country’s budget with SEK 1.2 billion over the coming three years.

Germany, the Netherlands and Australia actively use aid in their counter-terrorism strategies, while the UK warns that doing so risks “unravelling" the international consensus for aid. A report commissioned by the Swedish Foreign Ministry compares donor approaches.