In an unprecedented letter to Development Minister Gunilla Carlsson, five top-level Sida officials have launched a counter-attack on Carlsson’s heavy criticism of the Swedish aid administration.

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Norway’s aid spending on refugees unprecedented in OECD

Norway will report more than the other Nordics combined as ODA spent on domestic refugee costs in 2010, bringing its aid level above 1 per cent of GNI. In Sweden, the government has been criticised for using too much of the aid budget on domestic refugee costs. Yet Norway spends twice as much per refugee - NOK 160,000 - as Sweden.

One of the few concrete numbers in the Copenhagen Accord is USD 30 billion in “new and additional" climate money for 2010-12 to be provided by rich countries. When it comes to Nordic climate aid, funds will be neither “new" nor “additional" to aid levels set before Copenhagen.

Donors have asked GAVI and the World Bank to put together a panel of experts to explore a second Advance Market Commitment (AMC) that would stimulate provision of vaccines against a poor-country disease, possibly malaria.

FAO has launched a programme that aims to turn crop fields into carbon sinks and to develop funding mechanisms that would benefit small farmers. Finland is the first donor to provide cash.

A group of 15 donors, which carry out joint reviews of UN agencies and the World Bank, will extend their assessments. In future they will be more thorough and cover humanitarian organisations and global funds.

Donor practice on the reporting of refugee costs as ODA varies significantly. While all the Nordic nations report refugee costs in their aid budgets, there is a significant minority of OECD countries that does not.

Top-level Sida staff hit back at Gunilla Carlsson

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