Q&A: What Sida's director-general wants to see happen in September

NEW YORK — Development finance needs better coordination, cooperation, and definitions, the director-general of the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency told Devex. Sweden has been an active participant in discussions about development finance, and country representatives attending the Financing for Development Forum this month presented about the Swedish Investors for Sustainable Development initiative, which brings together private investors and looks at ways to push the dialogue forward. Devex met with Sida Director-General Carin Jämtin to discuss where things stand with Sustainable Development Goals financing efforts, Sweden’s official development assistance, European aid cooperation, and the “global gag rule.” “We are in an urgent situation to reach the goals.” --— Carin Jämtin, director-general, Sida The conversation has been edited for length and clarity. You’ve been at the Financing for Development Forum. Where do you think things stand in terms of financing the SDGs? And what needs to be done coming out of this week in the lead up to September’s high-level dialogue? Align the two agendas [financing for development and the SDGs] and work with them in parallel. We have that opportunity in September actually, there is the first sort of real stocktaking of the agenda 2030, the follow up to the FfD and there will also be a climate summit at the same time. Hopefully, at least the two or three of them will be discussed. I hope that there will be a discussion or a start of aligning all of these processes at least the agenda 2030 and the FfD process so we can discuss the two processes together. Maybe have FfD at the same time as HLPF [high-level political forum] annually or three times a year or every month or whatever but to have a continuous follow-up also of the FfD. Because we need to discuss financing not for the sake of financing, but financing for reaching the goals and the targets in the agenda, therefore we have to discuss it at the same time. That would be my most important takeaway from this week. And urgency, of course — there will be a report quite soon that will show us that we are in an urgent situation to reach the goals. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development recently released its annual report on official development assistance, and it notes that Swedish net ODA is up 4.5%. Why is that and where are those funds going? To be honest, I have not had the time to dig into it, but my guess is that it would show [that] we are more and more present in countries in or just stepping out of conflict, or in other ways problematic situations. Afghanistan is today our biggest program country, we are restarted in South Sudan, we are present in Somalia, I think today it’s our fourth biggest country. Iraq, Syria ... It's actually impossible or extremely difficult to work via other channels than the multilateral institutions. So my guess is, when we dig into it, that will be the reason for the increase. The European Union has convened a “wise persons group” to look at development finance. What do you think it should address to help European agencies work together better? Make a modern aid effectiveness agenda, that is one area I would suggest. Another would be to discuss the integrity of ODA and TOSSD [total official support for sustainable development] and all of the things that are now being discussed around measuring flows into the agenda 2030 so the ODA definition is not diluted either in monetary terms nor in what is counted as ODA. And the third area is for us to be more innovative ... to do work in a catalytic way. Even if all countries would live up to 0.7% of ODA set aside, that would not be enough to reach the goals and to reach the targets. So, we will have to work in a more closer or innovative way with domestic resource mobilization in the developing world, but also to bring other kinds of capital and money into sustainable financing for the Sustainable Development Goals. Not any kind of financing, and not any kind of investments, but sustainable investments. We will have to discuss a little bit more what is a good investment and what is an investment only for an investment, the definitions. Last month, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced an expansion of the global gag rule. Sweden has been outspoken in its opposition to this policy — what is your response to the latest expansion? We will continue to be outspoken and we will continue to support organizations and the partners who work with a holistic approach on the rights perspective of the SRHR [sexual and reproductive health and rights] agenda. Meaning, we will look upon it not as a health issue but as a rights issue for women, girls, also boys, men to have the right to sexual education, contraceptives, having the right not to have a child, and to have sex without wanting to have a child, etc. “We know [SRHR] is the best way to protect and promote every human being’s right of deciding over his or her own life.” --— That is the agenda we will continue to push, not because we have an ideological view around it, but we know it’s the best way to protect and promote every human being’s right of deciding over his or her own life. If a young girl falls pregnant when she’s 14, it’s extremely difficult for her to go back to school, to get a job, and the economic situation for her and for her children will be complicated all into the future. So it’s linked and we know scientifically that good SRHR work is also good for poverty reduction and the future of all of us. That is what we base it on, and we will continue to do that. We had the possibility of meeting USAID [this month] and simply stated we have different views on this. We continue to work together in other fields but in this, we will continue to support organizations that actually do not align with the Mexico City Policy. They were not surprised, we are still friends. We continue our current [funding] because we stated two years ago that we will stop funding to any partner who signs up to the Mexico City Policy. None of our partners have signed up to the Mexico City Policy so we will probably continue having a huge chunk of our health and other policy money being used in this field, which I'm proud of.