Glossary
Published: September 7, 2020
Updated: March 24, 2021
Explanations of the main terms and concepts used on this website.
a
- Activity
- An activity is the lowest level in a contribution. Swedish development cooperation contributions may consist of one or more activities. The fact that a contribution consists of several activities may be due to: - The contribution is spread out across several countries and/or sectors. - The contribution is financed through several strategies. - The contribution is financed by Sida and one or more other parties. An activity is then created for each co-financier. - The contribution is financed through several forms of cooperation.
- Aid
- Often used for both development cooperation and humanitarian aid.
- Amount
- Total amount is the sum of the contribution data available on Openaid. The amounts shown on Openaid are given in the monetary value of each specific year, based on the OECD/DAC's official currency conversion rates. Consequently, they do not show the relative size but the actual amount paid each year. For some activities, $0 amounts are indicated. This means that the contribution is ongoing within the agreement, but that no payments have been made that year. When negative amounts appear, these correspond to refunds. When Openaid shows net worth, this also indicates what has been repaid for various reasons. For example, this could be a question of interest rates. Data on Openaid applies to individual contributions, but in some cases contributions are grouped and their transaction data is aggregated. However, the total amounts are intact.
b
- Bilateral development cooperation
- Bilateral development cooperation refers to cooperation between Sweden and another country or region. Sida is responsible for Sweden's bilateral development cooperation.
- Bilateral, unspecified
- Activities are marked with "Bilateral, unspecified" if they are not linked to a specific geographical location and are not included in any of the other categories.
c
- CSO
- Short for Civil Society Organisation.
- Code
- Each sector has a code in accordance with the OECD/DAC sector code standard. Which are the same as the ones used by the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI). A sector describes what specific recipient area a contribution should benefit and develop. On Openaid, each contribution is linked to a sector with a sector code describing the thematic area in which the contribution will be performed.
- Cooperation partner/partner organisation
- Partners or partner organisations are the actors with whom Sweden cooperates.
- Currency
- Openaid displays transactions in both USD and SEK. Change currency by clicking on the currency icon in the menu.
d
- DAC
- The Development Assistance Committee (DAC) is the OECD Aid Committee. A international forum for consultations among aid donors on assistance to less-developed countries. The DAC also compiles statistics on aid flows and reviews the aid.
- Development cooperation
- The long-term development cooperation is pursued in two forms: bilaterally or multilaterally. The objective of Swedish development cooperation is to create opportunities for people living in poverty and under oppression to improve their living conditions.
e
- Expenditure area 7: International aid
- Government expenditure is divided into 27 expenditure areas. Each expenditure area shows how much money goes to different government activities. Expenditure area 7 deals with international aid. On Openaid data is available for the agencies controlling funds in this expenditure area.
- Expert Group for Aid Studies (EBA)
- EBA is a government committee mandated to evaluate and analyse Sweden's official development assistance.
- Exporting data
- The website’s data can be exported to Excel.
f
- Financial information
- For every contribution on Openaid the following financial information is presented: Paid per year (net value) Total paid amount (net value) Total committed amount The posts shows the annual total amount of disbursements. For the current year, the figure reflects the total amount of disbursements up until the date of the latest data update. The date of the latest data update is available on the bottom of the web page.
- Form of cooperation
- Describes the focus and the design of the cooperation between Sweden and its cooperation partner.
- Framework organisation
- As of April 2019, Sida uses the term strategic partner organisations (SPO) to describe the Swedish organisations with which Sida has long-term partnerships. These were previously termed framework organisations.
h
- HDI
- Short for Human Development Index. A measure of human development.
- Humanitarian aid
- Humanitarian aid is immediate support in emergency situations. The purpose of humanitarian aid is to save lives, alleviate misery and establish dignity for people affected by such things as armed conflicts or natural disasters.
i
- IATI
- The International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) is a global initiative aimed at improving transparency in development cooperation and humanitarian work. The aim is to strengthen cooperation between countries, donors, multilateral organisations, the private sector and civil society organisations, as well as to increase coordination, accountability and efficiency in development cooperation. IATI includes a standard that defines how data for aid should be structured and what data should be published. The aim is to make data more accessible to all interested parties. The publishing of data on Openaid is based on this standard.
- ID
- Each contribution and each activity presented on Openaid has a unique ID number.
m
- Multilateral aid
- Multilateral development cooperation is the support that Sweden gives together with other countries to multilateral organisations. The multilateral organisation is either the implementing Party or it forwards the funds to other organisations. Multilateral development cooperation is largely handled by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, unlike bilateral development cooperation, which is usually handled by Sida. The UN and the World Bank are two examples of multilateral organisations.
- Multilateral core support
- Multilateral core support is support that goes to the activities of a multilateral organisation in its entirety without being earmarked for a particular project. This means that the organisation's board (of which Sweden is often a member) decides how the funds are to be used. The UN and the World Bank are two examples of multilateral organisations.
n
- NGO
- Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), a voluntary/civil society organisation.
- Negative amounts
- For some contributions, negative amounts are specified. These correspond to refunds. When Openaid shows net prices, this also indicates what has been repaid for various reasons.
o
- ODA
- Official Development Assistance. The term was developed by OECD/DAC. The OECD/DAC has a list of the countries eligible to receive official development assistance (ODA).
- OECD
- Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.(OECD) is a organisation for economic cooperation and development.
- OECD/DAC
- The Development Assistance Committee (DAC) is the OECD Aid Committee. A international forum for consultations among aid donors on assistance to less-developed countries. The DAC also compiles statistics on aid flows and reviews the aid.
p
- Partner country
- The partner country is the country or region which the contribution intends to benefit, often where the project is implemented.
- Policy marker
- Policy markers show what an activity contributes to or aims to achieve based on specific policy objective. The following policy markers are displayed in the available data on Openaid, based on the OECD/DAC system: Gender Equality, Aid to Environment, Participatory Development/Good Governance, Trade Development, Disaster Risk Reduction(DRR), Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn and Child Health, Disability. Openaid also has four markers that rate what an activity contributes to with regard to climate and biodiversity: Biological Diversity, Climate Change – Mitigation, Climate Change – Adaptation, Desertification. Each policy marker is listed as: Principal objective, Significant objective, Not targeted. The policy markers describe the extent to which an activity contributes to a specific development policy based on the OECD/DAC classification. However, the fact that an activity is marked "not targeted" in a specific area does not mean that the activity has not taken this area into account. For example, an activity may be marked "not targeted" in the gender equality field, but the activity still has a gender perspective to ensure that it does not have a negative effect in this area.
r
- Regional development cooperation
- Parts of Swedish development cooperation are carried out in several countries or by regional organisations in order to create solutions for regional cross-border problems.
- Responsible actor
- Swedish agencies and departments controlling funds in Expenditure area 7: International aid. For example Sida, Ministry for Foreign Affairs and Folke Bernadotte Academy.
s
- SADEV
- The Swedish Agency for Development Evaluation, (SADEV) was a Swedish agency that was tasked with evaluating Swedish development cooperation between the years 2006-2012. In September 2012, the Government decided to phase out SADEV from the end of 2012/2013. To replace SADEV, an expert group was established to evaluate and analyse Swedish aid.
- Sector
- A sector describes what specific recipient area a contribution should benefit and develop. On Openaid, each activity is linked to a sector that describes the thematic area in which the activity will be performed. Openaid is based on the OECD/DAC sector code standard, which is also used by the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI). On Openaid, it is possible to filter based on a sector category. For example trade or industry. On Openaid, it is also possible to filter by a sector which is a more specific definition of a sector category.
- Sector category
- A sector describes what recipient area a contribution should benefit and develop. On Openaid, each activity is linked to a sector that describes the thematic area in which the activity will be performed. Openaid is based on the OECD/DAC sector code standard, which is also used by the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI). On Openaid, it is possible to filter based on sector category. Some examples are trade, industry and education. On Openaid, it is also possible to filter by sector which is a more specific definition.
- Strategic partner organisations
- Sida has a long-term cooperation agreement with a number of Swedish civil society organisations. These strategic partner organisations (SPO) contribute to the strengthening of civil society in partner countries. SPOs were formerly known as framework organisations.
- Strategy
- One of the Government's instruments for managing development cooperation and humanitarian aid is strategies. Strategies can be linked to a country, a region or a thematic area. Strategies can also take on a global approach.
- Strategy report
- Each year, the responsible agency is tasked with producing a strategy report describing the progress of the strategy.
- Sustainable Development Goals
- By 2030, extreme poverty must be eradicated and human rights respected. The climate crises should be resolved and peace and justice achieved. The plan to achieve this, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, was formally adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in autumn 2015, together with 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and 169 associated targets. Data is available and presented from 2019 onwards. There may be one or more SDGs reported for each contribution. The SDG indicates what a contribution contributes or is intended to contribute to achieving. This is based on the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) system of sector classifications for SDGs.
t
- Transparency Guarantee
- On 1 January 2010, a transparency guarantee was introduced into Swedish development cooperation. The guarantee means that public documents and public information will be made available online. The place for this is Openaid.
u
- Unspecified
- Contributions are marked as "Unspecified" if they can not be referred to any of the other sector categories. Contributions may also be marked as "Unspecified" if they do not fit into types of actors/implementation channels.