Global Development Matters
CARMA site badge

Sweden Sweden

Next Country: Switzerland

Overall score 2008: 6.6
Change since 2003: +0.3 (using 2008 methodology)

Sweden ranks 2nd overall in 2008. The Swedish foreign aid program is the best in the world in terms of quantity, weighted for country size, as well as its quality. The Swedish government also bears a large burden of refugees in humanitarian emergencies and gives strong support for research and development. Its security, investment, and environmental scores are near the CDI averages.

Sweden Scores 2003-2007

2003: 10.6 2003: 5.7 2003: 2.8 2003: 8.8 2003: 6.5 2003: 4.1 2003: 5.5 2003: 6.3 2004: 12.7 2004: 5.9 2004: 2.8 2004: 8.6 2004: 7.6 2004: 4.1 2004: 5.5 2004: 6.7 2005: 10.8 2005: 6.5 2005: 4.4 2005: 8.6 2005: 6.9 2005: 3.9 2005: 5.8 2005: 6.7 2006: 11.4 2006: 6.0 2006: 4.8 2006: 7.1 2006: 6.0 2006: 3.7 2006: 5.5 2006: 6.3 2007: 12.6 2007: 5.8 2007: 5.2 2007: 7.0 2007: 5.3 2007: 4.3 2007: 4.8 2007: 6.4 2008: 13.0 2008: 5.6 2008: 5.2 2008: 7.8 2008: 5.4 2008: 4.3 2008: 4.6 2008: 6.6 Sweden
 

Country Reports

2008 Results

Aid

What it measures

Aid quality is just as important as aid quantity, so the CDI measures gross aid as a share of GNI adjusted for various quality factors: it subtracts debt service, penalizes “tied” aid that makes recipients spend aid only on donor goods and services, rewards aid to poor but relatively uncorrupt recipients, and penalizes overloading poor governments with many small projects.

Sweden Overall

  • Score: 13.0
  • Rank: 1

Sweden Strengths

  • High net aid volume as a share of the economy (0.95%; rank: 1)
  • Prevents project proliferation; large average project size (rank: 9)
  • Selectivity: large share of aid to poor recipients with relatively democratic governments (rank: 6)

Sweden Weaknesses

  • Small amount of private charitable giving attributable to tax policy (rank as a share of GDP: 22)

Trade

What it measures

International trade has been a force for economic development for centuries. The CDI measures trade barriers in rich countries against exports from developing countries.

Sweden Overall

  • Score: 5.6
  • Rank: 8

Sweden Weaknesses

  • High tariffs on agricultural products (38.7% of the value of imports; rank: 16)
  • High agricultural subsidies (equivalent to 12.2% tariff; rank: 10)

Investment

What it measures

Rich-country investment in poorer countries can transfer technologies, upgrade management and create jobs. The CDI includes a checklist of policies that support healthy investment in developing countries.

Sweden Overall

  • Score: 5.2
  • Rank: 9

Sweden Strengths

  • Employs foreign tax credits to prevent double taxation of corporate profits earned abroad
  • Provides support for outflows of portfolio investment
  • Does not impose restrictions on pension fund investments in emerging markets

Sweden Weaknesses

  • Does not screen projects for social impacts through national political risk agency
  • Does not allow domestic investors to take advantage of developing country tax incentives
  • Has yet to complete Phase 2 monitoring of implementation of the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention
  • Does not participate in the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI)

Migration

What it measures

The movement of people from poor to rich countries provides unskilled immigrants with jobs, income and knowledge. This increases the flow of money sent home by migrants abroad and the transfer of skills when the migrants return.

Sweden Overall

  • Score: 7.8
  • Rank: 2

Sweden Strengths

  • Bears large share of the burden of refugees during humanitarian crises (rank: 1)
  • No tuition fee for foreign students
  • Large number of immigrants from developing countries entering Sweden (rank by share of population: 5)
  • Large increase during the 1990s in the number of unskilled immigrants from developing countries living in Sweden (rank by share of population: 6)

Sweden Weaknesses

  • Small share of foreign students from developing countries (54%; rank: 17)

Environment

What it measures

Rich countries use a disproportionate amount of scarce resources, and poor countries are most vulnerable to global warming and ecological deterioration, so the CDI measures the impact of policies on the global climate, fisheries and biodiversity.

Sweden Overall

  • Score: 5.4
  • Rank: 15

Sweden Strengths

  • Low greenhouse gas emissions rate per capita (6.9 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent; rank: 2)
  • Low imports of endangered species (rank: 7)

Sweden Weaknesses

  • Increasing greenhouse gas emissions in 1996–2006 (average annual growth rate/GDP, 1.1%; rank: 21)
  • High fishing subsidies ($5.86 per person; rank: 19)

Security

What it measures

Since security is a prerequisite for development, the CDI rewards contributions to internationally sanctioned peacekeeping operations and forcible humanitarian interventions, rewards military protection of global sea lanes, and penalizes arms exports to poor and undemocratic governments.

Sweden Overall

  • Score: 4.3
  • Rank: 13

Sweden Strengths

  • Significant financial and personnel contributions to internationally sanctioned peacekeeping and humanitarian interventions over last decade (rank by share of GDP: 10)

Sweden Weaknesses

  • Provides little protection of global sea lanes that are important to international trade (rank by share of GDP: 17)
  • High arms exports to poor and undemocratic governments (rank by share of GDP: 19)

Technology

What it measures

Rich countries contribute to development through the creation and dissemination of new technologies. The CDI captures this by measuring government support for R&D and penalizing strong intellectual property rights regimes that limit the dissemination of new technologies to poor countries.

Sweden Overall

  • Score: 4.6
  • Rank: 15

Sweden Strengths

  • High government expenditure on R&D (rank by share of GDP: 6)

Sweden Weaknesses

  • Low tax subsidy rate to businesses for R&D (rank: 19)
  • Offers patent-like proprietary rights to developers of data compilations, including those assembled from data in the public domain
  • Large share of government R&D expenditure on defense (1.4%; rank: 18)