ODA Spending


How much ODA does Sweden allocate to global health?



How is Swedish ODA to global health changing?


Sweden's contributions to health have decreased since 2021. The increase in Sweden’s health ODA in 2021 is closely tied to Sweden’s COVID-19 support. Also associated with this increase is Sweden’s funding for health earmarked funding through multilaterals, which rose from US$236 million in 2020 to US$249 million in 2021.



How is Swedish ODA to global health allocated?


Bilateral Spending


In 2022, Sweden disbursed 54% of its health ODA bilaterally, although 30% of the total was earmarked funding through multilaterals.



Multilateral Spending and Commitments


In 2022, 46% of Sweden’s health ODA consisted of core contributions to multilateral organizations ( DAC average: 34%).


Key multilateral partners include Global Fund (SEK3 billion, or US$296 million, for 2020-2022); Gavi (SEK1.75 billion, or US$190 million, for 2021-2025 in direct contributions); IDA US$1.1 billion for 2022-2025); and UNFPA US$300 million for 2022-2025). In line with its overall multilateral funding, the Swedish government is also a strong supporter of UN agencies.



Funding and Policy Outlook


What is the current government's perspective on global health ODA?


Laying a foundation for sustainable and quality health systems: Health features prominently in the priorities set in Sweden’s 2016 Policy framework for Swedish development cooperation and humanitarian assistance, but specific priorities for health fall under the scope of the global strategy for sustainable social development (published in July 2018) which covers the period from 2018 to 2022 and comes with a SEK7.1 billion ( US$816 million) envelope. Objectives of the strategy include HSS, SRHR, water and sanitation, enhanced capacity to promote healthier lives, and the prevention of the adverse health impacts of environmental pollution and climate change. Rights-based and anti-discrimination approaches form the basis of Sweden’s activities in global health, with the principal objective of promoting equitable health.


Sweden is committed to tackling AMR: Sweden is also committed to tackling AMR, with the Uppsala-based organization ReAct. To support low-income countries' fight against AMR, between 2019 and 2022, Swedish funding to ReAct is expected to reach SEK72 million ( US$7.6 million). As a complement to its support for ReAct, in January 2021, Sweden provided an additional SEK70 million ( US$8 million) to the UN AMR MPTF—a funding mechanism to support WHO, the FAO, and OIE in their joint work on AMR. Sida will also support research on AMR, with an estimated SEK35 million ( abbr"US$3.7 million) allocated to the ‘Joint Programming Initiative on Antimicrobial Resistance’ between 2020 and 2022.


On August 17, 2023, Sweden unveiled its annual report on development assistance in global health and SRHR, which underscored Sweden's goal of promoting global health as one of its foremost development policy priorities.


Key Bodies



Global health R&D is also important to addressing many of the global health challenges that disproportionately affect the world’s most disadvantaged people. For more information on how donor countries are supporting global health R&D across three main areas — 1) EIDs; 2) PRNDs; and 3) SRH — read the excellent G-Finder reports and explore the interactive data portal created by Policy Cures Research. Not all funding mentioned in these analyses qualifies as ODA.


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