Development Co-operation Report 2018

Finland

Leaving no one behind: Finland’s approach and priorities

Finland’s 2016 development policy is guided by a human rights-based approach and focuses on low-income countries. In line with these priorities, its development investments should comply with minimum standards, including adherence to human rights principles, equality, participation and non-discrimination, non-contribution to human rights violations or to existing discriminatory structures and norms. Finland is committed to mainstreaming leave no one behind in its development co-operation with a specific focus on the rights of women and persons with disabilities. It also promotes and funds universal and non-discriminatory basic services such as inclusive education and the right to education for children with disabilities.

Finland is in the process of updating its guidelines for its policy’s three cross-cutting objectives: gender equality, non-discrimination and climate sustainability. The guidelines aim to collect and analyse disaggregated data in a systematic way and to better operationalise and monitor development outcomes from a leave no one behind perspective.

For Finland, key challenges to mainstreaming a leave no one behind approach across all development interventions are: 1) the absence of strategic and policy guidance; 2) modest incentives to systematically analyse inequalities and discriminatory structures to guide funding decisions and programming; and 3) incomplete accountability systems.

Financial flows from Finland to developing countries

Figure 21.1. Net resource flows to developing countries, 2006-16, Finland

Note: Data on other official flows are not available for 2006. Data on officially supported export credits are only available for 2006, 2007, 2009 and 2011.

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Figure 21.2. Net ODA: Trends in volume and as a share of GNI, 2006-17, Finland

P: preliminary data.

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Finland’s performance against commitments for effective development co-operation

Table 21.1. Results of the 2016 Global Partnership monitoring round (updated), Finland

Finland	Alignment and ownership by partner country (%)				Predictability (%)		Transparency
	Use of country-led results frameworks	Funding recorded in countries’ national budgets	Funding through countries’ systems	Untied ODA	Annual predictability	Medium-term predictability	Retrospective statistics (OECD CRS)	Information for forecasting (OECD FSS)	Publishing to IATI
2016	67.0%	60.7%	37.3%	95.3	92.7%	43.7%	good	good	good
Baseline	-	63.3%	56.7%	92.6	82.8%	64.5%	fair	excellent	needs improvement
Trend	-	⇓	⇓	⇑	⇑	⇓	⇑	⇓	⇑

Note: Please refer to Annex B for details on the indicators. Data on untied ODA, retrospective statistics and publishing to the IATI have been updated according to the latest information available.

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Finland’s official development assistance

In 2017, Finland provided USD 1.1 billion in net ODA (preliminary data), which represented 0.41% of gross national income (GNI) and a fall of 3.3 % in real terms from 2016 due to a decrease in in-donor refugee costs. Finland, like other EU member countries, committed in 2015 to provide 0.7% of GNI as official development assistance (ODA) by 2030. In 2017, in-donor refugee costs were USD 77 million and represented 7.3% of Finland’s total net ODA, compared to 12.3% in 2016.

The share of Finnish ODA that is untied (excluding administrative costs and in-donor refugee costs) has increased, from 92.6% in 2015 to 95.3% in 2016, compared to the 2016 Development Assistance Committee (DAC) average of 81.2%. The grant element of total ODA was 100% in 2016. Loans amounted to 2.1% of gross ODA.

In 2016, 60.3% of ODA was provided bilaterally. Finland allocated 39.7% of total ODA as core contributions to multilateral organisations. In addition, it channelled 28.7% of its bilateral ODA for specific projects implemented by multilateral organisations (multi-bi/non-core).

Figure 21.3. ODA composition in 2010-16 and distribution of multilateral ODA in 2016, Finland

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In 2016, 42.1% of bilateral ODA was programmed with partner countries. Finland’s share of country programmable aid was below the DAC country average (46.8%) in 2016. Project-type interventions accounted for 66% of this aid.

Figure 21.4. Composition of bilateral ODA, 2016, gross disbursements, Finland

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In 2016, USD 117 million of bilateral ODA was channelled to and through civil society organisations (CSOs). ODA channelled to and through CSOs decreased between 2015 and 2016 as a share of bilateral aid (from 26.9% in 2015 to 18.3% in 2016).

Figure 21.5. Gross bilateral ODA disbursements to and through CSOs by type of CSO, 2010-16, Finland

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Bilateral ODA was primarily focused on sub-Saharan Africa and south and central Asia. In 2016, USD 160.8 million was allocated to sub-Saharan Africa and USD 86.6 million to south and central Asia.

Figure 21.6. Share of bilateral ODA by region, 2016, gross disbursements, Finland

Note: Forty-three per cent of bilateral ODA allocated was unspecified by region in 2016. This share is not represented on the map.

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In 2016, 30.1% of bilateral ODA went to Finland’s top 10 recipients. All of its nine long-term partner countries are among its top 10 recipients of bilateral ODA. In 2016, Finland’s support to fragile contexts reached USD 251.3 million (39% of gross bilateral ODA). Support to fragile contexts consisted mainly of project-type interventions (65%) and contributions to pooled funds (27%).

Figure 21.7. Bilateral ODA to top recipients, 2016, gross disbursements, Finland

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The share of bilateral ODA that was allocated to least developed countries (LDCs) was 30.6%, amounting to USD 195.8 million in 2016. The share decreased from 32.8% in 2015, but remains higher than the 2016 DAC average of 21.9%. The LDCs received the highest share of bilateral ODA compared with other income groups in 2015, noting that 51% was unallocated by income group.

At 0.13% of GNI in 2016, total ODA to the LDCs was below the UN target of 0.15% of GNI.

Figure 21.8. Bilateral ODA by income group, 2010-16, gross disbursements, Finland

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In 2016, 25.8% of bilateral ODA was allocated to social infrastructure and services, amounting to USD 124.6 million, with a strong focus on support to government and civil society (USD 58.1 million). USD 75 million was allocated to humanitarian aid. In 2016, Finland committed USD 1.2 million (0.4% of bilateral allocable aid) to the mobilisation of domestic resources in developing countries. It also committed USD 63.8 million (21.2% of bilateral allocable aid) to promote aid for trade and to improve developing countries’ trade performance and integration into the world economy.

Figure 21.9. Share of gross bilateral ODA by sector, 2015-16, commitments, Finland

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USD 159.6 million of bilateral ODA supported gender equality in 2016. In 2016, 53.2% of Finland’s bilateral allocable aid had gender equality and women’s empowerment as a principal or significant objective, compared with the DAC country average of 36.5%. This is an increase from 49.9% in 2015. A high share of Finland’s aid to population and reproductive health, education, and other social infrastructure focuses on gender.

Figure 21.10. Share of bilateral allocable ODA in support of gender equality by sector, 2016, commitments, Finland

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USD 66.6 million of bilateral ODA supported the environment in 2016. In 2016, 22.1% of Finland’s bilateral allocable aid focused on the environment and 12.3% (USD 37.1 million) focused on climate change, compared with respective DAC country averages of 33% and 25.7%.

Figure 21.11. Bilateral allocable ODA in support of global and local environment objectives, 2010-16, commitments, Finland

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Note to reader: Annex B provides “Methodological notes on the profiles of Development Assistance Committee members”.