This bachelor thesis adds to the limited information on Swedish foreign aid and its determinants. The thesis evaluates Swedish Official Development Assistance (ODA) on the basis of contemporary research regarding aid effectiveness and poverty alleviation. Econometric tests utilising panel data are performed for democratic consistency, good policies consistency and institutional consistency of ODA flows. The sample is based on data from 1980 to 2006 and is divided into subgroups based on recipient population and the point in time for the disbursement in question. The figures reveal no consistency between Swedish ODA and a relatively democratic state on the side of the recipient, nor any evidence of ODA flows favouring so-called good policies. However, some evidence of systematic disbursements to a relatively healthier institutional environment is found, albeit only for the first testing period (1980-1996). The second period (1997-2006) shows no signs of such consistencies for any subgroup, indicating that this trend is on the decline. The author finds it notable that Swedish ODA agencies have used the research in question to justify the present operations for two reasons. First, no evidence that such research is guiding the operations of those agencies is revealed and second, the tests reveals no significant changes from the first period to the second, despite the fact that the vast majority of well-cited research has been published from 1998 onwards.