APRIL APRIL! FUF's very purpose is to spread reliable knowledge about global issues. But yesterday, April 1st, we couldn't resist making a joke about it a little when the opportunity arose with Paulina Brandberg's resignation the day before. So to clarify – as far as we know, Minister Dousa will NOT be expanding her portfolio.
Yesterday, the news came that three liberals are leaving important positions within the party and the government. Including Paulina Brandberg, who is resigning from her position as Minister of Gender Equality and Working Life. Utvecklingsmagasinet has learned that the resignation will have repercussions in the corridors of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The ministerial defection will mean a shake-up in the government. The second in less than a year after the government was reshuffled in connection with the opening of parliament in September last year.
Utvecklingsmagasinet has now learned that major changes are to come. A confidential source at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has, on the promise of anonymity, told us about the government's plans to reorganize the departments' areas of responsibility.
Until the current government took office, the responsibility for foreign trade and development assistance was divided between two ministerial posts. With his appointment as minister in 2022, Johan Forssell became the first minister to be solely responsible for both policy areas. After the government reshuffle in September 2022, he was succeeded by Benjamin Dousa as Minister for Development Assistance and Foreign Trade.
A new consolidation is to wait when responsibility for gender equality and working life issues is moved from the Ministry of Labour to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (UD). With the new mandate of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Benjamin Dousa's portfolio is also expanded, and he is now expected to become Minister for Foreign Trade, Gender Equality, Development Assistance, and Labor Issues. An internal memo reads:
– Gender equality work in Sweden has come a long way – and so have our working life issues. It is not here at home that we see the big problems anymore. If we are to use the treasury correctly, we must prioritize correctly and invest where the needs actually exist – abroad in markets of interest to Swedish companies. This will be a way to further increase the synergies between development aid and trade and a natural next step in the largest restructuring of Swedish development aid since the 70s.
At the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as in periods subjected to efficiency requirements, An official wonders whether the expansion of the minister's areas of responsibility must stop at gender equality and working life issues.
– If he is now both Minister for Development Cooperation and Foreign Trade and Minister for Gender Equality and Employment, I think the next step will be for him to step in as both head chef and janitor at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. We always need someone who can fix the coffee machine when it breaks down.
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