The Green Party promises a green feminist foreign policy

23 percent the total global aid fell from the 33 member countries of the economic cooperation body OECD DAC in 2024. Sweden's total international aid has also declined during the mandate period.

It is a development that the Green Party wants to reverse. 

They want Sweden to take a leading role in the work of maintaining and increasing international aid. Swedish aid fills a both solidarity and security policy purposes, the party writes in its shadow budget for 2026.  Least one percent of Sweden's gross national income (GNI) should go to international aid and development cooperation should be based on poverty alleviation, climate and environment, gender equality and human rights. 

– The Green Party's aid policy election promise is to continue fighting for climate justice. To lift people out of poverty and oppression and to bring back a feminist foreign and development policy, explained Janine Alm Ericson, the Green Party's aid policy spokesperson, in FUF's party hearing. 

Strengthened assistance to the UN and development research 

Av The Green Party's budget motion It also appears that they want to protect core support to several UN agencies, including the UN Development Programme (UNDP), the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) and the gender equality agency UN Women. Core support is support that is paid unconditionally. The recipient organization can use the money where it believes it will be most beneficial. This is in contrast to earmarked support where the donor decides how and for what the money will be used.  

The core supports plays an important role in enabling organizations to meet needs in places and projects where there is a lack of earmarked support or if the needs in a place suddenly increase, for example after a natural disaster. Sweden's return to delivering strong core support, the Green Party believes, will strengthen our global reputation.  

Shortly after the Tidö government took office, they more than halved research aid from 960 to 440 million. Since then, the amount has fallen further. In its instructions to Sida The government is earmarking SEK 246 million for research collaborations in 2026.    

Civil society and researchers have pointed out how the support has played an important role including supporting research institutions that have developed cholera vaccines and innovative cultivation methods, supporting the emergence of research systems in low-income countries and examining the results of aid. The Green Party wants to invest in research aid and proposes in its shadow budget that the support be increased to 700 million kronor.  

In 2024, 3,4 billion people lived in countries that spent more money paying off interest on foreign loans than on education or healthcare. This is according to figures from the UN body for trade and development (UNCTAD). The fact that countries due to their debt burden cannot afford to make domestic investments is usually described as “the Global South Debt Crisis”. On its website, the Green Party states that it wants to work for write-offs of “unjust” debts which hinders the development of countries. However, the party does not go into what factors would make a debt subject to write-off. 

Climate – an aid issue

In its party program bwrites the Green Party climatethe climate crisis as a global justice issue where Sweden and other historical emitters have a special responsibility to help others make the transition. The party wants to increase aid to the countries most affected by climate change and for Swedish aid to accelerate the phase-out of fossil energy and be used for investments in renewable energy, energy efficiency and energy distribution that will reach the poorest.  

Sweden should also have a driving role in international climate negotiations. The party In particular, the EU is highlighted as an important arena for climate work and wants all EU legislation to be based on the global climate agreement, the Paris Agreement. The party also wants Sweden's trade relations and the EU's trade agreements to take into account the environment, human rights and global justice.  

A green feminist foreign policy 

Swedish foreign policy should be under the leadership of the Green Party work for peace, democracy, human rights and climate justice. They want to announce a feminist green foreign policy that protects women's rights, self-determination and role in development and peace work. Women and children living in poverty are particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change, according to the Green Party, which therefore wants to see an integration of climate and gender equality policies.   

Justice is a common thread in the party's policy document. Accountability should be demanded for war crimes, "regardless of who commits them," and Sweden should work for a free Palestine, the party writes on its website. websiteThe Green Party wants to strengthen the UN, international courts and peacebuilding efforts. 

As part of the peace work, the party wants to see a stop to arms exports to dictatorships and increase support for international peace work, Swedish peace organizations, peacebuilding efforts, and research on disarmament and non-proliferation of weapons. The party's election manifesto states that they want Sweden to continue to support Ukraine's freedom struggle.

 

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