Reduced aid is causing outrage

Magdalena Andersson

The spring budget presented by Minister of Finance Magdalena Andersson created outrage in the development aid world.

Of: Mona Monasar

The government's decision to take SEK 700 million from the development assistance budget provoked outrage among many organizations this week. At the same time, the debate about the children of IS terrorists in Syria continued. Who is responsible for the children? asked several debaters.

April 12, 2019, Current debate

Assistance with a focus on the most vulnerable

Photo: Johan Wessman, News Øresund, flikr

Of: Julia Kronlid

The Sweden Democrats want to see aid with a clear focus on poverty reduction and that the best interests of the children should be at the center. In addition to general humanitarian aid, we want to invest SEK 10 billion of the aid budget in refugee aid in the immediate area of ​​various crises. It writes Member of Parliament Julia Kronlid.

June 28, 2018, Debate

Our welfare should not be based on the exploitation of people and nature in other parts of the world

Photo: Håkan Dahlström, FI, WikimediaCommons

Of: Jaime Gomez et al.

Feminist initiative advocates global justice and decolonization. We must challenge today's world order where the global north uses the global south. We want international cooperation to take place with mutual respect between equal parties and for the one percent target to be met without setting off costs for refugee reception in Sweden. It writes Jaime Gomez, Mats Ekenger and Maria Persson from the Feminist Initiative.

June 13, 2018, Debate

Migration focus overshadows poverty reduction in development aid

Of: Andrew Sherriff and Anna Knoll

Short-term political response to the migration crisis in several cases appears to have undermined routines for effective aid, and settlements for refugee costs make up a large proportion of today's aid budgets. This shows a new one investigation report from the Expert Group for Aid Analysis, EBA. In parallel with discussions on how development assistance can be used to more systematically address migration flows, we must conduct a fact-based debate on the type of initiatives that are valuable from a broader development perspective, write the report authors Anna Knoll and Andrew Sherriff.

February 2, 2017, Debate

All development assistance expenditure must be traceable

Of: Alina Östling

A new report from the organization Open Government Partnership shows that Sweden has made progress in terms of transparency in development assistance, but that there are still a number of shortcomings. In particular, better information is needed on when, to whom and why development assistance funds have been paid out. The government must also allocate sufficient resources to ensure transparency in the implementation and follow-up of the policy for global development (PGU), writes the report's author Alina Östling.

January 25, 2017, Debate

Three risks with the financial management of development assistance

Of: Jan Pettersson and Sonja Daltung

The expert group for development assistance analysis (EBA) has mapped which state actors decide on which funds within Swedish development assistance. The survey shows that the size of the development assistance budget varies greatly, sometimes during the same year. It also appears that development assistance is increasingly tied up in multi-year agreements, and that decisions are delegated to a large extent. There are several risks with this type of control, write Sonja Daltung and Jan Pettersson.

July 1, 2016, Debate

Shrinking space for civil society requires countermeasures

Of: Agneta Gunnarsson

At the same time as the importance of civil society for development cooperation is emphasized, its scope for action decreases. The reactions to this have so far been tentative, both in Sweden and internationally. Strategic countermeasures are now required, writes Agneta Gunnarsson, author of one new report about the increasingly harsh climate of civil society.

April 25, 2016, Debate

Improve transparency in arms exports and refugee costs

Of: Alina Östling

A new report from the organization Open Government Partership shows that Sweden has made great progress in terms of transparency in development assistance. At the same time, there is a lack of sufficient transparency in arms exports, refugee costs and tax-financed development assistance projects carried out by the business community, writes researcher Alina Östling.

April 14, 2016, Debate

Come and review the cut in aid

Of: Nils Traveller

International aid is facing the biggest cut in modern times. The money that today goes to education and health care can soon be eaten up by expensive peacekeeping efforts. To find out what the consequences will be, Blank Spot Project today launches an open review of development assistance, writes journalist Nils Resare.

December 16, 2015, Debate