Higher education is crucial to achieving global goals

Scholarships for higher education create positive spillover effects in the form of increased prosperity and reduced poverty, the debater writes.

Of: Malin Cronqvist

Covid-19 has paralyzed the world and healthcare professionals in all countries are tearing the trail of infection. At the same time, the WHO reports that there is a shortage of 5,9 million nurses, mainly in low- and middle-income countries. The difference in access to higher education is becoming clearer than ever, writes Malin Cronqvist at the Help to Help foundation.

May 26, 2020, Debate

Free menstrual protection will get more girls to go to school

Menstrual protection and education

Having access to menstrual protection is a prerequisite for many girls to go to school when they are menstruating. Photo: Marco verch CC BY 2.0 and Tamarcus Brown / Unsplash

Of: Nagaad Kadir Abdimaxmud

Scotland may become the first country in the world where menstrual protection is free for all women. Parliament has voted in favor of a law to reduce menstrual poverty and get all girls to go to school - even when they are menstruating.

April 1, 2020, News

Swedish development aid fails to work for literacy

Indian voters read newspapers during an election rally. Photo: Al Jazeera English (CC BY-SA 2.0).

Indian voters read newspapers during an election rally. Photo: Al Jazeera English (CC BY-SA 2.0).

Of: Gina Manzizila, Hélène Boethius and Lena Islander

Saturday, September 8, celebrates International Literacy Day worldwide. Illiteracy is one of the main causes of poverty. Despite this, Swedish development assistance fails to focus on illiteracy, writes the organization ALEF.

September 7, 2018, Debate

The individual's freedom must be a matter of course, everywhere

Photo: Hamid Ershad Sarabi, WikiMediaCommons

Of: Kerstin Lundgren

Individuals' freedom to decide over their own lives forms the basis of the world the Center Party wants to see. That is why we stand up for the XNUMX% target in development aid, prioritize the poorest countries and want more money to go to local actors who know their communities. Local and equal participation is crucial for development, writes the Center Party's foreign policy spokesperson Kerstin Lundgren.

June 11, 2018, Debate

We demand specific initiatives for teenage girls in crisis and conflict

Of: Agnes Björn, Diana Trimino, Marianne Eriksson and Melanie Ward

Teenage girls are an extra vulnerable group in conflicts and natural disasters. They risk getting married and being abused or trafficked. Yet they are often forgotten in humanitarian aid. The International Rescue Committee and Plan International Sweden therefore call on the Swedish government to make specific initiatives for teenage girls in crisis and conflict.

July 6, 2017, Debate

Invest more in education about natural disasters in the world's schools

Of: Agnes Björn and Marianne Eriksson

Children must be involved in the work of building communities that can stand up to natural disasters. The countries of the world agreed on this in Sendai in 2015. If we want this to become a reality, we must increase aid to civil society and work with disaster risk reduction in the world's schools, writes Plan International Sweden.

May 23, 2017, Debate

Animal health important for poverty reduction and food security

Of: Arvid Owl, Jonathan Rushton and Ulf Magnusson

Investments in improved animal health contribute in several ways to the implementation of Agenda 2030. It shows one new report from the Expert Group on Development Aid (EBA). Improved animal health gives poor animal keepers increased production and yields, and also reduces the spread of infectious diseases and multi-resistant bacteria. Sweden has unique experience of organized animal health work - these experiences should be used in international development cooperation, the authors of the report write.

March 7, 2017, Debate

Invest in educational initiatives with a proven effect

Of: Amy Damon, Bixuan Sun., Paul Glewe and Suzanne Wisniewski

Education leads to development, but what efforts improve education? In order to ensure that training aid is used effectively, aid actors must invest in high-quality evaluations using quantitative methods. It writes Amy Damon, Paul Glewwe, Suzanne Wisniewski and Bixuan Sun, the authors of a new EBA report on educational initiatives in developing countries.

May 10, 2016, Debate

The Kampala Declaration shows why support for African research is so important

Of: Lennart Wohlgemuth

The Kampala Declaration on Academic Freedom was created 25 years ago and was of great importance for the opportunities to conduct critical research in Africa. Sweden supported the initiative, despite risks and the sensitive subject. Now the threats to academic freedom in Africa are increasing again, at the same time as Sweden is reducing the resources for research aid. That must change, writes Lennart Wohlgemuth.

April 26, 2016, Debate