The history of Swedish development assistance – 70 years of lessons learned

Note that this event is in Swedish.

Sweden is today one of the world’s largest donors in relation to population. The “one percent target” was set in 1968 and Sweden’s development assistance has been at an internationally relatively high level since the mid-1970s. But how did Swedish development aid develop? What challenges did the pioneers of Swedish development assistance face? How has development assistance developed over the last 70 years? What can we learn from the history of development aid today?

This webinar, which is co-organized by the Expert Group for Development Aid Analysis (EBA) and the Swedish Development Forum (FUF), draws attention to the launch of the book En svindlande uppgift: Sverige och biståndet 1945–1975, written by Annika Berg, Urban Lundberg and Mattias Tydén from Stockholm University. The book reports on a major research project on the history of Swedish development assistance funded by the Swedish Research Council. During the seminar, the authors introduce their book, we discuss parallels and similarities between now and then and try to learn lessons from history.

Participants

Annika Berg, Associate Professor History of Ideas, Stockholm University
Urban Lundberg, Associate Professor History, Högskolan Dalarna
Mattias Tydén, Associate Professor History, Stockholm University
Lennart Wohlgemuth, Guest Professor University of Gothenburg

Moderator

Kim Forss, EBA