Tag: sweden

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What will happen to Swedish development aid?

The future of Swedish development aid is uncertain.

Global Podd, produced by David Isaksson at Global Bar Magazine, explores the future direction of Swedish development aid and discusses the questions: How will aid look like under Sweden’s new government? What priorities will be set and what does the wording on migration mean?

Only a short period of time has passed since Sweden got a new Minister for International Development Cooperation and Foreign Trade with the appointment of Johan Forssell, and it will take some time before a development aid budget for 2023 will be presented.

Aid budget in 2023

A few weeks ago, civil society sounded the alarm about major cutbacks. Now, they look to be significantly lower than expected. In 2023, aid will amount to 0.88%, with increased support for civil society. At the same time, there is great uncertainty about what the wording on aid and migration in the Tidö Agreement will actually mean.

Gudrun Brunegård, Member of the Swedish Parliament and spokesperson for aid policy at the Swedish Christian Democrats (KD), discuss together with Jesper Sundewall, Vice-chair of SweDev and researcher on global health at Lund University, and Monica Lorensson, Head of Policy & Advocacy at Plan International Sweden. The following questions are discussed in the 117th episode of the Global Podd:

  • How will aid meet the increased demands for effectiveness?
  • Does the civil society have reason to rejoice that it is now getting more resources?
  • How can research be given greater prominence in development aid, and what form should future health aid take?

Translation and editing of Global Bar Magazine article by Ylva Rylander, Communications Officer at SEI for SweDev and Roksana Rotter, Research Intern for SweDev.

SweDev researchers selected to the Swedish delegation

Group of young adults, representing the new generation and development.

The Government of Sweden have selected four associated SweDev researchers to join the Swedish delegation at the ECOSOC Forum on Financing for Development taking place 25th – 28th of April.

Jesper Sundewall at Lund University, George Marbuah, Research Fellow at SEI, Sana Rouis Skandrani, Researcher at Karlstad University and Janet Vähämäki, Director of SweDev and Team Lead at SEI, will all be joining the Swedish delegation and contribute with their research expertise to the Forum on Financing for Development. 

“I am really happy that researchers representing academia were invited to the ECOSOC Forum on Financing for Development. This shows that the SweDev network can play a role in coordinating representation to these types of High-Level Conferences on Global Development and thus bridge science and policy.”

Janet Vähämäki

The opportunity was offered to SweDev members after a request from the Ministry for Foreign Affairs to coordinate participation from researchers at the Forum. Future opportunities are offered only to SweDev members – sign up below to become a member.

Read more about the 2022 ECOSOC Forum

Become a SweDev member


News text written by Ylva Rylander, Communications Officer at Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) for SweDev.

EBA invitation for proposals

Student protests at the University of Liberia, Monrovia.

The Expert Group on Aid Studies (EBA) hereby invites proposals for an evaluation of the long-term development cooperation between Liberia and Sweden 2003–2021, within the areas of (i) conflict, peace and security; (ii) democracy and human rights; (iii) inclusive economic development.

The aim of this evaluation is twofold:
1. To gain an in-depth understanding of the relevance, coherence and long-term results of Swedish development cooperation with Liberia (2003–2021) within the areas of (i) conflict, peace, and security; (ii) democracy and human rights, and (iii) inclusive economic development.
2. To generate lessons to inform future Swedish development cooperation with Liberia as well as with other partner countries.

Who is this evaluation for? Target group(s)

The main target group of this evaluation is the staff responsible for Swedish development cooperation at the Swedish Embassy in Monrovia, at the Swedish MFA and at Sida’s Department for Africa as well as in Liberian state authorities and agencies. A particularly important target group is those responsible for the renewal, implementation, and monitoring of the Swedish strategy for Liberia.

Secondary target groups include people with an interest in Liberia or development cooperation in general, Swedish media and the general public in Sweden and Liberia.

Procurement, assessment and deadline

The procedure will be a restricted procedure in two stages.7 At both stages, tenderers are expected to disclose potential conflicts of interest pertaining to members in the evaluation team, as this may be a ground for exclusion of a proposal. All suppliers have the right to apply to submit tenders (expression of interest). EBA will invite five (5) suppliers to submit tenders.

The application shall contain:

  1. CV of the team leader/principal investigator
  2. A list of the team leader/principal investigator’s most relevant publications (at most 10 studies from the last 10 years are to be listed)
  3. Preliminary team (if more than one author. Described using at most 300 words.)
  4. Three full sample studies conducted by members of the proposed team. At least one shall have been authored by the team leader/principal investigator. Note that the studies should be sent in as files, not as links in a document.
  5. A short account for how, according to the authors, respective study has contributed to new, reliable, knowledge of relevance for this evaluation (at most 300 words, i.e. 100 words per study).

The maximum cost for this evaluation is SEK 2 200 000 excl. VAT. The budget shall be denominated in SEK. The budget shall enable three to four meetings with the study’s reference group (to be appointed by EBA), a workshop in Stockholm and participation at the launching event. The reference group will meet in Stockholm, but one or two meetings may be conducted by video link.

Please note that expressions of interest for submitting tenders shall be registered at the tender portal Kommers Annons eLite, no later than 9 May 2022.

About EBA

EBA is a government committee mandated to evaluate and analyse the direction, governance and implementation of Sweden’s official development assistance with a specific focus on results and effectiveness. The expert group has ten members with competencies from different development areas (development, climate, health, sustainability, evaluation issues, etc.). An office with eight employees executes the decisions.

EBA studies overarching issues, not individual projects. We publish studies of various kinds and arrange seminars and targeted meetings. The target groups for the dissemination of knowledge are the government, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Sida, as well as researchers, civil society organizations and other actors in development assistance.