2001) Responsibility and Partnership in Swedish Aid Discourse. Uppsala: The Nordic Africa Institute (original) (raw)
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This paper will examine the Swedish Foreign Aid policy, particularly those values it was based on. It will attempt to discover how the narrative of foreign aid was affected after the accession to the European Union and how the European values were reflected in national foreign aid policy. Since the 1950’s, the Official Development Assistance (ODA), usually referred to as foreign aid is one of the inseparable aspects of foreign affairs of the industrialized world. Moreover, several multilateral organizations, amongst others the European Union (EU), have been established to contribute to the process of development. Even though the European Union tries to represent itself in global politics as a single actor and aspires to have one common voice like in EU trade and agricultural policies, foreign aid policy differs radically from the latter. In this area, the EU and Member States allocate funds separately from each other. When it comes to ODA, Member States retain their autonomous aid p...
LITHUANIAN ANNUAL STRATEGIC REVIEW, 2020
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Bulletin of Geography. Socio-economic Series, 2016
Over the last few decades there has been an increased focus on results within development cooperation, and there has been an intense debate regarding the possible success or failures of development efforts. However, there is no general agreement on what a development result is, or why and whose development results should be reported. The understanding of what a development result entails has also shifted over time. This article aims to contribute to the current debate on development results by exploring how one donor, Sweden, historically has conceptualized development results in its policies and strategies on development cooperation. A review of all policies and general strategies on Swedish development cooperation published between 1962 and 2013, reveals that there has been a shift in how results are conceptualized: from being a mere instrument for supporting partner countries in pursuing more effective development policies and interventions, reporting of development results has b...
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This article examines the background and ambitions of the large-scale Swedish-South Africa Partnership Week that was rolled out across South Africa in November 1999. The Swedish delegation was spearheaded by Prime Minister Göran Persson and consisted of 800 Swedes; high-level ministers, diplomats, civil society representatives and business leaders. The analysis places particular emphasis on the involvement of Swedish multinationals and the central role played by the public relations agency Rikta Kommunikation. Its focus lies on the broader pedagogical function that the Week was intended to have, primarily from a Swedish point of view. I argue that the stated aim to forge an economic partnership between Sweden and South Africa as the logical extension of decades of historical political solidarity was a means of ensuring that citizens learned to understand the pressures and demands of the new era of globalisation. The foreseeable end of Swedish aid to South Africa was to be the dawn o...
Postcolonial tendencies in Swedish development aid
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I wish to express special thanks to my supervisor, Maria Eriksson Baaz, for devoting time to bring clarity and guiding me throughout the process. I also want to direct my gratitude to family members for supporting me and taking time to proofread, and my friends for all the encouragement I have received during the process.
Swedish Internationalism and Development Aid
Oxford Handbooks Online, 2016
This chapter provides a critical assessment of Swedish internationalism by unpacking its social democratic roots and liberal expressions. It examines the distinct features of Sweden’s social democratic internationalism, with its focus on solidarism within and beyond borders, and the country’s tradition of neutrality, which is also linked to internationalism. The chapter also provides an investigation into the internationalist tradition of the center-right coalition government known as the Alliance. The discussion is situated within constructivist scholarship on Swedish internationalism, social democracy, and neutrality. The empirical focus is Sweden’s commitment to a more equitably distributed international income through provisions of overseas development assistance.