In a podcast produced by Global Bar Magazine, SweDev Vice-chair Jesper Sundewall gives his view on the future of Swedish development aid.
The future of Swedish development aid is uncertain. Photo: Evelyn Mostrom / Unsplash.
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.