International development cooperation

In the communication, the Government reports on, for example, its work on the policy for global development (PGD) during the years 2016–2017 within the scope of the 2030 Agenda and its Global Goals. The 17 goals and 169 targets are universal and indivisible and integrate the three dimensions of sustainable development: economic, social and environmental.

This strategy forms the basis of Sweden’s cooperation with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) during the period 2018–2022.

The Government today decided to contribute more than SEK 2 billion to the seventh replenishment of the Global Environment Facility (GEF-7). Sweden will thereby increase its contribution to the GEF by more than 50 per cent for the period 2018–2022, compared with 2014–2018. This makes Sweden the sixth largest donor overall and the largest per capita donor. In total, replenishment pledges total SEK 34 billion (USD 4.1 billion). This decision reflects what was announced by the Government in the Budget Bill for 2018.

The objective of Sweden’s international development cooperation is to create opportunities for people who live in poverty and oppression to improve their living conditions. Development cooperation will be based on the principles of aid and development effectiveness, and the new agreements reached by the international community in 2015: the 2030 Agenda, the Addis Ababa Action Agenda and the Paris Agreement.

Within the framework of this strategy, Swedish development cooperation with Burkina Faso is to contribute to greater respect for human rights, institutional capacity growth, increased resilience to crises and disasters, environmentally and climate-resilient sustainable development, and improved opportunities for sustainable livelihoods. The strategy will apply during the period 2018–2022 and provide a total of SEK 1 500 million.

This strategy will form the basis of Sweden’s cooperation with the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women). The strategy establishes the priorities and forms of collaboration for Sweden’s membership of, and partnership with, UN Women at global, regional and national level for 2018–2022.

On 23 August, Minister for Foreign Affairs Margot Wallström presented a handbook on Sweden’s feminist foreign policy. “In a worsening climate where human rights and women’s and girls’ rights are increasingly questioned and threatened, and in a world of shrinking democratic space, a feminist foreign policy is needed more than ever. I hope this handbook can be of help along the way for all of us who want to continue fighting for a gender-equal world,” says Ms Wallström.

The Government has adopted a new strategy for Sweden’s cooperation with the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) for the period 2018–2022. Sweden is a major donor to UN Women, which promotes gender equality and women’s and girls’ empowerment and rights worldwide, at global, regional and national level. Swedish core support to UN Women will amount to SEK 536 million during the four-year strategy period.

In October 2014, Sweden became the first country in the world to launch a feminist foreign policy. This means applying a systematic gender equality perspective throughout the whole foreign policy agenda. This handbook should be a resource for international work relating to gender equality and all women’s and girls’ full enjoyment of human rights. It contains a selection of methods and experiences that can provide examples and inspira¬tion for further work of the Swedish Foreign Service, other parts of the civil service and society as a whole. The handbook also describes the first four years of working with a feminist foreign policy. Thereby, it responds to the considerable national and international interest in this policy.

The objective of Sweden’s international development cooperation is to create opportunities for people who live in poverty and oppression to improve their living conditions. Development cooperation will be based on the principles of aid and development effectiveness, and the new agreements reached by the international community in 2015: the 2030 Agenda, the Addis Ababa Action Agenda and the Paris Agreement.

On 16–17 July, Sweden, the Federal Government of Somalia and the EU will jointly host the annual Somalia Partnership Forum. Continued efforts for peace and development in Somalia will be discussed at the Forum.

The objective of Sweden’s international development cooperation is to create opportunities for people living in poverty and oppression to improve their living conditions. Development cooperation will be based on the principles of aid and development effectiveness, and the new international agreements the international community agreed on in 2015.

To support peace and democracy in Somalia, Minister for Foreign Affairs Margot Wallström, EU High Representative Federica Mogherini and Somali President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed will host a forum in Brussels on 16-17 July.

This results strategy covers the period 2014–2020 and comprises a total of SEK 1.9 billion. The aim is to contribute to improving the conditions for people to raise themselves out of poverty, strengthening democracy, respect for human rights and gender equality, and to contribute to sustainable development.

The Stockholm Forum on Gender Equality was held on 15–17 April 2018 and gathered more than 700 participants from over 100 countries and a multitude of sectors and functions. The discussions covered a broad range of areas and focused on concrete methods and tools to enhance gender equality and the full enjoyment of rights, representation and resources for all women and girls.

The European Development Days is a development forum that the European Commission has organised since 2006. This year’s theme was gender equality under the thread ‘Women and Girls at the Forefront of Sustainable Development’.

Today, Sweden entered into a new multiyear agreement to support the UN Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF). With this support, Sweden is consolidating its position as one of the largest donors to the fund.

The Barents cooperation has laid the foundation for far-reaching people-to-people cooperation and high-level political dialogue in the European Arctic. The 25th anniversary of cooperation was marked by a seminar at the Permanent Mission of Sweden to the European Union on 5 June to highlight cooperation in an EU perspective and to look ahead.

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has today appointed Ulrika Modéer Assistant Secretary-General and Director of the Bureau for External Relations and Advocacy at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). As part of the UNDP leadership, Ms Modéer will lead the strategic work on financing issues and external communications.