CIVICUS speaks with Eva Ekelund, Deputy Director of Act Church of Sweden, about the Swedish International Development Agency’s (Sida) decision to terminate their agreements with strategic partner civil society organisations (CSOs).
The Act Church of Sweden, one of the affected CSOs, is dedicated to defending people’s rights and dignity through church cooperation, development cooperation, humanitarian relief efforts and advocacy.
What’s Sida’s role, and what changes has it recently introduced?
Sida is the government agency within the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs responsible for managing most of Sweden’s aid budget. Its main goal is to reduce poverty in low and middle-income countries through development cooperation, and one way of doing that is by working with civil society.
The ministry allocates some of the aid budget to the multilateral system and some of it through its CSO strategy, which it implements through multi-year cooperation agreements with 17 strategic partners. These 17 CSOs, one of which is Act Church of Sweden, are tasked with undertaking humanitarian initiatives in a range of thematic and geographic areas.
The government sets strategic guidelines for cooperation on the basis of principles such as inclusive partnerships, local ownership and transparency. Multi-year agreements foster predictability and flexibility. They are based on trust and the assumption that a vibrant and diverse civil society is key for sustainable and rights-based development.
The latest strategy was valid for the 2016-2022 period, and on 1 February 2024 the government published a new strategy that will last for only one year. Changes to the strategy have traditionally been made in consultation with Swedish civil society, but in this case there were just a couple of meetings in which we didn’t even have the chance to comment on any written drafts.
On 29 February, the government commissioned Sida to submit impact assessments, proposals and descriptions of the support strategic partners had provided to CSOs. Two weeks later, without any consultation or assessment, Sida verbally communicated its intention to terminate all agreements with its strategic partners as of 31 December 2024. While this still needs to be formally communicated, it is an unprecedented move that breaks decades of trustful relationships with civil society.
Sida plans to put out a call for concept notes in May and for full applications to select new strategic partners in August. We are deeply concerned about the speed and lack of transparency of this process. Current strategic partners underwent very rigorous organisational reviews before entering their agreements with Sida. It’s difficult to see how the quality of assessments will be maintained.
Why did the government make this decision?
The decision to terminate these agreements is part of the current government’s agenda of development cooperation reform.
We initially welcomed the agenda’s focus on civil society and localisation, which will mean more funding to national and local partners and is part of our organisation’s strategy. However, we have yet to see this reflected in numbers. With this year’s reduction in civil society funding and next year’s announced overall cut to the aid budget, we are yet to see how this new focus will be implemented.
The reform agenda also emphasises economic development, trade and middle-income countries. Sweden has already phased out support for countries such as Cambodia, Mali, Palestine and South Sudan. If the aid budget is further reduced, more low-income countries will be at risk.
Moreover, the reform agenda states that the aid budget should be used to curb and control migration towards Europe in general and Sweden in particular. In December, the government issued an instruction according to which Sida must focus on strengthening the capacity of partner countries to ensure safe, orderly and regular migration. The instruction contains a lot of detail about Sida’s focus on enabling transit countries’ border procedures, cooperation and migration management, creating conditions for return and sustainable reintegration, promoting opportunities for voluntary repatriation, cooperating with the Swedish Migration Agency and tackling root causes of irregular migration and forced displacement.
We think that diverting funding from fighting poverty and rights-based development initiatives to migration control represents a paradigm shift away from a rights-based approach.
Overall, the way in which this reform is being carried out is completely irresponsible and unpredictable.
How will the decision to discontinue partnerships affect civil society, in Sweden and abroad?
Sida’s strategic partners have long been key for reaching out to local CSOs in global south countries and building support for development aid among Swedish people. But our funding opportunities and space to work are gradually decreasing. When it comes to communicating development assistance results, we’ve had decreasing support. The same goes for public education. New regulations for CSOs are being proposed to parliament and even the Swedish Inheritance Fund’s support to CSOs is under threat.
The government bases its reform agenda on the argument that civil society must be more independent. This underscores the need to enhance the general understanding of civil society not only as a channel for funding but also as building material for democracy and justice.
We believe that the system could have been gradually reformed by sticking to current agreements and progressively inviting new partners as agreements expire. The sudden termination of all agreements will affect the work of more than 1,750 counterpart CSOs in 90 countries. These organisations had no opportunity to influence the decision even though they are deeply affected by it, as they are strongly reliant on this aid. Many of these are global south organisations that work with excluded communities in contexts of heavily constrained civic space. Swedish CSOs will also be affected. Some will be forced to make large staff reductions and reduce their collaboration with partner CSOs.
Act Church of Sweden faces the possibility of losing all of the support we get from Sida. We don’t know what the selection criteria for new partners will be and therefore have no idea if we’ll be able to access any upcoming funding opportunities. This will impact on our daily work, that of our partner CSOs and the lives of the people who benefit from their work. We will prioritise our programmatic work, but we anticipate significant challenges ahead.
What support can the international community offer to mitigate the effects of this decision?
The international community can and should play a crucial role. International stakeholders should follow developments in Sweden and stay informed about changes in aid funding allocation. They should take the time to understand the Swedish context before welcoming any decision that’s announced. They should share updates on social media and help raise awareness.
International calls for a predictable, transparent and accountable process and other forms of solidarity are needed. They’ll be key to avoid greater polarisation.
The outcomes of this process are still uncertain. We hope that it will result in more funding going directly to local and national civil society – but this must be done in a transparent and accountable way, based on effectiveness principles and documented knowledge, not on political ideology.
Civic space in Sweden is rated ‘open’ by the CIVICUS Monitor.
Get in touch with Act Church of Sweden through its website or Instagram and Facebook pages, and follow @Act_Svk and @Evacekelund on Twitter.
