The aim of the study is to establish a developed knowledge base on the relationship between Sweden’s security and development policies. This includes identifying potential synergies, overlapping or coherent objectives, and areas where there may be conflicting objectives or risks. To deepen the evidence base, the study will also highlight how Sweden prioritises these issues today, as well as how other countries work with security and development policy.
In its aid reform agenda, “Aid for a new era – Freedom, empowerment and sustainable growth” (2023), the Government has emphasised that Sweden’s international aid and development policy is part of Swedish foreign policy. It must pursue and safeguard Swedish interests, and development policy must be coordinated with, among others, security policy for this purpose. The Government describes a number of threats to Sweden and the world around us, and states that ‘development cooperation is one of the most important foreign policy tools for pursuing and safeguarding Swedish interests and meeting the challenges facing us and the world’.
On the security policy side, the government’s ambitions for a close link between the areas are also clear. In the National Security Strategy (2024), several of the objectives are clearly linked to areas of significant importance in development cooperation, such as democracy, migration, health and climate. Aid is also presented as an important tool for addressing these threats. The government has stated that national security is its most important task. While the government has emphasised the relationship at an overall policy level, it has not yet been clearly translated into more specific governance.
The study will organise a series of roundtable discussions with experts in the field and will include an allocation study and an international outlook.
Project manager at EBA:
Númi Östlund