Democracy aid: any effects?

10 december, 10:00-11:30, Online (Zoom)

Se seminariet i efterhand.

Global democracy is under threat. At the same time, the evidence whether development cooperation can impact democracy has been debated.
Sweden is one of the countries that devotes the largest share of its development cooperation budget for democracy-related activities.

In 2019, the Swedish government initiated a “drive for democracy”, which further increases this focus in development cooperation.
A new EBA report: Effects of Swedish and international democracy aid sets out to answer the questions: What are the effects of democracy aid on countries’ level of democracy? Under what conditions might it work better?

This might be the most comprehensive study that has ever been conducted on the topic. It draws both on a new systematic review of the existing literature and on a new international comparative analysis using multiple advanced econometric methods. The analysis covers 148 countries during the period 1995-2018.

This webinar will include a presentation of the study, an overview of the Swedish drive for democracy and evidence-based development cooperation by the Swedish MFA, examples of democracy focused development cooperation by Sida, and a panel discussion around the results and possible implications for Swedish development cooperation

Presenters and panelists

Miguel Niño-Zarazúa, PhD, Non-Resident Senior Research Fellow with UNU-WIDER (Author)
Rachel M. Gisselquist, PhD, Senior Research Fellow with UNU-WIDER (Author)
Johannes Oljelund, Director-General for international development cooperation, Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs
Torbjörn Petterson, Advisor to the Director-General, Sida
Birgitta Weibahr, Lead Policy Specialist Democracy and Human Rights, Sida

Moderator: Staffan I. Lindberg, Expert Group for Aid Studies