The worrisome shift to the right of Nordic development cooperation

As a new minister for development and trade takes over #globaldev in Finland, it is time to take a closer look at how profoundly the foundations of Nordic global engagement and development cooperation are changing.

Ann Danaiya Usher from Development Today writes:
For the first time, a party viewed as being far-right on the political spectrum takes over the aid portfolio in a Nordic country. Finland’s new Development and Trade Minister Ville Tavio from the Finns Party is cutting aid and linking assistance to the return of asylum seekers.
NightCafe prompt "feminist foreign policy"

Even if the Finns Party rejects the “far-right” label, Finland is not the first country in the Nordic region where populist, right-leaning parties and coalitions are dismantling the foundations of their historic development policies.

Denmark-a new Nordic UK?
Until the beginning of the year Denmark was in the news until the initial plans to process asylum seekers in Rwanda was suspended.
But increased ODA spending for refugees at home as well as other measures are an indication that Denmark aligns her foreign and development policy more with the UK right now than with its more progressive past as “tackling illegal migration” remains a key theme.

Sweden-toning down progressive approaches to development
The Sweden Democrats, not officially part of the current coalition government but rather conveniently tied into its policies through the Tidö Agreement were probably quite happy when the new foreign minister toned down the importance for Feminist Foreign policy, a concept that Sweden had pioneered with a handful of other countries.
During a recent visit of the Danish refugee deportation agency, Sweden's Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson praised Denmark for its tough stance towards asylum seekers and their return: “What we are doing now is what Denmark began doing 10-15 years ago. It’s necessary, it’s possible, but it will take time.”
And during his recent visit of Liberia, Swedish Minister for International Development Cooperation and Foreign Trade Johan Forssel repeated statements that could have been written by a #globaldev AI:
“For Sweden international trade has been and remains a critical source of growth and development. We want to share this experience and want our development cooperation to act as a lever to strengthen not only countries’ democracy but also their participation in the international economy.”
Norway-between aid cuts and climate hypocrisy
In a recent policy development in Norway, the minister for development took over the responsibility for humanitarian assistance, refugee efforts, and aid to Northern Africa from the Foreign Minister with the aim to make humanitarian and long-term aid work “more holistic efforts” especially in light of the global climate crisis.
The wording may suggest that “holistic efforts” turn into aid cuts, as Norway already produced the headline Norway proposes cutting aid share to 46-year low.
But perhaps more important that its development policies, Norway has a unique impact on global cooperation through its role in fossil fuel economy.
“Norway often likes to portray itself as a climate leader,” (climate activist Vanessa) Nakate told the room full of officials, politicians, and aid workers, calling for the government to cease financing new fossil fuel developments. “But just last week, the Norwegian government announced its plans to offer a record number of oil exploration blocks in the Arctic. … Does this sound like climate leadership to you?”
“It is time to stop the moral and economic madness,” she said. “Norway, you cannot have it both ways.”
Shifts to the right deserve more critical attention from media and researchers
So now Finland…it follows similar worrisome trends as her neighbours and so far these shifts in the Nordic countries have been flying a bit under the #globaldev radar-my guess is that the traditional perception of the countries as generous and progressive donors is still holding up and that shifts to the right are not as noticeable globally as, say, similar shifts in Hungary, Poland or the US.
Nonetheless, the right-wing/right-leaning/conservative-populist parties in the Nordic world (and actual Social Democrats in Denmark…) are a point for concern as structural shifts in #globaldev spending and organisational set-ups will not be easy to reverse “after the next election”.
Equally worrisome is the lack of public debate let alone protest against these shifts that could threaten “Nordic branding” beyond the simple amount of ODA transferred to multilateral organisations or partners in the South.

The bigger issue for me is how these political shifts affect global solidarity, support for others at home and abroad and driving any progressive agenda forward in a radically changing world. More attention is also needed to look at the strategies of these parties and coalitions to engage with them more directly in civic spaces, political arenas and global fora where these politicians show up.

And lastly, more research is needed on how much impact such political shifts have when it comes to public opinion about development and actual medium-term ODA allocation and spending-so we need to be vigilant and hope that Nordic countries maintain some leadership in liberal, empathetic, generous, global and equitable humanitarian and development work!
If you are interested in a bit more history of Nordic development cooperation, the Forum of Development Studies journal published a special section on Nordic Development Aid. Diverging Like-Mindedness? in 2022 and some of the articles, for example on Norway and Finland, are available open access.

Addendum 28 June-Swedish governments cuts development research funding
And just like that the Swedish government cuts development research funding through the research council (Vetenskapsrådet-VR): 
On 22 June, the government decided that the Swedish Research Council will no longer finance grants in development research (full VR statement in Swedish).
Below are just two sample tweets of the unfolding discussions online.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Should I consider a PhD in International Development Studies?

After the Economist’s piece on the (non-)value of doing a PhD and some comments later (e.g. Prometheus doesn't read the Economist (I like the slightly cynical dichotomy between ‘civilians’ and the ‘academic insiders) or the ' 100 Reasons NOT to Go to Graduate School ' (they are only halfway through so check it out regularly in the future...) I had an interesting conversation with a prospective PhD student a few days ago. This was not the first time that I had been approached about doing a PhD and I always try to be as frank as possible, even playing the ‘devil’s advocate’ when it comes to the complicated ‘should I or shouldn’t I?’ decision-making process. At the end of our conversation I sat down and tried to summarize a few important and generic points from the point of view of doing a PhD in Development Studies and in the UK . I understand that every case is different and involves a range of motives, options and rationales, but there a few important questions and t
Read more

John Marsh: Why Education Is Not an Economic Panacea-insights for development?

John Marsh just published an interesting article in the Chronicle of Higher Education on ' Why Education is not an Economic Panacea '. The article is long and a bit confusing to read. It is based on the author's experience in an education project for poor members of the community: The idea was simple. Faculty from the University of Illinois would offer night classes in their areas of expertise [...] for anyone in the community who was between the ages of 18 and 45 and lived at 150 percent of the poverty level of income or lower. [...] Students who completed the nine-month course would receive six hours of college credit, which they could then transfer to other institutions of higher learning. Everything would be free: tuition, books, even child care at a nearby community center. We named it after a similar program in Chicago, the Odyssey Project. In short, the programme was based on the well-known dicussion that  education pays, and pays more than ever. If so, it
Read more

What if MrBeast really is one of the futures of philanthropy-and what does that mean for communicating development?

Image
“ I feel good seeing myself dancing after receiving the money. It makes me appreciate the moment my life changed and reminds me of when I was able to send my son to school .” (Resident of Nakapiripirit, Uganda) “ It might seem strange to carp over a few good deeds filmed for YouTube clicks. After all, even if this Gen Z mode of philanthropy is brash and narcissistic, some lives are being changed for the better. Yet at the same time, Donaldson is exploiting less fortunate people’s problems to shape his image of decency, while reinforcing the aid illusion that has blown so much money and achieved so little over the past half century .” (Ian Birrell, UnHerd ) “ As people have noted, if you watch the video in total isolation, it's maybe not that bad? Mr Beast is good at this. And he's not obviously mocking or manipulating these people. Then again, the TV commentators in the Hunger Games fawned over Katniss. That wasn't the issue .” (Justin Sandefur, Center for Global Developmen
Read more

Dear white middle class British women: Please don't send used bras (or anything, really) to Africa

Image
I am supposed to be on my summer blogging break , but the world of bad development does not seem to take a vacation... The first time I came across the #SWEDOW (Stuff We Don't Want) debate about what to do with unwanted stuff and whether to send it to 'Africa' was in 2010; in fact, I wrote about a shoe donation project on the blog in 2012. Fast forward to July 2019 and a local British Women's Institute Facebook page with about 500 page likes is posting a picture of two innocent-looking parcels that has been shared very widely. The vast majority of the 500+ comments under the post are positive and I am sure that both charities will receive quite a few parcels in the next few days. It seems almost futile and pointing out bad examples of charity and development is not always the best way to communicate, but I anonymize the post as much as possible to avoid simply shaming a particular Women's Institute chapter. 'Rapey men here are the same as rapey men t
Read more

Handbook on Humanitarianism and Inequality - Chapter 04 - Humanitarianism and the new wars: humanitarianism, security, and securitisation

Image
Every two weeks I am going to feature one of the chapters of our Handbook on Humanitarianism and Inequality which was published in spring 2024. This week we are taking a closer look at Chapter 04 - Humanitarianism and the new wars: humanitarianism, security, and securitisation - contributed by Michael Magcamit and Anastassiya Mahon. From the introduction This chapter demonstrates and probes the idea of ‘humanitarian securitisation’ propelled by humanitarianism amidst the emergence of new wars linked to inequality. Humanitarian securitisation is defined here as the process of securitising the humanitarian crises brought about by the new wars – specifically, internal conflicts and terrorism – to justify the use and implementation of humanitarian intervention in the target states. As the foremost authority on ‘new wars’, Mary Kaldor ( 2016: 147 ), describes these phenomena as the ‘combination of political violence, organised crime and massive violations of human rights’ happening in di
Read more