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Practicing Peacebuilding Principles – A Study of Sweden´s Engagement in Fragile and Conflict-Affected States

Good Governance and Public Administration

EBA report on Sweden’s application of the international principles for engagement in fragile and conflict-ridden countries over the last decade.

FCG Sweden together with the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) have recently finalized a report commissioned by the Expert Group for Aid Studies (Expertgruppen för Biståndanalys – EBA) on Sweden’s application of the international principles for engagement in fragile and conflict-ridden countries over the last decade.

EBA is a government committee mandated to evaluate and analyse the direction, governance and implementation of Sweden’s official development assistance with a specific focus on results and effectiveness. EBA is independent not only in relation to the government, but also to both the object of study and the authors of their reports.

There are 44 internationally agreed principles for engagement in fragile and conflict-ridden countries, which have been grouped into four specific study categories for the report:

  1. Understanding the context in fragile countries
  2. Coherence between different actors
  3. Ownership and inclusion of partner country government and society
  4. Changes in development cooperation.

The report concerns Sweden’s application of the principles between 2011 and 2020, focusing on the country level in six chosen case study locations: Afghanistan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia, Mali, Somalia and South Sudan.

The report produced positive results, concluding that, in general, Sweden has performed well across the four study categories, and is even highly regarded as a champion of the principles. However, the report highlighted that Swedish practice has varied between different partner countries, with stronger application in, for example, Somalia and Liberia, than in South Sudan.

Therefore, the report presents four key recommendations:

  • Create a new ‘triple-nexus-plus’ policy with improved mechanisms for systematic coordination of Swedish actors.
  • Establish a peacebuilding focal function.
  • Ensure adequate embassy staffing in fragile and conflict-affected states.
  • Work to improve multilateral and regional coordination.

The report is available for download through this link.

The report was also presented in a seminar. A recording of the seminar is available at EBA’s website.