Politicization of Swedish Official Development Aid : Case study of Colombia

The debate of politicization of ODA allocation issues the potential contrast between nationaland global interests associated with aid allocation. The Swedish ODA has long beenconsidered as solidaric. The 2022 Swedish governmental election of liberal, conservative andfar-right parties has triggered the discussion of the new motives of Swedish ODA allocation.2023, a new international development cooperation reform was implemented, tying SwedishODA to countries where the Swedish business community has interests. The objective of thestudy thus aims at road mapping the emerging field of Swedish ODA: how is the new agendamotivated and how is it differentiated from the previous ones. The do gooders framework byPuyvallé and Björjdahl (2021) are used as theoretical framework, as it holds idealism to be atthe core of Swedish ODA. To evaluate the political inclination of Swedish ODA allocation,Colombia is used as a case study. While Sweden mostly has been governed by the socialdemocratic party, Colombia has been governed by liberal and conservative parties. However,the simultaneous Swedish election of a right-wing political coalition, coincided with theColombian election of its first ever left-wing president. To find out what motives lies behindthe Swedish ODA, general governmental guidelines, country strategies of Colombia andlevels of ODA allocation in general and to Colombia are analyzed. It is founded that until the2023 aid reform agenda, Swedish ODA was highly motivated by solidarity. The case study ofColombia confirms this, as no changes in the ODA allocation appeared, regardless of politicalchanges in Sweden or Colombia. However, the 2022 government turns away from thesolidaric and moral objectives, as Swedish national interests are outspoken to be an importantpart of the consideration of Swedish ODA allocation, disqualifying them as do gooders. The2023 reform agenda is argued to have increased the politicization of Swedish ODA.