Abstract Equality between donor and receiver, a study about equality in the Swedish aid politics 1960 – 2000. Essay in political science, C-level, at Karlstads University, by Britt-Louise Orrmalm Karlsson. Spring 2006. Tutor: Hans Lödén. Sweden has a history as an official aid donor since 1950. The development cooperation has changed through the years in accordance to the Swedish policy and the politics. Today the aid politics are called “development cooperation” and should be more like a partnership than a relation with a donor and a receiver. According to an article in the magazine Omvärlden, describes foreign aid project is dealing with a communication problem. The author of the article writes that this is a problem in attitude, that we in the west as a donor giver, still see us as those with knowledge and skills. The purpose with this essay is to examine in which extension the Swedish development cooperation has change to be a more equal relation between aid donor and aid receiver. This is conducted by help from John Lockes theory of equality as non-domination, as it is understood by R J Arneson. I have composed three components in order to apply equality in this study, this are dialogue, reciprocity and respect. My study has focused on equality in Swedish aid politics between 1960 and 2000. The empirical material is examined and analysed according to these variables. In three aid projects where Sweden is a donor, initiated in 1977, 1995 and 2000, I have studied equality in the components dialogue, reciprocity and respect in order to see if there have been any changes. The result in my study indicates that equality in the development cooperation has change between 1960 and 2000. All three variables, dialogue, reciprocity and respect have increased according to my findings. But my study is not enough to say something about equality in the communication and attitude in the actual meeting between people from the donor country and the country receiving aid. An essay with this intention needs a different approach with interviews with people from both countries.

The purpose of this thesis is to study to what extent the UN millennium development goals have influenced Sweden’s development policy. The research method that I have used is a qualitative text analysis and I have studied the ideas in governmental texts and millennium development goals reports from 1995-2008.My hypothesis is that the basic ideas that has symbolized Sweden’s development policy has not changed much since the adoption of the millennium development goals in year 2000. This hypothesis is based on different ideas that the basic perspectives in international development policy are rather constant.My conclusion is that many of the areas that are affected by the millennium development goals already are prioritized areas within Swedish development policy, for example poverty reduction and gender equality. Therefore are these areas not influenced so much by the millennium development goals. A slightly stronger focus on international co-operation and sustainable development can be seen in the more recent material, where it’s possible that the millennium development goals have had some impact of this.

This thesis investigates the ways in which the Mission Covenant Church of Sweden could influence the Swedish Foreign Aid Policy for NGOs, with particular focus on financial support for their missionary activities. Furthermore, it investigates how the church’s involvement in the emerging Foreign Aid Policy work, and its relationship with the government agency NIB/SIDA during the years 1964-1980, influenced the church’s own policy-making. Using Mahoney, Streeck and Thelen’s concept of gradual change and Bourdieu’s theory of habitus this thesis investigates the influence the relationship had on 1) the Aid policy 2) MCCS: s evangelical mission. The results of this thesis indicate that the government agency’s original demand for a Foreign Aid work neutral from religious or political influence changed into a policy embracing missionary organisations. The results also indicate a change in the priority of the Mission Covenant Church of Sweden’s mission methods with the church prioritising social work over evangelisation. This study aims in general to deepen the knowledge of the NGOs involved in the Swedish Foreign Aid in order to further the understanding of their influence on the Foreign Aid Policy as well as their methods to remain uninfluenced in return.