Samhällsuppbyggnad och demokratisering i Bosnien-Hercegovina : En utvärdering av SIDA:s aktuella verksamheter i Bosnien ur ett fredsperspektiv

Sammanfattning: SIDA’s relief work in Bosnia aims at making the country ready for a membership in the EU where the main focus lies in the creation of a sustainable state as well as liberalizing the market to create an increased economic cooperation between Bosnia and the rest of Europe. These ambitions are closely related to the neo-liberal theory of state building which aims at creating democratic societies in line with the western democracy model, with a liberal economy constituting its base. Despite generous financial aid, the democratic and economic development in Bosnia is moving very slowly and the ethnical tensions seem to grow despite international involvement in the country. The purpose of this study is to evaluate SIDA’s present relief work in Bosnia out of a peace perspective. Possibilities and problems with SIDA’s work will be brought up and the study intends to answer whether SIDA’s work in Bosnia serves the perspective of peace. The methodological procedure consists of an analysis of the documents on SIDA’s current relief work in Bosnia and a literature study of theories concerning state building. The results of the study show that the parts of SIDA’s work in Bosnia that ground in the neo-liberal theory betweentimes undermine economic and democratic development as well as peace. Investments are made to gear Bosnia to European requirements which makes it difficult to accommodate specific Bosnian needs. In the conclusion, a more bottom-up inspired development work from SIDA is therefore suggested where the focus will be on working more from the local and civil society together with actively creating jobs in order to increase the economic development.