Silenced Voices in a New Era : How the Swedish Government’s Decision to Limit Sida’s Funds for Communication About Development Raise Concerns in the CSO Community

Sammanfattning: Ever since the 1960s, Sweden has heavily invested in international development cooperation, with a target of devoting 1% of the GNI to the matter. For at least as long, the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) has had as part of its mission to inform the Swedish public about global development. This mission has been executed mainly through distribution of funds to civil society organisations (CSOs) who have used them for different communication activities.  At the end of 2022, the new right-wing government of Sweden decided to abandon the 1% target and reduce Sida’s funding for communication about development in Sweden by almost 90%. In this thesis, I investigate what concerns this raises among the CSOs. Data was collected through a questionnaire and interviews with CSO representatives.  The data show that the CSOs raise concerns for the government’s decision leading to less knowledge and interest among Swedes about development issues, which they argue will in turn lead to less support for state spending on international development, a weaker civil society, less transparency and accountability and by extension threaten democracy.