Multi-actor Ownership : The Case of Swedish Development Cooperation with Ukraine

Sammanfattning: Ownership is a guiding principle in today’s development cooperation practices, aiming to foster an efficient development cooperation driven by the recipients. However, ownership is paradoxical and ambiguous. No coherent understanding of ownership exists. The multistakeholder development cooperation arena is argued to complicate the recipients’ possibilities to acquire ownership. As the literature lacks an eastern European perspective, this study addresses the above-mentioned dimensions by examining ownership in Swedish development cooperation with Ukraine. By conducting interviews, this study confirms that there is a confusion among development actors in defining what ownership is. In contrast to previous research, this study finds the multi-stakeholder approach as an advantage of ownership. Collaboration between local actors can contribute to capacity development, joint commitment and stronger responsibility, which increases the probabilities that outcomes of development projects will be governed and progressed by the local actors in the long run. Hence, this study contributes to the literature with a more clarified understanding of ownership. Ownership is perceived as a relational concept that is dynamically promoted over time. This study concludes that commitment, capacity and participation are dimensions that can promote this myriad of local actors involved in development practices to acquire a multi-actor ownership of different dimensions of the development process.