Response to interpellation 2024/25:302 on the dissolution of the Swedish female mediation network
Translated from Swedish by AI; the translation may contain errors. The Swedish text is the original.
Summary AI, written in advance
M considers that the female mediation network needed to be reviewed as it primarily engaged in advocacy work instead of direct support for peace negotiations 1. M emphasizes that equality is a priority issue and that Sweden continues to work to strengthen women's participation in peace processes 1 2. M argues that the network lacked focus on direct support for peace processes and that a network that does not contribute to peace processes is not expedient 3 4. S considers that the network was a concrete example of feminist foreign policy and that the government has in practice dismantled it secretly 5. S considers that it is better to develop the network's competence 5. S argues that the government does not prioritize resources for peace work. S argues that the network has contributed to a global alliance and strengthened Sweden's reputation. MP argues that it is not effective to dismantle the network 6. MP questions whether the government follows up on its own decisions regarding evaluations 7.
Written by AI in advance and may contain errors. The numbers lead to the speech a statement builds on; check against the text below.
Statsrådet Benjamin Dousa (M)
Mr. Speaker! Linnéa Wickman has asked me why the independent evaluation of the Swedish women's mediation network was not carried out, how I and the government justify the decision to terminate the Folke Bernadotte Academy's coordination mandate for the mediation network, on what grounds I and the government have made the assessment that the mediation network is no longer needed, and what concrete initiatives or measures I and the government intend to take to strengthen women's participation in peace negotiations and in the work to implement UN Security Council Resolution 1325.
Promoting equality and women's participation and influence is a priority for me and for the entire government. Sweden works to strengthen women's participation in peace processes, not least through Sweden's national action plan for the implementation of the UN Security Council resolutions on women, peace and security, which the government adopted in November 2023.
Just because the questions are pressing, it is important that initiatives with an impact on equality, such as the female mediation network, function as intended.
During the spring of 2023, the government commissioned the Folke Bernadotte Academy, FBA, to provide contributions to an evaluation of the female mediation network's activities. The members of the mediation network were also given the opportunity to provide their views on the activities. Based on the materials received, the government made the assessment that sufficient material existed to be able to make a decision to terminate FBA's coordinating role for the mediation network.
The female mediation network made several interventions during its period of activity, for example by supporting the establishment of female mediation networks in other regions.
Activities involving direct support for and participation in peace negotiations and peace processes accounted for only 13 out of a total of 213 activities during the years 2016-2022. Instead, the network primarily engaged in advocacy work through participation in meetings and workshops. Advocacy work should not be a mediation network's primary focus.
Against this background, the government judged that the female mediation network in its current form needed to be reviewed. In our Nordic neighboring countries, the female mediation networks have a different structure and function than the current Swedish network. In other words, there are different ways to design a national female mediation network.
I and the government intend to continue Sweden's work to strengthen women's participation in peace negotiations. Sweden's national action plan for women, peace and security comprises four strategic directions and aims to guide Sweden's collective approach to women, peace and security. One of the strategic directions is to contribute to inclusive and gender-equal peace processes and peacebuilding. The work to implement the action plan continues at twelve implementing agencies, including the Folke Bernadotte Academy.
In addition to this, Sweden provides core funding to a number of organizations that work with mediation and peacebuilding. These also work to promote equality and the inclusion of women in peace processes, which is also something that the government promotes in negotiations with the large organizations where we are core funding providers.
Linnéa Wickman (S)
Mr. Speaker! Thank you very much, Minister, for the opening answer!
In 2015, the Swedish women's mediation network was established, consisting of experienced women with different backgrounds. What they had in common was that they have in-depth knowledge of and experience in mediation, dialogue, and peacebuilding.
The network was a very concrete example of the feminist foreign policy, which was launched under Margot Wallström and the then S-government. It was also a clear part of the work with the agenda for women, peace and security.
One of the areas where women are most underrepresented is in peace talks and mediation - this despite the fact that we know that peace agreements where women are included become more sustainable. Women are needed for there to be a sustainable peace.
Between 1992 and 2019, only 13 percent of negotiators, 6 percent of mediators, and 6 percent of signatories of peace agreements were women, so there is no doubt that the need for interventions is great. The network was an example of how Sweden could contribute to strengthening women's role and active participation in peace processes, not least by contributing to building up more such networks in other countries.
But, Mr. Speaker, when the SD government took office, a very remarkable handling of this network began. Just as the feminist foreign policy was dismantled, the mediation network was taken down, but it was not done with a bang like with the feminist foreign policy, but almost in secret.
In 2023, Folke Bernadotteakademin was tasked in its regulatory letter to put the network into a dormant state pending an external evaluation to be reported by June 30. Time passed; no evaluation could be found.
After we Social Democrats had for a longer period sought this evaluation, it turned out in September that there was no such evaluation. It was also not possible to access any internal evaluation. In the same month, Foreign Minister Billström did not even answer a direct question from me here in the Riksdag regarding whether the network would be shut down.
After a few more months of silence, a notice then arrived in the regulatory letter stating that Folke Bernadotteakademin would no longer manage the mediation network. Since then, there has again been complete silence from the government's side.
The government has actually not made any decision regarding a formal shutdown. Nor has it taken any initiatives during the mandate period regarding how the network's work could be developed based on the views received from the members. A dialogue has obviously been held with them, and the Minister has referred to this in his response.
If it is indeed the case that women, peace and security is such a prioritized area as the Minister says it is, it would still have been better to develop the network and all the competence that exists there, rather than in practice shutting down the network for a period of two years. This occurs at a time when we have more armed conflicts in the world than in a very long time and where we see that sexual violence in war is increasing.
To this day, the government has not commented with a single word on the future of this network. The question of whether the government considers the network to be dismantled or paused, I believe deserves a direct and straightforward answer. I now also give Minister Dousa the opportunity to clarify this.
Jacob Risberg (MP)
Mr. Speaker! I thank Linnéa Wickman for posing the question, and I thank Benjamin Dousa, who is here and answering this question today.
It is pleasing to hear that the government prioritizes resolution 1325 on women, peace, and security. However, it feels as though some other parts that the government considers important are being missed.
The government has, since taking office after the election, spoken about how Sweden's aid must be effective, and it must be transparent. Those are the two things that are hammered home all the time, that it should be effective and transparent. I wonder a bit how it is with that matter. Especially now, given the shutdown of this mediation network - or the pausing, we might hear now which it is.
The Minister says that it was necessary to review the network, but the question then is why the network is being shut down while waiting for it to be reviewed. Why can't the changes to the network that are seen as necessary be carried out - just as Linnéa Wickman says?
To quickly and abruptly shut down a network can hardly be seen as particularly effective. Especially not considering what the Folke Bernadotte Academy writes in its report: Direct support for mediation and peace processes can be carried out without the mediation network, but access to experienced Swedish resource persons with a foreign policy and diplomatic background would be limited.
It cannot be claimed that it becomes more efficient when one removes that possibility outright. We have also seen that the UN has written reports and conducted studies showing that precisely women's participation in peace negotiations increases and improves the chances of a sustainable peace. This is, therefore, something we need to work more on.
That was what I wanted to bring up regarding the efficiency. When it comes to the transparency, I also wonder what happened to the investigation that was to be conducted. On what grounds has the government chosen to scrap, or pause, this? Is there any basis for exactly this, or has one simply seen that it breathes feminist foreign policy and scrapped it for that reason?
Statsrådet Benjamin Dousa (M)
Mr. Speaker! I agree completely with what Linnéa Wickman said about that it is good for the world to empower women to participate in peace processes and that it can also lead to better and more well-functioning peace processes. We see this very clearly even in the research. Empowering women's role in peace processes is therefore very important.
We know that women and girls are hit particularly hard in the record-high number of wars and conflicts that currently exist around the world - from Ukraine to Gaza and Sudan, to name just a few.
Figures from the UN show that the proportion of women killed in an armed conflict doubled during the year 2023 in comparison with the year before. The number of UN-verified cases of conflict-related sexual violence increased by 50 percent during the year 2023. In Ukraine, women and girls make up approximately half of the 14.6 million people who are in need of humanitarian aid. This is statistics that show the disproportionate effect of war on women's lives. Despite this, women's place in peace negotiations is not a given.
In the government's reform agenda, the importance of women's participation in peace processes and the importance of Sweden working for peace efforts is highlighted. The work with women, peace and security becomes increasingly important as the number of armed conflicts increases. Not since the Second World War have there been as many conflicts as there are around the world today. However, it is not only the number of armed conflicts that is increasing, but also the resistance against women's and girls' empowerment, participation and influence.
When other actors seek to undermine women's human rights, the government stands firm that equality is a core value in Swedish foreign policy and a priority area for our aid and our work in the UN. It permeates the government's work at all times, and it will be noticeable particularly just this year when Sweden holds the chair in UN Women. It is the UN's organization for equality and women's empowerment.
Under Sweden's leadership, a new strategic plan for UN Women shall be adopted for the years 2026-2029. We will particularly highlight the importance of women's economic empowerment. It is about promoting women's ability to work and support themselves, and it is about rights and opportunities for ownership. By strengthening the economic opportunities for women and girls, the probability also increases that more girls will go to school and that women get better opportunities for education, work, and income.
Regarding the concrete question of exactly how this evaluation took place, the Ministry for Foreign Affairs asked the Folke Bernadotte Academy, i.e., FBA, for a basis for an evaluation of the mediation network. FBA then submitted a review of 18 pages, excluding associated appendices, to be very precise. UD judged that the review FBA had carried out was sufficient to make a decision to terminate FBA's coordinating role for the network.
Linnéa Wickman (S)
Mr. Speaker! I note that the Minister does not answer the question of whether the network has been shut down or paused. I hope that the Minister can answer that in his next contribution.
I also asked another question in this interpellation. It concerns on what grounds the Minister and the Government have made the assessment that the network is no longer needed. It is very clear that incredibly many interventions were needed to strengthen and develop the work and increase equality in peace processes.
Until now, the answer is no clearer than that the network, in its more than 200 activities, according to Minister Dousa, has devoted itself too much to – I quote – "advocacy through participation in meetings and workshops. Advocacy should not be a mediation network's primary focus."
It is possible to describe the mediation network's work and results in other ways. In the material that has been published recently, namely that which the Folke Bernadotte Academy has submitted to the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, it is described that the mediation network has participated in and substantially contributed to the design of a global alliance for regional mediation networks for women. This has occurred through active participation in working meetings with all regional networks, where the focus has been the establishment of a global alliance. Among others, representatives from the UN Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs, UN Women, and the Office of the UN Secretary-General have participated.
In another document from the Folke Bernadotte Academy to the government, it is described that the network has contributed to strengthening Sweden's reputation as a leading actor within the work on the women, peace, and security agenda and specifically in the work with women in mediation. It is thus this that is described in the response from the Minister, almost a bit contemptuously, as meetings and workshops.
Mr. Speaker! If Sweden has a cost-effective and productive tool that means new steps are taken in an area where development is going far too slowly, such as in the implementation of UN resolution 1325, why is the network being buried instead of being given new assignments by the government to develop its work? Once again, it is something that the government could have designed in dialogue with the network's very knowledgeable members – if it were the case that the government was dissatisfied with the network's work, so to speak, even though one might have different views on that as well.
It is not, however, what the government has done. The government has not given any new assignments. The government has, in practice, shut down the network and has not even bothered to make any formal decision. They have also not uttered a word about the mediation network until the government and the minister were forced here to the chamber today to actually present the text on what has happened regarding the female mediation network for peace.
I also note that neither a cost-effective tool such as the mediation network nor resources for peace work are being prioritized by the government. In addition to the mediation network, the government has halved Sida's appropriations in the area of global peace efforts. They also miss very important perspectives, for example, how boys and men should be included when it comes to gender equality work in the - now thinner - Swedish action plan for the implementation of the agenda on women, peace and security.
Jacob Risberg (MP)
Mr. Speaker! I thank the Minister for the answers, even though I, just like Linnéa Wickman, do not feel that I received answers to all the questions I asked.
I still wonder in what way this is consistent with the government's strive that all aid should be effective, that is to say that one removes something that one knows works - actually without any form of evaluation. I would also like to know what in the 18 pages that FBA submitted formed the basis for the decision to shut it down. Exactly what is it that shows that this does not work as one wants it to work? FBA has submitted a report of 18 pages, absolutely - but what is it in that report that means that one does not want to stand behind this but instead shut it down?
In the assignment to FBA 2023, it states: "The activities in the Swedish mediation network for women shall rest in waiting until an independent evaluation of the network is carried out with a final report no later than June 30, 2023." An independent evaluation was therefore requested by the government. Was an independent evaluation never carried out at all? Was it FBA's own report that formed the basis for the decision? It feels like one is not following up on what one has said that one will follow up.
I also wonder why, in connection with the new assignment to the Folke Bernadotte Academy, the assignment to integrate equality in all its activities has been completely removed. Why has that word disappeared?
Why is it not chosen to reform the network if there are things one would like to change, and what happens to all that knowledge and all those experiences that exist in this network and are now being lost? Can it really be called effective aid?
Statsrådet Benjamin Dousa (M)
Mr. Speaker! Equality, women's and girls' rights, the right to decide over one's own body and the right to participate in the labor market are priority issues both specifically in aid work and in the government's overall foreign policy at large.
We see that access to sexual and reproductive health and rights is completely central in that, but unfortunately, it is challenged from many sides - including on the ground, where we know it is tough, but also financially as fewer and fewer countries are prepared to finance this type of activity. That was why the government recently decided to invest 4.3 billion SEK in a new aid strategy for health and SRHR work. Sweden is also actively involved in the coalition for economic equality within the UN Women initiative Generation Equality.
The government is therefore continuing to work for equal peace processes through many different tools. However, this exact focus was missing in the female mediation network. Of the activities the network participated in, more than 40 percent consisted of various types of advocacy work and approximately 18 percent of cooperation. The proportion of activities that involved direct support to the peace process was 6 percent. In its review of the mediation network, FBA itself highlighted the network's need to prioritize efforts that focus directly on peace processes.
As I have previously mentioned, our Nordic neighbors' female mediation networks look different compared to the previous Swedish one. They exhibit a different composition and have more members with greater breadth in expertise. This means that they can function more as a resource pool and concrete operational support to various peace processes.
Linnéa Wickman (S)
Mr. Speaker! Two years have passed since the government chose to shut down the female mediation network for peace. I cannot really interpret the Minister's answer in any other way, even though the Minister still has not answered the question of whether it is paused pending being converted into another form, as the government wishes, or if it is simply permanently shut down.
When the Folke Bernadotte Academy described the consequences if the network were to be shut down in its submission to the government, it was stated that advocacy work to promote women's roles in peace processes would have had less impact if the mediation network did not exist and that Sweden, without a Swedish network, could lose important and valuable contact surfaces globally - also as more and more similar networks are formed. It is also noted that access to experienced Swedish women with a foreign policy and diplomatic background would be limited.
These are consequences that the government could obviously live with, but again: The government has not developed the network. It has not given any new assignments in the direction that the minister here describes when he criticizes the work that the mediation network has done. I actually also think we must remember that this broke new ground. It is not strange that one also has to work with advocacy when one works with deep structures that hold women back.
Perhaps it is still the case that the answer in this can be found in that the mediation network was a clear part of the feminist foreign policy, which would be removed at all costs. Otherwise, the government would have developed its work. The feminist foreign policy did not shrink from challenging these deeply rooted norms and structures, but unfortunately, the government does with its policy.
Statsrådet Benjamin Dousa (M)
Mr. Speaker! Sweden has a long tradition of supporting peacebuilding and peace processes on many different levels. A large part of Swedish aid aims to create peaceful and inclusive societies, which constitutes one of the many global sustainability goals.
When it comes to Swedish peace efforts, Sweden has long been among the absolute largest donors to the UN Peacebuilding Fund. The fund finances various types of peacebuilding efforts which, among other things, contribute to the implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on women, peace and security.
In addition to the support for the fund and the assistance to individual countries, the government adopted a global thematic aid strategy for peace, security, and stabilization in May 2024. It strengthens Sweden's peacebuilding work and can be directed towards environments in conflict or with high conflict risk where we do not have bilateral aid or a diplomatic presence. The strategy contains goals that the Folke Bernadotte Academy and Sida shall implement.
One of the goals is to contribute to inclusive peace processes and local ownership in national and regional peace efforts with a focus on equality and the participation of women and youth. But when we now talk about these issues: A mediation network that for the most part does not contribute to peace processes but does other things instead of just that is simply not purposeful.
Source: The Swedish Parliament. The speeches come from the open data of the Riksdag, translated into English by AI, which may contain errors.