The Government is terminating the development aid to Iraq. The country will thus miss out on hundreds of millions of kronor.
We are in the midst of a major overhaul of Sweden's aid policy, says Minister for Development Cooperation Johan Forssell (The Moderate Party).
The reason is the good economic development in Iraq, according to the Government.
It is a country with enormous economic resources that should reasonably be able to take care of its own population, says Forssell at the Government's summer press conference.
The cooperation is now being phased out and will end on June 30 next year. The current strategy for development cooperation would have applied until 2026.
Three billion
According to Forssell, the development aid to Iraq has amounted to nearly three billion over the past ten years.
The Minister emphasizes that Sweden's aid today is far too scattered and is given to over a hundred countries.
When you have aid in so many countries at the same time, it makes control and evaluation difficult. We should work in fewer countries than before and expand our work in countries where we are actually present.
The Government's ambition is to reduce the number of countries that Sweden provides direct aid to from 37 to around 30.
Aid to Kurds
The Social Democrats, who decided on the strategy in March 2022, believe that the withdrawn Iraq aid is unfortunate.
The strategy has been about helping people out of poverty and strengthening democratic institutions. It has also been about supporting Kurds in northern Iraq who made a heroic effort in the fight against IS, says the foreign policy spokesperson Morgan Johansson (The Social Democrats).
He says that the funds help build stable institutions in the country that can, among other things, counteract migration flows. The argument that Iraq is a rich country that should be able to help its population on its own, he does not give much credence to.
I think that if you visit Iraq for a quarter of an hour, you'll know that it's not like that at all. I don't know what figures Forssell is relying on there, says Johansson.
When the strategy for bilateral development aid to Iraq for 2022-2026 was decided two years ago, the aid amounted to 1.2 billion kronor to Sida and 45 million to the Folke Bernadotte Academy (FBA).
After the decision on a new level of aid appropriations, the strategy has since 2023 comprised approximately 190 million kronor per year. The strategy amounts for 2025 will be 100 million kronor for Sida and 4 million kronor for FBA.
It is now up to Sida and FBA to terminate the activities by June 30, 2025.
The Government intends to continue cooperation with Iraq at the intersection of aid and trade promotion, for example, to promote a green transition.
Source: The Government Offices
