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Articles by Janet Vähämäki
At peace with results: Navigating results in Swedish peacebuilding support
1 INTRODUCTION With today's shrinking resources to development aid (OECD, 2025), aid agencies are under increasing pressure to demonstrate impact and results of their operations. Policy-makers hold high expectations that results—if appropriately managed—can contribute to greater efficiency and improved performance in aid organizations (Binnendijk, 2000; Kusek & Rist, 2004; OECD, 2024).
Development research in Sweden today
Skip navigation Key messages 48% of the respondents in research/academia have adjusted their research in response to the funding cuts. Respondents are reportedly shifting their research focus to topics more likely to attract funding and more relevant to the Global North. About two-thirds of respondents (65%) say their work was either discontinued or significantly altered as a result of the funding cuts.
(Un)certainty for sale? A historic exposé on Sida’s use of external experts 1960s-2020s
Skip navigation In this paper the authors offer an empirically rich, longitudinal account of the role and influence of externally sourced experts by the Swedish development aid agency, Sida, from the 1960s until present times. They describe what type of expertise has been required from external experts and how the content and rituals of these contracted experts have contributed – or not – to perceptions of trust and certainty.
Obsessive measurement disorder or pragmatic bureaucracy?
Skip navigation Authors Alexius and Vähämäki scrutinize questions related to the concept Obsessive Measurement Disorder, i.e. what causes an increase in control mechanisms, and how and when can this prove counterproductive? They further investigate the question on why performance management – and measurement requirements seem in some instances to hinder, and in others to support the implementation of aid projects and programs.
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