The agreement between the Swedish Arts Council and Sida is the formal guiding document for the Programme from which the Programme design and the guidelines for grant assessment have been derived and further interpreted.
The objectives for Sweden’s cultural policy are that culture is to be a dynamic, challenging and independent force based on freedom of expression, that everyone should be able to participate in cultural life, and that creativity, diversity and artistic quality should be integral parts of society’s development.
The programme also contributes to the following missions of the Swedish Arts Council:
- In international contexts contribute to the promotion of the role of culture for freedom of expression and democratisation.
- Promote synergies between cultural policy, aid policies and development cooperation.
- Promote the expansion of safe havens for persecuted artists and the development of the international cities of refuge system in Sweden.
- Mutually contribute to and inform the Swedish Arts Council’s role as the national focal point for the 2005 UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions, within which Sweden promotes artistic freedom internationally.
Swedish development cooperation is currently guided by five cross-cutting perspectives; the poor people’s perspective and the rights perspective as well as the conflict perspective, gender equality and perspective on environment and climate.
The poor people’s perspective implies that the situation, needs, preconditions and priorities of poor women, girls, men and boys constitute the starting point for Sweden’s work on poverty reduction.
The rights perspective implies that human rights and democracy are seen as fundamental for development. It includes four principles based on the normative framework of human rights: non-discrimination, participation, transparency and accountability.