USAID Administrator Power’s Meeting with Johan Forssell, Swedish Minister for International Development Cooperation and Foreign Trade, Ministry for Foreign Affairs

Today, USAID Administrator Samantha Power met with the Swedish Minister for International Development Cooperation and Foreign Trade, Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Johan Forssell. The Administrator and Minister Forssell discussed locally-led development, the humanitarian response to the earthquakes in Türkiye and Syria, as well as Russia’s war against Ukraine and the need to support Ukraine’s energy infrastructure and humanitarian response.

The Administrator highlighted the important priority for USAID of ensuring democracy delivers in countries experiencing relatively recent democratic openings that could be further sustained with the help of investment, technical assistance, support for policy reforms, and other targeted engagement. The Administrator and Minister agreed to closer collaboration on anti-corruption initiatives. She stressed the importance of locally-led initiatives in supporting sustainable development and called on Sweden to join the joint donor principles on locally-led development, which were announced at the Global Partnership for Effective Development Cooperation summit co-chaired by Sweden. The Administrator commended Sweden as a leader in mobilizing European actors in building on recent successes and helping propel efforts in Africa, Latin America, and Eastern Europe.