HIERARCHICAL SISTERHOOD: Supporting Women’s Peacebuilding through Swedish Aid to Bosnia and Herzegovina 1993−2013

Summary

Peacebuilding in areas affected by war and conflict is a difficult endeavour. The dissertation summarized in this DDB examines possibilities and challenges faced by international interveners in violently divided Bosnia between 1993 and 2013. The study object is the aid organization Kvinna till Kvinna, mainly supported by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency. The encounter with domestic women’s organizations is put center stage and studied from the perspective of both actors. This study shows clearly that Kvinna till Kvinna has been successful in building trustworthy cooperation with its Bosnian counterparts. However, the findings also demonstrate that even well-intentioned, locally-focused external efforts, constrained by donor agendas and circumstances on the ground, contain problematic characteristics common in the era of liberal peace. While subscribing to the idea of transnational sisterhood and focusing on local ownership, the organization exercised soft power over its Bosnian ‘partners’ which slowly but surely led them to adapt to donor preferences. Lessons to be learned from this study are that those seeking to support peace in conflict-affected areas constantly need to be on the alert regarding the risks of power imbalance, have deeper interest in contextual knowledge and a critical approach to their own references of the world.