Event

At peace with results! How to manage results demands with pragmatic bureaucracy

30 November 2026 at 09:00 CET

ending at 11:00 CET

Stockholm, Sweden

House of Innovation lecture hall, Stockholm School of Economics, Norrtullsgatan 2

Event contact

Janet Vähämäki / janet.vahamaki@sei.org

Public agencies are under growing pressure to show measurable results. Yet much of their work deals with complex problems where progress is slow and hard to quantify.

A new study published in Development Policy Review looks at how the Folke Bernadotte Academy (FBA), a Swedish agency working on peacebuilding where development cooperation meets security, handles these competing demands. The researchers found that results requirements don’t have to create tension and excess bureaucracy. FBA staff used pragmatic bureaucratic skills to reinterpret reporting requirements while keeping room to adapt to changing circumstances and partners’ priorities.

This seminar brings together researchers, practitioners and agency leaders to discuss what others can learn from this experience. When do results requirements improve practice, and when do they distort priorities? How much room should agencies have to reinterpret them? Can professional judgement and flexibility go hand in hand with transparency and accountability?

The seminar is open to public agency leaders, practitioners and researchers interested in management, accountability and organizational learning.

Program

09:00–09:20 – Research insights: navigating competing results demands
The authors present the study’s main findings and what they mean for results-based management in complex policy environments.
09:20–09:40 – Agency practice: how FBA works
FBA Director-General Per Olsson Fridh explains how the agency balances results demands with the need to adapt.
09:40–11:00 – Panel discussion: learning across development cooperation and the security sector
Representatives from development cooperation and security sector agencies reflect on the findings and share their own experiences, followed by audience questions.

Speakers:

Janet Vähämäki, Senior Research Fellow, SEI; Fredrik Söderbaum, Professor of Peace and Development Research, University of Gothenburg; Annika Hilgert, Research Associate, SEI; Susanna Alexius, Associate Professor, Stockholm University (Authors)
Per Olsson Fridh, Director General and Åsa Christiansson, Methods Coordinator, FBA

Panellists:

Annika Blakstad Otterstedt, Department Director Results, Sida
Further panellists to be announced

Moderator

Martin Carlsson-Wall, Professor and Center Director, Center for Security and Resilience, Stockholm School of Economics

Hosts

The seminar is hosted by the Center for Security and Resilience at the Stockholm School of Economics, the Folke Bernadotte Academy and SEI. The research was funded by the Folke Bernadotte Academy.