Annika Söder

Ambassador Annika Söder, is the Chair of the European Institute of Peace, a member of the Swedish Women’s mediation network, and a participant in various international and European mediation, peacebuilding and dialogue undertakings.

Söder served as State Secretary for Foreign Affairs of Sweden between 2014 and 2019. In that capacity she led the government’s work on conflict resolution, dialogue and facilitation, i. a. on North Korea, Venezuela and Yemen.

In 2020 she served on the group of eminent persons appointed by the UN Secretary General to assist in the 2020 review of UN’s peace building work.
In 2021 she was the Special Representative of OSCE on the Georgia conflict and South Caucasus.

Earlier she was Executive Director of the Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation working on UN matters, UN reform, peace building and the SDGs. She has also been a senior manager and ADG of the UN FAO, responsible for external relations, partnerships, interagency affairs and communications. Previously, she served as State Secretary for International Development Cooperation in the Swedish Government and as spokesperson of the Foreign Ministry, and in several positions on security policy, EU and UN affairs, and as foreign policy advisor to prime and foreign ministers.

Geographic expertise

Eastern Europe
Mena-region
Subsaharan Africa
Latinamerica

Topical expertise

Track 1 mediation
Track 2 dialogue
Women, Peace and Security

Languages

Swedish
English
Spanish
Italian
French

Working for peace in the shadow of a frozen conflict

Since 2008, the European Union Monitoring Mission EUMM has been a constant presence in Georgia. With the mandate to monitor the ceasefire and prevent the conflict between Georgia and Russia from reigniting, the mission works to promote stability and security – and to help ensure a safer daily life for the people affected.

2025-08-26 12:45

Read our publications

The Gender-Responsive Leader's Handbook

Gender equality is both a goal and a prerequisite for sustainable peace and development. FBA’s Gender-Responsive Leadership (GRL) Initiative is designed to support leaders and managers within organizations such as the EU, UN, ECOWAS, OSCE and the African Union to fulfill their central role in enabling gender equal peace, security and development work.

Documents

More Publications

On international deployment

Teresa Wiklund

Monitor at EUMM in Georgia

Kajsa Norman

Election observer

Catalina Perdomo Rodriguez

Adviser to the UN in Colombia

Karolina Riedel

Statistician in election observation missions

Björn Tedeman

Election observer

THE FBA BLOG

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Posted by Marie Blomdahl
A safe online space to share experiences to support leadership in the UN

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When I joined the Leadership and Cooperation Unit at the Folke Bernadotte Academy in August 2018, after working many years mainly in the private sector, I had a feeling that this job really would offer me an opportunity to use my skills and experiences to make a difference, and at the same time grow as a professional. FBA was at the time already working actively with leadership development support for leaders in key functions within the ... Read entire post »
2021-06-03 10:54
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Posted by Rhodri Williams
Civil Society as a Critical Partner: Rule of Law and Accountability in the Liberian COVID-19 Response, Part II

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Part One of this post highlighted the importance of the rule of law in supporting crisis response in countries struggling with the effects of conflict. One of the most important rule of law principles in such settings is accountability, particularly “downward accountability”, in which state authorities focus on serving citizens dependent on them.

Corruption and poor governance can lead to excessive upward accountability directed toward political superiors, leaving a gap between the state and ordinary citizens. Civil ... Read entire post »

The post Civil Society as a Critical Partner: Rule of Law and Accountability in the Liberian COVID-19 Response, Part II first appeared on FBA-bloggen.
2021-02-15 13:43
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Posted by Kristin Valasek
Time for a joint vision on gender-responsive leadership

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Right before the winter break, 236 women and men from 105 different organizations and 46 countries around the world joined our International Dialogue on Gender-Responsive Leadership, to discuss an absolutely critical and often missing part of the gender equality puzzle: gender-responsive leadership.

After twenty years of struggling to achieve the commitments of the global women, peace and security agenda, we at the FBA have learned that executives and managers are essential to success. Not just as supporters, ... Read entire post »

The post Time for a joint vision on gender-responsive leadership first appeared on FBA-bloggen.
2021-02-10 16:09

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Annika Söder

Geographic expertise

Topical expertise

Languages

Working for peace in the shadow of a frozen conflict

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Read our publications

The Gender-Responsive Leader's Handbook