This year's cultural budget includes a multi-million investment in children and young people's reading.

Among other things, SEK 55 million will be set aside in 2021, and SEK 75 million annually in 2022–2023 for the implementation of the reading delegation's various proposals.

Investments in reading have been made by many governments before the current one, but so far no efforts have been able to reverse what several reports and surveys in recent years show: Swedish children read less and less and children's reading comprehension and language skills have deteriorated.

Temporary projects

Johan Anderblad was Sweden's reading ambassador 2017-2019, with the task of increasing children and young people's reading.

- I came across a lot of nice reading promotion projects, which were done locally, at best regionally, but then it stops there.

The experiences were not shared, but there was always someone in another place who needed to reinvent the wheel, he says about his time as a reading ambassador.

Following up and evaluating the reading promotion work was not always obvious either.

- The problem is that it is often project money - it is a year, maybe two, then everything falls apart and you have to start again in a new place, says Johan Anderblad.

"No one takes responsibility"

The reading delegation is the composition of reading-promoting actors from different parts of society that is behind most of the government's new reading initiatives in the budget.

The chair of the reading delegation, Katti Hoflin, shares the analysis that there has been a lack of more systematic work with reading promotion in Sweden.

- As it looks now, no one is really responsible for this, she says.

With the new cultural budget, the reading delegation's proposal to establish a national, responsible reading council will become a reality.

- The reading council must investigate what works and does not work, and make decisions about what can be closed down and what should be scaled up.

They should take a national responsibility and a holistic approach to this instead of a lot of different projects, such as sparklers.

More collaboration

According to Katti Hoflin, the fact that the reading promotion work is not followed up and evaluated sufficiently is due to a lack of co-operation capacity between, for example, the Ministry of Culture and Education, and other institutions in society.

- It's about hooking arms and working together in a completely different way, she says.