Throughout 2023, our help knew no boundaries

"Peace is the responsibility of all of us." These are the words of Pope Francis, through which he exhorts all humanity to responsibility, to tolerance, empathy and humanity, which is needed today more than ever. If everyone contributes a little to make our world a better place to live, we have a chance to carry this responsibility. Therefore, under the SlovakAid brand, through project partners, Slovakia helps wherever it is needed. The year 2023 already marked the 20th anniversary of the provision of official development assistance of the Slovak Republic.

After the Government of the Slovak Republic approved The Focus of Bilateral Development Cooperation of the Slovak Republic for the year 2023 in January, the Slovak Agency for International Development Cooperation published on its website 13 calls for submission of applications for the provision of subsidies for humanitarian aid during the months of January, February, April, May and June 2023. and development projects, sending volunteers as well as co-financing EU projects and capacity building. Despite the fact that in 2023, in accordance with the Focus, a development call for projects for the countries of the Western Balkans was not announced, SAMRS provided funds in the form of financial contributions through the representative offices of the Slovak Republic in these countries and subsidies to support the deployment of volunteers or experts -volunteers and expert volunteers to this region.

After positive experiences with the announcement of a call for Strategic Partnerships in the Republic of Kenya in 2022, in the first half of 2023, the agency announced a call for submission of applications for the provision of a subsidy in the form of a strategic partnership for the Republic of Moldova. The goal of the call was to create a long-term cooperation mechanism and contribute to the long-term sustainable improvement of the living conditions of the population and development in the Republic of Moldova.

Unfortunately, Russian aggression against Ukraine continued in 2023, so in April and May, SAIDC announced two calls for aid to Ukraine devastated by the war conflict, namely a humanitarian call to provide psycho-social assistance to people suffering from the consequences of the war, and also a call for projects , aimed at supporting new business partnerships with a focus on the recovery and development of Ukraine.

Out of all the calls, 41 projects were approved in 2023, which will be implemented by 27 of our partners in 11 countries. SAMRS supported the financing of 83 microgrants in 15 countries in the amount of more than 686,630 euros. The agency provided 25 financial contributions to 11 countries for more than 2,058,000 euros, one of which was a contribution of 100,000 euros to the World Food Program to provide emergency food aid to the people of Gaza, who are facing a humanitarian disaster due to the sharp escalation of the conflict in the region, or financial contribution in the amount of 750,000 euros for the purchase of two pieces of demining systems Bozena 4+ intended for humanitarian demining in Ukraine. SAMRS also supported 6 projects from the tool for providing knowledge and experience - Sharing Slovak Expertise (SSE) for more than 40,000 euros.

In November, SAMRS published We published a call for a 36-month EU Support for Internal Market in Serbia project, financed by the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA), aimed at integrating the Serbian market environment into the internal market of the European Union. After the project to support local media in Moldova and the project to support the business environment in Kenya, this is the third EU delegated cooperation project in a row for SAIDC.

"Our help knows no boundaries" is the slogan with which SAIDC throughout the year 2023 not only reminded that SlovakAid has been helping for 20 years, but also emphasized that we at the agency are aware of what cooperation entails, at the end of which our partners help concrete people in the most difficult life situations.