Home Strategy of SR and Agenda 2030
Official Development Assistance (ODA) is a set of state activities aimed at helping and supporting developing countries towards sustainable development. It lies on the perception of co-responsibility for global progress, to which national governments want to help in this way. ODA rest on funds that governments set aside from state budgets and then either transfer to international institutions such as the UN, OECD, EU, focused on development aid (multilateral development aid) or finance projects and programs in selected countries (bilateral development aid) or the basis of an agreement with a partner (trilateral development aid). In the recent two cases, it is aid whose geographical and sectoral direction, delivery method, and amount of contributions is characterized by the primary states themselves.
Several national entities participate in the creation and implementation of ODA SR under the SlovakAid brand:
MFEA SR started to provide official development assistance under the SlovakAid brand in 2003 when Slovakia became a donor from the recipient country. This change resulted from the positive development of the Slovak political-economic situation with integration into vital international structures (EU, OECD, NATO). Since 2003, the Slovak development agenda has come a long way and has become an effective tool and an integral part of Slovak foreign policy.
In 2007, the MFEA SR established the Slovak Agency for International Development Cooperation (SAIDC), which, by its statute, acquired the competencies of administrative and contracting units of the Trust Fund (ACU TF) and Bratislava - Belgrade Fund (ACU BBF), project cycles within the framework of official development cooperation.
Through specialized programs and grant rounds, SAIDC allows national entities to implement projects in target countries. Public entities are involved in implementing Slovak development cooperation, including state and academic institutions, non-governmental organizations, and business entities.
Development Cooperation of the Slovak Republic in the period 2019 - 2023 is directed to three so-called program countries - KENYA, MOLDOVA and GEORGIA, as well as to four partner regions and one partner country:
Since 2019, Slovakia has been applying a more regional approach, i. j. we support thematically similar projects in several countries in one region. The aim is to capitalize on lessons learned and share examples of successful projects between partner countries.
Sectorally, SlovakAid operates in six areas: education, healthcare, good governance, and civil society building, food security and agriculture, infrastructure and sustainable use of natural resources, support for the creation of a market environment.
SlovakAid's projects and activities also integrate the so-called cross-cutting themes, which are 1. Environment and climate change and 2. Equal opportunities. Their inclusion in projects and activities assessed in each of the six priority sectors.
The scholarship program, the volunteer and expert secondment program, and the business partnership program can be achieved in countries outside the above-mentioned territorial priorities.
The Slovak Republic is involved in multilateral assistance mainly through the EU development activities and international organizations and institutions such as the UN, the World Bank Group, and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. It implements development cooperation in the form of involvement in decision-making processes by providing contributions from the state budget and increasing the share capital of international financial institutions.
Evaluation is an important part of managing development cooperation and improving its effectiveness. It is the systematic and objective evaluation of an ongoing or completed project, programme or activity, its implementation and results. The aim is to determine their relevance, coherence, effectiveness, efficiency, impact and sustainability. Evaluation also provides objectively based information for decision-making on the future direction and implementation of development cooperation of the Slovak Republic.
EVALUATION REPORTS:
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is an ambitious and comprehensive initiative of the international community from 2015. It contains 17 sustainable development goals, which the professional public calls SDGs - Sustainable Development Goals. Their fulfillment should help to solve global problems which no country can solve in isolation, and that progress can achieve through cooperation and partnership building. MIRDI SR is responsible for implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development at the national level. MFEA SR is responsible for implementation in the international environment.
In June 2018, the Government of the Slovak Republic approved six national priorities for the implementation of Agenda 2030 (Government Resolution No. 273/2018), which emerged from a participatory process involving a wide range of actors. Six national priorities, resp. the main areas of implementation of the 2030 Agenda are coherent with the six sectoral priorities of the Slovak ODA defined by this medium-term strategy.