Slovakia’s development assistance is regulated by the Official Development Aid Law of 5 December 2007 (Act 617/2007 Coll.), which entered into force on 1 February 2008 to make Slovakia a development aid donor with a defined legislative and institutional framework. The Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs coordinates Slovak aid, while the Slovak Agency for International Development Cooperation, established in 2007, is in charge of the implementation of bilateral assistance. The legislative framework is completed by the Budget Law, which confirms allocations for official development assistance (ODA) (Slovakia operates a rolling three-year budget – current year plus indicative budgets for the next two years) together with the Government’s Manifesto 2012-2016, which sets the Slovak Republic’s development cooperation in the context of European Union (EU) membership and commits to making ODA more transparent and effective.

The overall planning of the assistance is determined by the Mid-term Strategy of Development Aid for 2009- 2013, which focuses Slovak aid on three programme countries - Afghanistan, Serbia and Kenya, in addition to 16 project countries, mainly in the Western Balkan and Eastern Europe. Since 2009, when the Strategy was approved, Slovakia has reduced the number of its partner countries. In 2012, Slovak ODA was delivered to 13 partner countries (Afghanistan, Kenya, South Sudan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Moldova, Ukraine, Belarus, Georgia, Tunisia and Egypt) according to the National ODA Programme 2012, adopted in January 2012. The National ODA Programme 2012 has also narrowed the scope of sectors addressed in order to increase the effectiveness of Slovak aid.

Slovakia’s top ODA priorities for the 2009-2013 period include strengthening of stability and good governance, including in terms of Slovakia’s economic interests, as well as encouraging development, thus reducing poverty and hunger in developing countries through more effective and better-targeted development and humanitarian aid. The core of the Slovak development programme comprises transfer of unique knowledge and experience gained during several years of transformation of the whole society as well as in the context of its European and Euro-Atlantic integration processes.

Under its membership in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Slovakia participates in the work of the OECD’s Development Assistance Committee (DAC), with observer status thus far. In 2011, Slovak undertook the DAC Special Peer Review, which assessed the policy and system of development cooperation.

Development assistance provided by the Slovak Republic complies with international documents, treaties and declarations to which it has acceded, namely the UN Millennium Declaration and the Millennium Development Goals, the Paris Declaration, the Accra Agenda for Action and the Busan Outcome Document. Further, it acts in line with commitments made at the UN International Conference on Financing for Development held in Monterrey, and confirmed at the Doha Conference.

As an EU Member State, Slovakia acts in compliance with the European Consensus on Development and the conclusions of the European Council and the Council of the EU addressing various aspects of the EU’s development policy. The so-called “Aid for Trade” initiative also constitutes an important part of the EU’s development policy. Slovakia supports the EU’s goal to improve the quality and effectiveness of development assistance. It participates in European development policy by means of EU external assistance instruments, coordination of its efforts and cooperating with other EU Member States and the Commission. The principles of the European Consensus on Development of 2005, in whose preparation Slovakia was actively engaged, are reflected in the implementation of Slovak development assistance more intensively.