Medium-Term Strategy for Official Development Assistance: 2003 - 2008

The Slovak Republic is a member of the donor community. From the moral point of view this is a result of the country’s three-year membership in the OECD - the club of the 30 wealthiest countries of the world and its clear heading towards the Euro-Atlantic structures. In fact, Slovakia is a donor also due to the reason that it provides assistance to developing countries totalling SKK 300 - 400 million annually. However, the country has differed from the typical donors not only in terms of amounts of assistance provided (e.g. 0.042 per cent of GDP in 2001), but also because it did not have a comprehensive mechanism in place for development co-operation. Until last year assistance was mainly provided in the form of voluntary contributions to international organisations, using specialised programmes (e.g. scholarships) and in the form of humanitarian aid. In the past, the national budget did not have a special line referring to specific development assistance earmarked for selected priority countries. (Introduction, fragment)