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USAID: Activities in Slovakia
>> Europe and Eurasia >> Slovakia
Since 1990, USAID has provided over $190 million in SEED Act financing and implemented 120 different partnership activities in Slovakia, involving hundreds of local institutions and thousands of individual partners. Throughout this period, the USAID program was designed to encourage and facilitate Slovakia’s movement toward a democratic, transparent political system, buttressed by an active civil society and a private sector-led and internationally competitive market economy. Consequently, the USAID program emphasized four areas in its first decade:
- Private Sector Growth: the development of private enterprises and the restructuring and privatization of public enterprises; the establishment of market-oriented legal systems and financial institutions to promote private sector growth; and programs to foment competition and enable economic efficiency;
- Democracy Building: increasing the ability of civil society organizations, political parties, unions and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to be involved in public decision processes and community development; voter education and political party strengthening activities; increasing the capacity of local governments to provide programs responsive to citizen concerns, including programs for municipal finance, environmental health, and housing; developing the primary educational system, to give students the critical thinking skills consistent with democracy and to get parents involved in the education process; and strengthening the media and modernizing the legal and judicial systems to support democratic change and the rule of law.
- Environment: augmenting the capacity of public sector institutions to plan and carry out risk-based environmental management; establishment of effective legal and regulatory frameworks for environmental management and market-based pollution abatement; and support for clean-up, water quality and natural resource programs; and
- Social Development: improving health care administration, health system financing and service delivery through technical assistance and partnership programs between Slovak and U.S. health institutions.
In many cases, our assistance made major contributions to establishing strong institutions and introducing new concepts and procedures that have served Slovakia well, such as in the environmental field. The expertise of several institutions we helped are now recognized internationally—such as Civic Eye and the Pontis Foundation for election monitoring, MEMO ’98 for media monitoring, the Center for Conflict Prevention and Resolution for mediation, and the Orava Association for innovative integration of democracy at the primary school level. In other instances, Slovak government policy decisions that frustrated the intent of our assistance (examples being in privatization and banking reform) led to our assistance being refocused on more attainable objectives. In all cases, we aimed to support progress in the country’s social, economic and political transformations and its integration with European-Atlantic structures.
The USAID program has been reduced as Slovakia is able to rely increasingly on European and international sources of cooperation. However, USAID provides funding for the following activities that are helping build institutions and processes that are essential to the functioning of a democratic civil society and a free market economy (all are now scheduled to end in 2002):
ABA/CEELI and DOJ/CEELI have worked in the anti-corruption area, on both the crime prevention and law-enforcement sides, including such activities as drafting legislation on the reorganization of Slovakia’s court administration and consulting with the inter-ministerial committee working to revise the criminal procedure code. ABA/CEELI also assisted in the revision of the bankruptcy law, the establishment of a legal framework for bank liquidation, and the development of an anti-money laundering bill and the newly-enacted Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). With Transparency International Slovakia, CEELI is assisting the Slovak Government’s efforts to implement FOIA and helped establish the regulations and procedures for the Government of Slovakia’s Anti-corruption Action Plan.
Transparency International Slovakia (TIS) runs an active Anti-corruption Public Awareness Program, trains anti-corruption activists and oversees the implementation of the Slovak Government’s Anti-corruption Action Plan and Freedom of Information Act. TIS has introduced anti-corruption ethics curricula for secondary schools and universities.
"Your Land" is a three-year program that promotes expanded citizen activities in the social and political life of the country. The program offers grant support in such strategic and socially critical areas as citizens’ involvement in public policy advocacy, stimulating philanthropy and the establishment of a culture of volunteerism in small towns and rural villages, and programs for women and minorities. "Your Land" aims to spread the application of democratic values and ethical principles (such as tolerance, fair and open competition, and the avoidance of conflicts of interest) into the daily lives of citizens.
The Orava Project, carried out with the assistance of the University of Northern Iowa, aims to introduce democratic instructional practices and critical thinking skills to the Slovak education system, from the Ministry level to university and classroom teachers, school administrators, parents and students. The Orava Association is disseminating the Orava Project’s techniques and expertise to educators in Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia.
Through the recently initiated Local Economic Development Project, USAID is assisting four cities to improve their economies through stimulating private sector investment. The project will introduce the concepts of strategic planning and public-private partnership in local economic development efforts, leading to the development of municipal investment projects for funding by other donors. A large number of Slovak cities will participate in discussions of the process as a means of encouraging them to initiate the same ideas. The project aims to develop a corps of Slovak specialists who subsequently could be contracted by other cities to advise on their development efforts.
The U.S. Treasury has provided an advisor to the Ministry of Finance in the budgeting area through December 2001.
Embassy Outreach – The Embassy provides democracy building and media training grants to selected Slovak NGOs and individuals. This program responds to the growth and activism of Slovakia’s NGO community and the development of a dual (independent and public) system of radio, television, and print ownership.
Slovak/American Enterprise Fund – provides loans to small and medium size private companies.
In addition to these activities, which have been designed specifically for Slovakia, USAID is funding several regional programs from which Slovakia can also benefit:
The EcoLinks Program administered by the Institute for International Education encourages Slovak community-based organizations to work collaboratively in the development of cross-border environmental and civil society initiatives.
Partners for Financial Stability is designed to address gaps in the financial sectors within USAID close-out countries and on financial sector integration and linkages between countries. This program requires cost sharing.
The Pension Internship Program allows private sector pension fund managers and public sector fund managers and regulators from Central and Eastern Europe to increase their professional skills and gain new perspectives through short-term placement with analogous U.S. institutions. This program also requires cost sharing.
back to IV. Slovak-American Economic Cooperation in the Future
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Last Updated on: June 25, 2009 |
