Conference in Slovenia: Development Cooperation - Quo Vadis?

How to increase development aid and make it more effective? What is the future of Slovenian development aid? These were some of the key issues raised at the Slovenian international conference "Development Cooperation – Quo vadis" that took place on 26th March 2010. It was organized by the Slovenian NGDO Platform SLOGA together with Ekvilib Institute and its goal was to highlight the basic challenges faced by the international and Slovenian donor community.

In 2009 Slovenia has allocated 51 million EUR for development aid, was stated at the beginning of the conference by the representative from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and progress has also been made in increasing its effectiveness. The following panels of the conference focused on the civil society and the NGO representatives presented their ideas on aid effectiveness, new practices and approaches to development, and concrete project examples. Slovenian and international NGO representatives focused on the Paris declaration and Accra agenda and emphasized the importance of unity in understanding what aid effectiveness is. Some of the panelists also focused on new donors such as China and analysed the EU approach in the light of the new donors in the Sub Saharan Africa. In this light recommendations for the Slovenian strategy on development cooperation in the region were given. The panel was followed by a discussion that critically reflected on the role of civil society organisations in development cooperation. The conference concluded with a workshop on the human rights based approach to development cooperation.

For more information please contact Barbara Vodopivec from SLOGA at barbara.vodopivec@sloga-platform.org.

Information provided by Barbara Vodopivec, SLOGA