Slovenian Development Days

From 14th to 16th October, Slovenian Platform of development and humanitarian NGOs Sloga and the Slovenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs organized the second edition of Slovenian development days in Ljubljana. The event was attended by more than 250 representatives of NGOs, ministries, parliamentarians, media and private companies and was aimed at awareness raising in the broader Slovenian public. The Slovenian development days were opened by Dragoljuba Benčina, State secretary at the Slovenian Foreign Ministry and Development Minister, and followed by three roundtables: inclusion of private companies into development cooperation, fair trade and the role of political parties towards development. The event also hosted European Commissioner for Development, Andris Piebalgs, and Slovenian Foreign Minister, Samuel Žbogar, who presented a current situation of Slovenian and EU development policy and addressed some current challenges in the field. Besides, NGOs and other development actors had the opportunity to present their activities and projects at the Development Village, and gained some new information on project proposal writing, best practices etc. at the workshops organized by the European Commission and the Inter-American Development Bank.

During the Slovenian development days Slovenian development NGOs met European Commissioner for Development, Andris Piebalgs. In his presentation the Commissioner emphasized the role of NGOs, who play an important role in developing countries, managing a gap that cannot be covered by member states’ governments. Among some major challenges in the future, he mentioned the division of labour among 27 member states and the implementation of a policy coherence for development principle. In addition, NGOs expressed the role of development education, which should be, according to Commissioner Piebalgs, based on national programmes.

NGOs also raised a dilemma of new donors emerging in the countries of Sub-Saharan Africa and the question of aid effectiveness. The Commissioner emphasized that the EU still is a leading partner in Africa, however there is a need to become more visible. On climate funding, he moreover stressed, that is should be additional to development funds, which will be monitored also by the European Commission.

Information provided by Eva Pliberšek, Sloga