Slovak Development Cooperation Forum in Nairobi

The Slovak Embassy in Nairobi and the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs of the Slovak Republic organized a Development Cooperation Forum in Nairobi . The forum that took place from 19th – 21st November 2012 aimed at discussing development cooperation that has been provided to Kenya for almost 17 years by Slovak development NGOs and 10 years by the official development assistance programme “SlovakAid”.

The forum gathered together representatives of 10 Slovak NGDOs and universities that are active in Kenya, their local partners as well as the representatives of the MFA SR and their Kenyan counterparts, private sector, other donors, the EU and the UN agencies. Participants of the conference accessed their experience from working in Kenya and defined strategies and policies for the next period in order to make Slovak development cooperation with Kenya even more effective and sustainable. The forum was accompanied by a Kenyan-Slovak Trade and Economic Seminar on 19th November 2012 where Slovak companies participated.

In the frame of the programme “SlovakAid”, 5.8 million Euros have been allocated for bilateral development projects since 2004. Projects are implemented by universities, NGOs, research institutes or business entities. Apart from the programme, Slovak organizations implement projects thanks to fundraising campaigns. According to Slovak NGDOs, the Slovak Development Cooperation Forum in Nairobi was a unique event that provided space for experience sharing and discussing possibilities of increasing the positive impact of the cooperation.

More information on Slovak development cooperation in Kenya can be found in the material prepared by the Slovak NGDO Platform “Slovakia has been helping Kenya for 17 years”.

Information provided by Andrea Girmanova, MVRO- Slovak NGDO Platform