The volume of official development aid in 2012 decreased by almost €1 million in annual terms, with the overall sum spent last year standing at €60.98 million, according to data released by the Slovak Non-governmental Development Organisations (MVRO) Platform. The 2012 figure represents 0.087 percent of the country's GNI (gross national income).
Slovakia lags behind its Visegrad Four neighbours (the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland) and, in fact, is behind in its international obligation to provide development aid at a level of 0.33 percent of GNI by 2015. As chairman of the MVRO platform Zuzana Fialová told the TASR newswire, the reason behind the drop may be ascribed to significant cuts (of around 30 percent) in the volume of assistance granted via bilateral development projects.
Conversely, the platform recorded an increase in aid carried out through bilateral projects involving Africa (a 44-percent rise year-on-year) and the poorest countries in the world such as Afghanistan, Kenya and South Sudan (by 55.14 percent year-on-year).
(Source: TASR)
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
