Slovenia has established four implementing institutions to address specific challenges related to central banking, governance, human security and infrastructure. These institutions are valued by partner countries, especially in the Western Balkans. Today, two of these have mobilised significant external funding that allows them to scale up their activities.
Slovenia uses implementing institutions to build niche expertise and scale up financing
Abstract
Challenge
Development co-operation requires technical expertise and resources. For Slovenia, as for other DAC members with similarly limited human and financial capacities, supporting quality projects at scale can be challenging. In the recent past, Slovenia has opted for an innovative model of building and sharing expertise on specific topics based on its comparative advantage and mobilising resources from other donors.
Approach
Slovenia has established four implementing institutions to address specific challenges:
The Centre of Excellence in Finance (CEF) was established by the Slovenian government in 2001 to support capacity development of public officials in Southeast Europe. Key activities include public financial management, central banking, leadership for managing reforms, and learning and knowledge ecosystems. In 2015, the CEF became an international organisation.
The Centre for European Perspective (CEP) was established by the Slovenian government in 2006 to support partner countries on their path towards European Union (EU) accession (governance, the rule of law and the fight against crime). For example, the CEP currently works to enhance resilience and boost regional co-operation to tackle disinformation including by bringing together representatives of government, civil society and media from Western Balkan countries.
The Centre for International Cooperation and Development (CMSR) was established by the Republic of Slovenia and its export bank. Most CMSR projects relate to construction and rehabilitation of water, waste water treatment plants and waste management in the Western Balkans. The CMSR also supports projects in other sectors and regions.
ITF Enhancing Human Security (originally called the International Trust Fund for Demining and Mine Victims Assistance) was established by the Slovenian government in 1998 to support demining in Bosnia and Herzegovina. ITF has since significantly expanded its geographic and thematic scope, which now includes humanitarian mine action, victims assistance, medical and psychosocial rehabilitation, conventional weapons destruction, capacity building, vocational training, provision of food and non-food related items, and advocacy.
Funding for these institutions is generally provided for two or three years and is based on an agreed list of projects.
Results
Two of the implementing institutions have mobilised significant external funding and are EU pillar assessed, which allows them to increase their impact. ITF’s funding is mainly external (50% from the United States, 25% from the EU and 12% from Slovenia). The CEF receives 58% of its funding from the Slovenian government and public bodies and external funding from the EU, the International Monetary Fund, the Ministry of Finance of the Netherlands, the Ministry of Finance of Slovakia and the German development agency Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH. Both the ITF and CEF, as EU pillar assessed implementing organisations, also implement development co-operation programmes on behalf of the EU. As such, both institutions have been able to expand the scale of their activities in terms of number of beneficiaries and/or countries. The CMSR has started the preparation of its EU pillar assessment process in 2024. The CEP is currently engaged in discussions with the European Commission on a possible pillar assessment process.
One of Slovenia’s four implementing institutions also has the status of international organisation, which brings additional benefits. The CEF’s status as an international organisation allows to receive more funding from a variety of donors and increase its expertise and capacity. The ITF is considering transforming its legal status in this direction, which in addition to other benefits would provide immunity for its staff. Immunity could be particularly helpful when working in countries where Slovenia does not have embassies.
Lessons learnt
Pooling resources from various donors to focus on specific topics enables the implementing institutions to build expertise and reach scale. Slovenia’s implementing institutions have built expertise on specific topics such as central banking, governance and human security. They are valued by partner countries, especially in the Western Balkans.
Working with partners that mobilise external funding creates new opportunities as well as challenges. Now that the CEF has become an international institution, Slovenia has less control and needs to adapt its processes to allow standard project documents to be in English. Slovenian implementing institutions also must navigate donors’ differing priorities, timelines and accountability frameworks, which requires co-ordination.
Slovenia can take better advantage of the increased capacity of its partners. In particular, setting a minimum threshold size for projects would allow the country to reap the benefits of having EU pillar assessed institutions.
Further information
ITF Enhancing Human Security (2023), Annual Report, https://www.itf.si/upload/publications/itf_ar_2023.pdf?v=1.
CEF (2022), Annual Report, https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/view/68314971/2022-cef-annual-report.
CEP website: https://www.cep.si/.
CMSR website: https://www.cmsr.si/en/.
OECD resources
OECD (2024), OECD Development Co-operation Peer Reviews: Slovenia 2024, OECD Development Co-operation Peer Reviews, OECD Publishing, Paris (forthcoming).
To learn more about the Slovenia’s development co-operation, see:
OECD, "Slovenia", in Development Co-operation Profiles, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/e6f1ed3f-en.
More In Practice examples from Slovenia are available here: https://www.oecd.org/development-cooperation-learning?tag-key+partner=slovenia#search.
