Slovakia should keep increasing resources for development aid

According to the Foreign and European Affairs minister Miroslav Lajčák, Slovakia should continue increasing resources for official development cooperation also in the years to come. In 2016, Slovakia earmarked almost 99.4 million euros for official development aid. This is an increase of 21.2 million euros compared to 2015, or about 27 percent. However, according to Lajčák, a similar trend might not continue in the future, as the 2016 increase was possible mainly thanks to a one-off contribution to the funds and organizations dealing with the migration crisis. The increase of resources is often hampered by a lack of high quality projects, resulting in the fact that not all financial resources are distributed. If Slovakia wanted to keep pace with the growth in expenditure, it would have to allocate € 126 million to development cooperation in 2017, reads the statement from the Foreign Ministry.