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Slovak-American Development Partnership 1990-2000
>> Europe and Eurasia >> Slovakia >>Development Partnership
A. Building Democracy—People and Institutions
USAID’s encouragement for the spread of democracy strengthened the political process, improved how elected and appointed officials interact with citizens (especially at the community level), extended the rule of law, and built a means to incorporate a diversity of opinions into decision making processes. The basic objective has always been to support Slovakia’s transformation into a society in which citizens are well informed and take responsibility for their government and their own wellbeing by participating in and leading economic, political and social decision making.
Political Processes
USAID helped to strengthen political parties on a non-partisan basis and to bolster the effectiveness and integrity of the means by which people elect their representatives. Advisors from the International Republican Institute (IRI) improved the organizational and outreach skills of political parties and organizations. IRI published political training manuals and hosted over 100 seminars for political activists and elected officials from parties across the political spectrum. IRI trained all political parties equally on the design and use of polls, message development, campaign organization, communications and public speaking and media relations, and raised their internal training capacities. The National Democratic Institute (NDI) trained community organizers and helped create community organizations in several cities to define, address and resolve local concerns through citizen interaction with local government, businesses and community leaders. A new civic organization, Citizens Action, is a center for continued community organizing into the future.
In connection with the 1998 parliamentary elections, both organizations worked on the integrity of the voting process. Ballot security was improved. Parallel vote tabulations assured accurate reporting of the results. Independent election monitoring was established as a viable model for Slovakia, and Slovakia now has a domestic election observer organization, Obcianske Oko. Other groups, some with USAID support, educated voters on the issues and urged them to vote, while others monitored government media to document their biased reporting. As a result, 84% of eligible voters went to the polls, a much higher proportion than in earlier elections, and they were well informed about the issues. The youth vote was particularly high. However, the culture of political debate and consensus is not well developed, and political parties remain fragmented and need to improve their organizational management.
Local Government and Public Administration
The USAID local government project carried out by the International City-County Management Association improved the governance, technical and resource management capabilities of elected and appointed local government officials, especially those in larger population centers. Over 4,700 elected leaders from 600 cities were trained in a series of technical courses responding to the needs that local governments identified. Almost 200 municipal trainers received courses in teaching methods and municipal administration. A series of 15 manuals dealing with municipal financial administration was also distributed widely and used as texts in courses offered to financial managers. An environmental training program for five municipalities allowed them to develop and implement sound environmental policies and activities. Over 42,000 copies of a "quick guide" to the responsibilities of elected officials and local government functions were distributed to all elected and appointed municipal officials in the country. Hundreds of local officials participated in other courses, dealing with such topics as municipal planning, property management, and the management of service delivery. The Association of Towns and Communities (ZMOS) and similar organizations were strengthened under the project and are now better able to advocate decentralization and promote good governance at the local level. The Local Self-Government Assistance Center, founded under the project, is one of six organizations strengthened by USAID assistance that will continue to respond to local government training needs.
Through the Environmental Health project, Camp Dresser-McKee worked to restructure water and wastewater facilities into smaller, more cost-effective units accountable to the communities they serve. Management and financial analysis models developed by the project are available to help municipalities decide how their water and sewerage services should be structured and operated and training was provided on system management. In 1997, two municipalities received control of their water and sewerage systems, and 12 more were informed they could do the same. Almost 600 towns have requested authority to control their own water and sewerage facilities and hundreds more have requested information on the process involved. Municipalities and their associations are better prepared to advocate their positions as a result of this project and will be better equipped to manage their water systems once municipal control is achieved.
A related project, implemented through Research Triangle International, accelerated the pace of governmental decentralization and the spread of good governance at the local level. An Intergovernmental Advisory Committee, composed of parliamentarians, local government association officials and ministry representatives, produced research papers, baseline data and policy papers on decentralization issues. Their publications used real examples from Slovakia to illustrate good local government administrative practices, service delivery, expanding local financing sources, improving financial management, and policy development. The project also provided the impetus to launch the Municipal Finance Officers Association and the Slovak City Managers Association. Greater consensus has emerged among Slovaks on how decentralization should proceed and on what level of central government budget support for local government is appropriate, given the policy choices examined with the facilitation of this project.
It is clear that, with USAID assistance, accountable local governance has been extended, the technical quality of municipal administration improved, and a strong capacity for continued training of municipal officials established. Citizen voices are now being sought and heard on a broad range of local governance topics.
Social Processes
The Orava Educational Reform Project has started making sweeping changes in teaching practices in Slovakia’s basic schools, reforming the curriculum for training new teachers and improving school administration. Orava school district leaders knew that standard teaching methods and the lack of parental involvement in the educational process needed to be changed. A program put together by educators from Orava, Comenius University and the University of Northern Iowa engaged students in their learning process. The project has increased students’ abilities to evaluate what is being taught, reflect on it, integrate it with what they learn outside of school, formulate and defend their own conclusions, work and solve problems collaboratively, and reach and support consensus. These intellectual patterns are needed in a democracy but rarely presented under the old system of basic education.
Using Slovak curriculum and materials, core teacher leaders brought the new teaching methods to the classroom and their co-workers. Over 6,000 teachers received all or part of the in-service training offered by the project, and almost 200 teachers are now core teacher leaders that train other teachers. In addition to involving parents and communities in their children’s education, major changes were made in school management and university-based teacher preparation.
The Orava project now covers school districts in Orava, Bratislava, Nitra and Topolcany. Ministry of Education officials are willing to have its teaching methodologies adopted nationwide. The Methods Centers in Banska Bystrica, Bratislava and Presov now use the project’s educational leadership methodology as their program for certification of school directors. The Orava Association for Democratic Education will carry the project’s practices and ideals into the future. A strong foundation for instilling democratic values and thought processes in the young has been installed and now needs to be expanded nationwide.
The American Center for International Labor (ACIL) increased the ability of unions that are part of the Confederation of Trade Unions (KOZ) to represent their members’ interests. Building up from local unions and emphasizing local initiative and decentralized decision making, leaders of this confederation of 1.1 million members and 43 affiliated branch organizations have gained practical experience with issue analysis, contract negotiations and media relations, as a step to affiliated unions having constructive relations with their members’ companies and as a means of responding to their members’ expressed priorities. KOZ is now a vital force in the labor movement, effectively supporting affiliate actions through training, coordination and media assistance. Unions are no longer the company-sponsored welfare service providers and stiflers of protest they had been in earlier days.
The Rural Community Capacity Building Program carried out by the Volunteers in Overseas Cooperative Assistance (now ACDI/VOCA) developed the leadership abilities of the residents of hundreds of rural communities, especially women, and assisted rural and small town entrepreneurs to expand local production and employment. Its very successful program of small grants to NGOs widened the range of community leaders and providing them with the experience to become effective change agents, enabling citizens and elected officials to collaborate in the identification, design and implementation of needed improvements in over 10% of Slovakia’s rural villages. Vidiecka Organizacia pre Komunitne Aktivity (VOKA), a new NGO, is carrying on this work, with continuing access to ACDI/VOCA’s community development volunteers in the future. VOKA is the country’s only national rural development network.
Rule of Law
ABA/CEELI, the American Bar Association’s Central and East European Law Initiative, has provided volunteer legal expertise and training to Slovak institutions since 1993. CEELI assisted the Slovak Judges’ Association to develop an ethics code for judges, train judges on priority legal topics, and build the Association as an institution that effectively represents its members. During the development of a new judicial code in 1994, for example, CEELI advised Association members on how to present their professional concerns to the Ministry of Justice and the Parliament. With CEELI help, Safarik and Comenius universities established clinical legal education programs (i.e., using real case materials and supervised real work situations). These activities provide practical legal training to current and future law students and make basic legal assistance available to clients (including small businesses and NGOs) who cannot afford lawyers.
CEELI advanced citizen awareness of their legal rights and responsibilities by publishing pamphlets on democracy and human rights, including citizen interaction with the police, consumer rights, employer-employee relations, human rights in the classroom, and citizen access to the court system to resolve legal conflicts. Some 20,000 copies were distributed broadly in Slovakia—to the Ministry of Education for secondary schools and to the associations of judges, city managers, lawyers and consumers. CEELI helped the Slovak Advocates’ Association prepare pamphlets on the basic things the law requires of citizens (street law). The rights of children and pensioners also commanded CEELI resources. CEELI coordinated training to the Slovak Constitutional Court on the function and operation of constitutional courts in democracies. It trained other court officials on court administration, assisting the Ministry of Justice in drafting key legislation on the topic. As a result of these activities, citizens are better informed and they have access to better informed lawyers and better administered courts—and, therefore, better justice.
In 1999, USAID responded to the Government’s request for assistance in preventing corruption. USAID funded part of the cost of an anti-corruption diagnosis carried out under World Bank auspices in preparation for its Integrity Workshop. USAID also supported the anti-corruption and awareness campaigns launched by Transparency International Slovakia and the Integra Foundation. CEELI published a pamphlet on corruption and provided a criminal law specialist to supplement its civil law specialist; both advise the inter-ministerial committees dealing with corruption and organized crime.
Democratic Pluralism
The U.S. Information Agency’s International Media Fund, one of USAID’s original SEED Act-funded partners in Slovakia, helped increase objective, independent reporting and promoted ethical conduct in journalism. It helped Comenius University launch the first private radio station in Central and Eastern Europe. The Center for Independent Journalism in Bratislava, founded with help from the project, and Comenius University’s Journalism Faculty, strengthened under the project, now train current and future Slovak journalists. USIA used SEED Act funds to sponsor other Slovak-American exchanges.
The ProMedia project, carried out under the leadership of the International Research and Exchanges Board, increased the professionalism and financial viability of Slovakia’s independent (private sector) media. Training for radio and TV stations led to a marked improvement in the quality of their programs and led to the production of award-winning local interest stories. Group equipment purchases enabled broadcasters to expand their technical capabilities at affordable prices. Market research sponsored in partnership with the Association of Independent Radio Stations enabled local and regional radio stations to target their programming to listener needs and increase both market share and advertising revenue. The broadcast media are now on much firmer financial ground—which is good news for democracy.
ProMedia assistance also improved the legal framework in which the media operate. A legal opinion it provided gave the Slovak Syndicate of Journalists and other opponents the ammunition they needed to prevent passage of a restrictive and vague media law in 1997 and to improve a subsequent bill a year later. A handbook on the media’s legal rights and responsibilities in Slovakia it published is used as a text in journalism schools. The media and public officials regularly consult ProMedia’s Internet database of Slovak and international media laws. Many media and public interest groups were strengthened through the project. A new private organization, Memo’98, is continuing many of the support activities initiated under the ProMedia program.
Non-governmental Organization (NGO) Development
In addition to supporting the involvement of NGOs in sector-specific activities, USAID set up a special mechanism that encouraged NGOs to undertake important democracy building work and promoted the development of NGOs as a group. The Foundation for a Civil Society administered the Slovak Democracy Network (DemNet) project, which supported the work of 48 Slovak NGOs throughout the country to influence the formulation or implementation of public policy in the areas of democracy, social sector restructuring, economic development and the environment. Grants awarded through four rounds of competitive evaluations of hundreds of proposals enabled thousands of people to participate directly in the policy making process and to information on policy issues. NGOs thereby also gained experience with program implementation and administration.
Throughout its four years, DemNet sponsored well over 100 training events attended by over 2,000 individuals on such topics as NGO financial management, fund raising, and organizational development. In the latter part of the DemNet program, 38 organizational development and professionalization grants enabled recipients to work intensively on their organizations’ sustainability. A local organization, Nadacia pre obciansku spolocnost (NOS), was spun off to continue to support the development of a civil society in Slovakia.
The NGO movement now has a much stronger core of experienced organizations and people that more effectively involve people in democratic decision making processes. The movement also has a more adequate legal framework for operating, due in part to the USAID-sponsored work of the International Center for Not-for-profit Law (ICNL), which helped prepare legislation and which prepared a guide for NGOs on Slovakia’s laws and how to comply with them.
Late in 1999, USAID initiated a new program of NGO support through an indigenous grant making organization, run jointly by the Ekopolis and ETP foundations. This $2 million endeavor, entitled "Your Land," is intended to continue U.S. support for the important work of NGOs through 2002 in the areas of advocacy, rural development, community development, women/minorities/tolerance, and anti-corruption.
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Last Updated on: February 18, 2005 |
