USAID’s first assistance in the environmental sector, during the Czech and Slovak Federal Republic era, was a $5 million grant that financed the importation of U.S. environmental monitoring equipment in Slovakia needed to carry out the national environmental strategy and action plan. The plan called for an extensive set of activities designed to mitigate environmental threats to human health by reforming the legal, regulatory and policy framework for the environment, improving the efficiency and effectiveness of public environmental investments, and helping the private sector to play a larger role in environmental management. In other early projects, the World Wildlife Fund and the U.S. National Park Service improved management of the Bieszady Tri-national Park and conservation activities along the Danube River, while the Center for Clean Air Policy assisted local government environmental services and implementation of the Slovak Environmental Fund.

Over the years, experts from the Harvard Institute for International Development (HIID) have played a key education and institution-building role in one of USAID’s most important and effective programs in Slovakia. In concert with Slovak authorities, HIID helped ensure that Slovakia could attain its goals of an environmentally sound and sustainable national development path, with needed enabling policies, laws and economic incentive structures. It developed environmental economics capabilities, including financing mechanisms for environmental programs throughout the country’s public and private sectors, and developed policy and legislative initiatives to strengthen the country’s environmental management and analysis capacities. The Ministry of Environment and the Slovak Environmental Agency now undertake the assessment and management of environmental risks and support remedial actions.

The ministries of Finance, Environment and Economy now use quantitative methods such as cost/benefit analysis in assessments of policies and regulations, impact and risk assessments, environmental audits, and analyses of legislative initiatives. The country’s recent Greenhouse Gas Emission Action Plan was one product of that capacity. The government also has a deeper understanding of the environmental policy approaches used in Western Europe and North America and demonstrates the country’s compliance with international environmental norms. The project enhanced the government’s ability to assess environmental impacts and design appropriate remedial measures, such as the introduction of lead-free gasoline and the promulgation of progressive policies like the Ministry of Economy’s Energy Policy. A set of background papers on Slovak environmental conditions and projects for the OECD and the EU, prepared with Harvard’s assistance, are one concrete example of how HIID and other USAID-supported activities facilitated the country’s preparations for entry into the OECD and the EU.

HIID advisors also helped to broaden the scope of the State Environment Fund, which was originally designed with the help of the Center for Clean Air Policy to make pollution fine and fee income available as grants to address adverse environmental situations. A loan facility was added that gave the fund greater flexibility to respond in the case of revenue-generating projects. The adoption of the Access to Environmental Information Law, which Harvard experts helped draft and which is the first freedom of information-type legislation in Slovakia, was a large step forward in the country’s efforts to democratize public environmental decision making. It is being used as a model for similar legislation in other fields. Amendments to the Air Protection law in 1999 enabled the use of tradable pollution permits and the inclusion of economic factors in the setting of fees and fines in air pollution cases. Some of HIID’s work formed the background for laws and policies still in preparation, including an environmental liability report being used in preparation of new legislation on the soils, transport and groundwater sectors and on genetically modified organisms.

The Slovak public is now more aware of environmental issues. In addition to contributing to reports and pamphlets published by the Ministry of Environment and the Slovak Environmental Agency, in 1995 the project published one particularly high impact book, entitled Will Slovakia Survive the Twenty-first Century? The book was the result of collaboration by experts in many economic and environmental disciplines—a style of research and policy development that will serve Slovakia well in the future.

Since 1998, with USAID support, Slovak health institutions have strengthened public health, occupational and environmental health and industrial hygiene capacities and have raised the visibility of environmental health problems and action programs. The Ministry of Health undertook an increase in the capacity of public health professionals in the area of environmental health. An environmental health subject was incorporated into Trnava University’s curriculum for public sector health administrators, along with a new occupational nursing curriculum.

World Environment Center (WEC) demonstration projects at three major Slovak chemical firms showed how to reduce harmful emissions significantly, using current technologies while saving money. The seven remaining large chemical companies carried out 15 waste minimization impact projects, lowering emissions and solid waste and improving air and water quality for workers and neighbors. Their annual net benefits were calculated at $1.1 million, versus one-time investment costs of only $190,000. As a direct result of this work, many decision-makers at the policy level and in firms now hold that industrial waste minimization is more efficient and effective than treatment. WEC small grants leveraged other funds for community environmental health infrastructure. The Slovak Pollution Prevention Center was established and equipped by WEC as a self-sustaining entity to design and carry out pollution prevention and waste minimization projects and publicize this "good business" approach to improving the environment.

During the 1992-98 period, the University of Minnesota Environmental Training project upgraded the skills of industrial firms, environmental service companies, NGOs and national and municipal officials in such topics as environmental policy and planning, business management and public outreach. These people now know effective techniques for performing environmental audits and impact assessments and how to do business planning and prepare financing proposals, including for municipal environmental investments. A special training program at the University of Kosice, with partial support from industry, led to an environmental economics program at the University, the first in Slovakia, and a post-degree study program on the environmentally sound restructuring of heavy industries. In addition, special courses for over 100 environmental NGOs contributed to their sustainability by presenting NGO leadership, strategic planning, management, conflict resolution and fundraising techniques. Overall, more than 2,000 people received training under the project. One particularly good outcome of an environmental monitoring session came after participating NGOs from Eastern Slovakia collaborated in preparing quality assurance guidelines for monitoring subsurface water near waste dumps. The guidelines have been used as a source for a Ministry of Environment technical norm. The ETP Foundation, a Slovak NGO, carries on the work initiated under the project, as do at least four other training organizations.

The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) participated in the first USAID-funded assistance projects in Slovakia, including work on the Czechoslovak Environmental Strategy and Environmental Action Plan presented to international donors. The EPA conducted many training courses on risk assessment analysis and environmental policy, including for parliamentarians. The Geographic Information System (GIS) equipment it provided improved information systems and monitoring capacity in Slovakia. The personnel of the ministries of Environment and Health trained under the project now interpret health and environmental data in a collaborative manner, following up on earlier EPA training in health risk assessment for the Slovak Environmental Agency and local and regional health offices. The Institute of Preventive and Clinical Medicine collects environmental data, monitors environmental impacts on human health, and shares environmental health best practices. In addition, the Slovak Environmental Agency’s Risk Information Center in Banska Bystrica has a Pollution Release and Transfer Registry that tracks the generation, release and fate of pollutants. A multi-ministry case study done under this project in the eastern industrial zone of Zilina sharpened the analytical skills of all agencies involved in the study. Overall, EPA’s support enabled efforts that resulted in increased public awareness of the sources of environmental risk, while promoting better industry compliance with emission regulations, and improving government and industry management of toxic compounds.

One USAID-financed regional program, ECOLINKS (formally, the Eurasian-American Partnership for Environmentally Sustainable Economies), links businesses, local governments and associations in Central and Eastern Europe with their U.S. counterparts to deal with priority environmental problems. Ten grants were made in 1999 to Slovak organizations under the ECOLINKS project. One typical "challenge grant" aimed to assess the feasibility of using a new passive technology to treat highly polluted effluent water from the Smolnik mine, leading to a full-scale demonstration of the technology. Another grant supported establishing standardized measurement, regulation and control technology methods for 120 gas-fired central heating units in Bratislava, which should lower gas consumption by 10-15% and reduce emissions of toxins. The ECOLINKS project will continue to offer both challenge grants and smaller quick response grants.

In summary, U.S. technologies and assistance have helped Slovakia make significant progress in establishing the legal and institutional framework to meet its own economic development and environmental protection needs in ways that recognize the requirements for membership in the OECD, the EU and international and regional bodies. Broader use of pollution reduction and energy saving techniques will occur as Slovakia advances to membership in the EU, as Slovak industrial firms become stronger and as Slovakia’s financial institutions are better able to service their clients’ needs.