Publications & Documents

Climate change presents a major social, economic and political challenge for the Slovak Republic. The majority of municipal administrations are unaware of the potential climate risks they face today and in the coming years. Identifying risks posed by climate change and its inevitable impacts is an essential part of developing adaptation policies. While national adaptation policies have historically been formulated in an ad hoc manner, an evidence-based approach that relies on data is increasingly informing policy decisions. This paper provides an overview of the country’s adaptation policy context and presents a methodology – and the results of its application – for measuring climate change risks with respect to heat, drought and extreme precipitation. The results aim to inform future budget allocation decisions for climate change adaptation.

This profile identifies strengths, challenges and specific areas of action on cancer prevention and care in the Slovak Republic as part of the European Cancer Inequalities Registry, a flagship initiative of Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan. It provides a short synthesis of: the national cancer burden; risk factors for cancer (focusing on behavioural and environmental risk factors); early detection programmes; and cancer care performance (focusing on accessibility, care quality, costs and the impact of COVID-19 on cancer care).

This report assesses the linkages between foreign direct investment (FDI) and domestic small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the Slovak Republic. It provides policy recommendations to national and subnational governments on how to foster productivity and innovation spillovers from FDI to the local economy. The report looks at the quality of investment the country attracts, the absorptive capacity of Slovak SMEs, and a broad range of economic, business and policy conditions that can strengthen knowledge and technology diffusion from FDI to domestic SMEs. It also provides a diagnostic assessment of the core FDI-SME spillover diffusion channels, namely value chain linkages, strategic partnerships, labour mobility, and competition and imitation effects. The report provides an overview of the Slovak policy arrangements for promoting international investment, SME performance and innovation, and regional development. It does so by taking a close look at multi-level coordination, stakeholder consultation and impact evaluation. It then reviews the policy mix in support FDI-SME linkages and spillovers and proposes concrete areas for further policy reforms. The last chapter introduces a regional lens, focusing on the regions of Banská Bystrica and Košice. This report is part of a multi-year European Commission-OECD project on strengthening FDI-SME ecosystems and is the second pilot review for future country assessments.

Being able to swim empowers individuals to make choices, have agency, and be free to choose core aspects of their life, such as working safely on or near water. It is also associated with lifelong health benefits and reduces the risk of drowning. Using data from the Lloyd’s Register Foundation World Risk Poll 2019, this paper provides the first global estimates of adults’ ability to swim without assistance. Individuals in high-income countries are considerably more likely to report being able to swim without assistance than individuals in low-income countries. Disparities also exist within countries. In particular, women are less likely to be able to swim without assistance than men in virtually all countries, birth cohorts, and levels of education. Investing in reducing inequalities in life skills, such as swimming, can foster economic development and empowerment, especially in light of threats, such as climate change.

Understanding adults’ attitudes towards the environment is necessary to gauge the opportunities and challenges of creating effective and politically-feasible climate policies. Using data from the Wellcome Global Monitor 2020, the European Social Survey (Round 8), World Values Survey and EM-DAT, this paper examines how adults’ environmental attitudes vary within and across countries and details how environmental attitudes are associated with adults’ engagement in pro-environmental behaviours and support for environmentally-friendly policies. The paper explores whether the extent to which individuals prioritise the environment over the state of the economy or vice versa depends on individuals’ exposure to natural disasters or negative labour market conditions. Results indicate that people’s economic vulnerability and the sectors they work in impact their attitudes towards their environment and support for public policy. Furthermore, the findings suggest that increases in unemployment and exposure to natural disasters influence the extent to which individuals prioritise the environment.

The paper is the first in a series of two papers mapping young people’s environmental sustainability competence in EU and OECD countries that were prepared as background for the forthcoming OECD Skills Outlook 2023 publication. The papers are the results of a collaboration between the OECD Centre for Skills and the European Commission - Joint Research Centre (Unit B4) on students’ environmental sustainability competence. The second paper is titled: ‘The environmental sustainability competence toolbox: From leaving a better planet to our children to leaving better children for our planet’.

The paper is the second in a series of two papers mapping young people’s environmental sustainability competence in EU and OECD countries that were prepared as background for the forthcoming OECD Skills Outlook 2023 publication. The papers are the results of a collaboration between the OECD Centre for Skills and the European Commission - Joint Research Centre (Unit B4) on students’ environmental sustainability competence. The first paper is titled ‘Young people’s environmental sustainability competence: Emotional, cognitive, behavioural and attitudinal dimensions in EU and OECD countries.

The use of materials globally has increased over the past century and it will continue to grow with sustained population and economic growth. Such growth also leads to increased environmental pressures, including climate change. While the Slovak Republic has made notable progress in decoupling environmental pressures from economic activity, its economy remains energy-, carbon- and resource-intensive. The urgent need to steer the country towards circularity calls for a national circular economy strategy to help focus efforts where they are needed most. This report identifies and analyses three areas where circular economy policy would be particularly impactful: the use of economic instruments to promote sustainable consumption and production, the construction sector and the food and bio-waste value chain. It also proposes more than 30 concrete policy recommendations supported by an implementation plan and a monitoring framework. Implementing these recommendations can also help the Slovak economy reach its climate change mitigation objectives.

Procurement of information and communication technologies (ICT) plays a decisive role not only in public-service delivery but in public-sector modernisation. This report takes stock of current ICT procurement practices in the Slovak Republic and provides evidence-based strategic policy advice for the Slovak Government on how to adopt more innovative and agile approaches in ICT procurement. It presents examples from OECD countries on ICT procurement reforms and the use of innovative, flexible approaches for public procurement of ICT.