Slovenia with its National Development Strategy 2030 (NDS 2030) sets a new strategic framework for national development, which is based on the principles of sustainable development. The document will builds on the vision of Slovenia in 2050 and is linked to the commitments made in Agenda 2030.

Preparation of the strategy was is coordinated by the Government Office for Development and European Cohesion Policy. In accordance with the principles of sustainable development, the document will beis  based on the recognition that ecosystem capacity of the environment sets boundary conditions to development and sustainable development only provide a good life for present and future generations.

The response of the Republic of Slovenia to Agenda 2030 and the preparation of the national development strategy until 2030 are parallel, closely intertwined processes that are distinctly horizontal and require a comprehensive approach of the government and the active involvement of stakeholders. The adoption of Tthe document was adopted by the government is expected in December 2017.

In preparation of the strategy, Slovenia workeds closely with the OECD experts and useds relevant OECD tools, e.g. the OECD Pilot Study on Measuring the Distances to the SDGs targets – Figure: Slovenia’s starting position on SDG targets:

In addition to the process of drafting the National Development Strategy, several sectoral or horizontal strategies, programmes and instruments, committed to pursue various combinations of SDGs, are being implemented or are under preparation. Among them, a the new Resolution on the National Environmental Action Programme (ReNEAP) up to 2020 and beyond, prepared by the Ministry of the Environment and Spatial Planning and adopted in February 2020 by the Parliament, will be based on the vision proposed by the 7th Environment Action Programme of the EU: “In 2050, we live well, within the planet's ecological limits.” The background document for the NEAP is a comprehensive report on the state of the environment in Slovenia prepared by the Ministry of the Environment and Spatial Planning in 2016. The findings reveal that the state of the environment doesn’t depend only on local practice but it is also affected by global pressures that are growing faster than in the past mainly due to economic growth, population growth and changing consumption and production patterns. Therefore traditional measures of “emission control” are replaced by an awareness of the limited space and natural resources, of the importance of ecosystem services for the conservation and welfare of the people and that negative impacts of our consumption and production patterns cannot be shifted onto the shoulders of other regions. Environmental efforts are moving in the direction of low-carbon society, the circular economy, resilient ecosystems, and sustainable macroeconomic development models. To achieve the 2050 vision, environmental protection policy cannot be implemented in isolation from policies in other sectors such as agriculture, transport, energy, tourism. It is inextricably linked to the broader economic and social development.

One of the key horizontal programmes that primarily integrates environmental and economic goals of sustainable development is the Framework programme for a transition to a green economy adopted by the government in October 2015 and coordinated by the Office of the Prime Minister. It includes government action in many areas, including the sustainable management of resources (water, waste, physical space, protected natural areas, forests, wood, opportunity for greater social inclusion), greening of the economy with smart specialisation strategy, the promotion of green jobs and the skills and knowledge necessary for them to flourish, green financial reform and the reform of green public procurement, sustainable urban development and sustainable transport policy, green farming practices.  To support implementation of the framework programme, the government has established the Partnership for Slovenia’s green economy with interested parties from the economy, non-governmental organizations and local communities.

Among sectoral instruments for SD one of the most successful is the Green Scheme of Slovenian Tourism – GSST – SLOVENIA GREEN, the central mechanism in developing and promoting sustainable tourism in Slovenia coordinated by the Slovenian Tourist Board (STO). With the Green Scheme of Slovenian Tourism the STO is following Slovenian strategical guidelines for sustainable development, policies of European Union and a wider sustainable path on a global scale. By implementing it, they are in line with upcoming Strategy of sustainable growth of tourism for 2017-2021 and all sustainable development dimensions, from environment and economy, to society and culture. As the crown of all these efforts, Slovenia was the first country to receive the Green Country title by gathering 96 out of 100 points in line with the Global Destination criteria, and became a role model for the rest of the world.

National — sub-national linkages
The Slovenian Development Strategy 2030, with its primary objective of “Slovenia, a country with a high quality of life for all” and its twelve development goals is the country’s core development framework, and is supported by sectoral strategies, regional and municipal strategies and programmes and operational measures.

Regarding implementation, the Structural Funds/Cohesion Funds were already in the past decade the main focus of Slovenia. In this context, SD was addressed in regional development programmes. Regional bodies are involved in this process, mainly in cohesion fund programming.

 In the context of the implementation of the SDS 2030, it will also be necessary to strengthen multi-level management mechanisms in order to ensure more harmonised regional development, where spatial planning is one of the most important levers for achieving development synergies.

The link between the objectives of the SDS 2030 and the regional programmes is fostered by a coordination mechanism in the Regional Development Directorate within the Ministry of Economic Development and Technology that coordinates multi-level governance issues with national bodies and the Regional Development Councils. In the field of regional development, with the vision of realizing regionalism, it, in the given conditions, realises the set strategic objectives and forms regional policy of the Government of the Republic of Slovenia; this also includes the promotion of sustainable development in its widest sense which activates the potentials in the Slovenian regions by not reducing the sources and opportunities for the development of future generations, and promotion of regional development of border areas and strengthening cross-border cooperation in the framework of the European territorial cooperation (ETC) programmes and the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA). The Ministry of Economic Development and Technology is responsible for the system and legislation in the field of harmonious regional development, preparation of the national development programme and the coordination of the 12 regional development programmes (for 12 statistical regions, NUTS-3 level).  

According to the OECD Environmental Performance Review for Slovenia, the considerable autonomy enjoyed by municipalities, and the absence of regional administrative level, have resulted in an important environmental governance gap between national and local levels. Therefore one of the Review’s key recommendations was to strengthen the oversight by the responsible Ministry of local spatial planning, and provide incentives for municipalities to develop joint regional spatial plans.

EU linkages
The bases for the drafting of the Slovenian Development Strategy 2030 were the overviews of global changes, trends and forecasts published by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the European Commission, the World Bank and other relevant institutions, and an analysis of Slovenia’s development baselines.

Slovenia is active in the process of implementation of the 2030 Agenda at the EU level.

Slovenia is involved, along with other countries, in three macro-regional strategies that are all oriented towards sustainable development: EU Strategy for the Danube Region (EUSDR), EU Strategy for the Adriatic and Ionian Region (EUSAIR), and EU Strategy for the Alpine Region (EUSAR).

The Slovenian Development Strategy 2030, with its primary objective of “Slovenia, a country with a high quality of life for all” and its twelve development goals is the country’s core development framework, which is supported by sectoral strategies, regional and municipal strategies and programmes and operational measures. Each development goal is accompanied by a definition of the path to its achievement.

Inter-ministerial coordination has already been established during the preparation of the SDS 2030. The Government Office for Development and European Cohesion Policy, in cooperation with the Institute of Macroeconomic Analysis and Development:

·      coordinates development planning as well as the development documents of the Republic of Slovenia and monitors the implementation of development policies and its programmes; 

·      is responsible for the coordination of documents pertaining to development planning and compliance of national development planning programmes and the European Union and other international organisations’ development documents.

The implementation of the Strategy will be based on medium-term planning, tied to the medium-term fiscal framework and the establishment of a system of implementing documents which have to be codified in and linked to the Public Finance Act. In order to implement Slovenia’s development goals, a four-year national development policy programme (NDPP) and a medium-term fiscal strategy will be drawn up, and will be extended annually. The NDPP will include measures and activities based on the goals set out in this Strategy and the corresponding horizontal and sectoral strategic documents. Later, using the OECD’s framework for assessing the impacts of the individual scenarios or agreed measures, Slovenia will also monitor the achieving of the Strategy’s goals and the orientations of development policy up to 2030 or 2050. The framework is composed of four equal and interconnected modules: a basic macroeconomic model, an environmental/energy model, a module for assessing the effects of healthcare measures and a module for assessing the effects of income inequality.

The body responsible for development has been tasked with heading up the drafting of the NDPP together with the Ministry of Finance and with the active participation of all government departments. Drafting of the first programme has already started. The harmonisation of the document is carried out by the permanent interdepartmental working group for development planning. The group operates as a mechanism for horizontal cooperation within the framework of the drafting of the Slovenian Development Strategy 2030 and other central strategic and implementing documents, and in the harmonisation and monitoring of the implementation of individual measures in the field of development.

The individual development goals include the contents of policies that lie within the remit of various departments; therefore, if the Strategy is to be implemented successfully, the effectiveness of interdepartmental coordination and cooperation will have to be strengthened. The multidimensional complexity of the goals dictates combined efforts towards their implementation and effective coordination among the individual policies. The harmonisation of the sectoral strategic, development and action plans, programmes and activities with the core national development strategy is the responsibility of the parties charged with their development. The body responsible for development will, via interdepartmental coordinating processes, monitor the drafting of the individual sectoral documents and ensure their compliance with the Slovenian Development Strategy 2030. During the process of the drafting of the strategic documents and regulations at the horizontal level and in the individual sectoral areas, increased attention will be paid to an accurate analysis of the situation, the definition of objectives and the assessment of the consequences for different areas of development. Therefore, it will be necessary to improve the level of knowledge in these areas at the level of the governmental departments and systemically introduce a goal-focused approach. At the same time, it will be necessary to develop human resources and establish tools for managing collective knowledge, information and data for analysis and the integrated management of development policies.

The new national development framework is significant for the implementation of the 2030 Agenda due to clearly defined ways of achieving national development goals and hence the objectives of sustainable development.

The implementation of sustainable development objectives at the national level will be systematically monitored on an annual basis together with national development objectives.

The localisation of the goals and sub-goals of the 2030 Agenda allows the monitoring of the achieving of the SDGs of the 2030 Agenda while monitoring the achieving of Slovenia’s own, i.e. national, development goals.

For more details, see the section Indicators and Monitoring.

All the ministries were involved in the process of defining the set of indicators for Slovenian Development Strategy 2030, which was led by the Governmental Office for Development and European Cohesion Policy, Ministry of Finance and Institute for Macroeconomic Analysis and Development. The Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia also participated. The performance indicators will be under review for possible change, update, and further development if needed.

Through the process of preparing the Slovenian Development Strategy 2030 that defines five strategic orientations for achieving the primary objective (»High quality of life for all«) and 12 development goals, key and performance indicators have been defined. Since the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs are embedded in the Slovenian Development Strategy 2030, this set of indicators is relevant also for the monitoring of Slovenian performance on 2030 Agenda.

Two to three main performance indicators are defined for each of the 12 development goals in the Strategy, with input and target values that represent the desired target values. In its annual development report, which includes a broad range of other development indicators in addition to the indicators defined in the Strategy for purposes of analysis, the Institute of Macroeconomic Analysis and Development monitors the achievement of the goals set out in the Slovenian Development Strategy 2030. When feasible, and where the data allow it, the indicators are monitored and analysed separately by sex, age group, and statistical region.

The Institute of Macroeconomic Analysis and Development (IMAD) monitors the achievement of the goals set out in the Slovenian Development Strategy 2030 and reports on them through the annual development report, which includes a broad range of other development indicators. The Government Office for Development and European Cohesion Policy monitors the SDG indicators globally through the VNR.

The Development Report is a document monitoring the implementation of the Slovenian Development Strategy. It is annually prepared by the  Institute of Macroeconomic Analysis and Development and adopted by the Government of the Republic of Slovenia. The 2018 Development Report presents the baselines for monitoring the realisation of the Slovenian Development Strategy 2030 (SDS), adopted by the government of the Republic of Slovenia on 7 December 2017. The basic structure of the report follows the following five strategic orientations defined in the SDS: (i) a highly productive economy that creates added value for all; (ii) learning for and through life; (iii) an inclusive, healthy, safe and responsible society; (iv) a well-preserved natural environment; and (v) high levels of cooperation, competence and governance efficiency. The SDS also determined twelve development goals in mutually connected and interdependent areas that are deemed essential for the implementation of the strategic orientations. The report tracks the implementation of each development goal within the strategic orientation (sub-sections of the report) with which the content of the goal is most strongly linked (see Slovenian Development Strategy 2030, Figure 6), although each individual goal can contribute to the implementation of several strategic orientations. The appendix to the report presents indicators for monitoring the implementation of the SDS in more detail.

The recent Development report 2019  recognizes positive developments in the last few years: Since 2016 Slovenia has again been narrowing its gap in economic development with the EU average, social inclusion of the population remains relatively high, while the efficiency of energy and resource consumption has improved somewhat. However, in certain areas developments deviate from the principles of sustainable development and pose a risk to the achievement of the SDS’ primary objective. Key development challenges: Productivity growth, which is essential for raising the living standard of the population over the long term, has remained modest during the economic upturn. Developments in the field of innovations – which are the most important factor of long-term productivity growth – have been negative. Social protection systems are insufficiently adapted to demographic change, which increases pressures on their financial sustainability and limits the possibilities for ensuring high-quality public services for the population. From the perspective of creating an inclusive society, particularly the persistently high labour market segmentation of young people and the low economic and social inclusion of older people stand out as problematic. Progress in healthy life expectancy is relatively slow, the main challenges being the shortening of waiting periods in healthcare and a further improvement in the lifestyles of the population. From the environmental point of view, the sustainability of development is negatively marked by Slovenia’s high carbon footprint, particularly the rising GHG emissions from transport, the share of renewable energy sources remaining unchanged for several years, and unsustainable use of land.

According to the 2019 Development report, in previous years Slovenia has been relatively successful in solving short-term problems related mainly to the consequences of the crisis, but in the future more permanent measures for improving the long-term sustainability of development and quality of life will be required. Development policies should be focused primarily on the following:

-       Acceleration of productivity growth,

-       Adjustment to demographic change,

-       Transition to a low-carbon circular economy, and

Strengthening the development role of the government and its institutions.

Goal 8:

4.1 Resource productivity

4.2 Energy efficiency

4.3 Share of renewable energy sources

4.4 Emission productivity

4.5 Modal split of transport

4.6 Waste

4.7 Environmental taxes

Goal 9:

4.8 Ecological footprint

4.9 Utilised agricultural area

4.10 Agricultural intensity

4.11 Intensity of tree felling

4.12 Quality of watercourses

4.13 Air quality

4.14 Functionally derelict areas

Drafting of the new long-term strategy began during the summer of 2016. Nine topical debates on the individual contents were held in June 2016, in which more than 200 professionals and government officials participated. This was followed by a workshop in September 2016, at which a discussion was held about the first potential range of indicators for monitoring the Strategy. On the basis of the expert discussion, the Government Office for Development and European Cohesion Policy together with the Ministry of Finance and the Institute of Macroeconomic Analysis and Development compiled the first draft of the strategic orientations and goals of the Slovenian Development Strategy 2030. In December 2016 and January 2017, all of the relevant government departments issued opinions on the enclosed document. An interactive conference was held in January 2017 at the level of key government officials, at which views were exchanged on the content of the individual goals and discussions were held about their mutual connections.

The contributions of the departments and participants served as an important basis for the further development of the Strategy. The connections between the individual areas were simultaneously determined through a survey which was sent to professional stakeholders in February 2017. Professional harmonisation was carried out in March and April, followed by the compiling of the first draft of the Strategy, which was sent to the departments for harmonisation in May 2017. Parallel discussions were held regarding the key performance indicators and the placement of sustainable development goals in the strategic document, and regarding the implementation and monitoring of the document. In cooperation with the OECD, an adapted long-term framework for assessing the impacts of the individual scenarios or agreed measures is being prepared, through which the achieving of the Strategy’s goals will be monitored.

On the basis of the discussions and the comments received, a second draft of the Strategy was drawn up, which included a proposal for the key performance indicators. The draft was sent to all government departments in July 2017 with a request for the determination of target values for the key performance indicators. After another thorough review of the Strategy together with the indicators and target values, the third draft of the Strategy was discussed on 22 September 2017 by the Permanent Interdepartmental Working Group for Development Planning, which approved the draft with various additional changes.

On 12 October 2017, the Slovenian government was briefed on the draft Slovenian Development Strategy 2030 and found that the materials were interdepartmentally consistent, and adopted a resolution that the document constitutes an appropriate basis for the commencement of public consultation. Public consultation on the draft Slovenian Development Strategy 2030 began on 12 October 2017 and ran through 9 November 2017. During this time, the Government Office received several contributions from various organisations and interested parties. In addition to the public consultation, several discussions were held with interested stakeholders, who wanted a more detailed presentation of the Strategy and a discussion of the draft document. After the public consultation, the draft Slovenian Development Strategy 2030 and a report on the consultation were drawn up. After a final round of interdepartmental harmonisation, the draft Strategy was discussed by the Slovenian government at its 159th regular session on 7 December 2017. 

By a decree in 2000, Slovenia has been divided into 12 statistical regions (NUTS-3 level), which are grouped in two cohesion regions (NUTS-2 level). In the field of regional development, the Ministry of Economic Development and Technology is responsible for the system and legislation in the field of harmonious regional development, preparation of the national development programme and the coordination of the 12 regional development programmes. Their mission is the promotion of sustainable development in the widest sense of the word which activates the potentials of the Slovenian regions and does not reduce the resources and development potentials of the future generations.

• The competences and tasks of local authorities are determined by the Local Self-Government Act. Municipalities have regulatory and management functions with respect to provision of environmental services (e.g. water supply and sanitation, waste collection and disposal, protection against noise).
• Municipal communities may also adopt their own environmental protection programmes, while larger urban communities are obliged to do so (The Environmental Protection Act, 2006). In 2007, the Ministry for Environment and Spatial Planning issued recommendations to the local municipalities for preparation of their environmental protection programmes. The document was designed in the participatory process.
• In the Recommendations to the local municipalities in preparing local programmes for environmental protection the use of indicators at three levels is recommended:
  • The environmental indicators
  • The indicators for the operational goals
  • The indicators for monitoring the implementation of the measures.

As regards Local Agenda 21: according to the survey conducted in 2010 by the NGO Union of Environmental Movements of Slovenia (ZEG), almost 25 % of the participating local communities (46) had adopted guidelines or a programme for implementation of sustainable development.