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Development aid, one of the most important mechanisms for the redistribution of global wealth, represents financial flows with economic growth and social improvement as their primary objective. Recently, international development cooperation has been in the process of change that requires the involvement of new actors, the use of new instruments, and expanding the fields of work. In this article, the authors introduce the Slovenian model of international development cooperation, emphasising the criteria for deciding the direction of development cooperation. The criteria are clear interest of the beneficiary state, content priority fields, and geographical priority areas. The authors also discuss Slovenia’s active collaboration with the United Nations Industrial Development Organization in international development cooperation. Special attention is given to three successful development projects in Africa that Slovenia recently financed. All three selected projects are based on principles of sustainable development and were realized in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda.

A comparative analysis of the spatial transformation of two different farm-size cattle systems, in Hungary and Slovenia, is presented in this paper. Concentration, mobility, and spatial autocorrelation measures are used to study spatial cattlestock distribution and their changes over time, as well as spatial cattle-stock clustering using data from two agricultural censuses. Results confirm the decline in cattle stock on large-size farms in Hungary and on small-size farms in Slovenia, with a relative increase in the importance of medium-size farms in both countries. The decline and spatial changes in cattle stock are greater in Hungary than in Slovenia. Hungarian cattle clusters are concentrated in flat areas with medium- and large-size largely commercial farms, whilst in Slovenia they predominate in mainly hilly grassland and partly cornsilage areas on small and some medium-size family farms. Such specific cattle clustering is linked to geographical and farm-size structural characteristics that can also be linked to agricultural-policy-measure-related support for cattle and dairy, associated with less-favoured or disadvantaged-area status linked to geographical and structural land and farm characteristics typical of Slovenian mountain and particularly hilly areas. These spatial changes in the cattle sector have socioeconomic, land use, and environmental implications in terms of ecological sustainability and rural livelihoods.

Utilizing the power of sunlight through agro-photovoltaic fusion systems (APFSs) seamlessly blends sustainable agriculture with renewable energy generation. This innovative approach not only addresses food security and energy sustainability but also plays a pivotal role in combating climate change. This study assesses the feasibility and impact of APFS implementation in District Dir Lower, Pakistan, a region significant for its agriculture and energy needs. A quasi-experimental design was employed, comparing outcomes between a treatment group (with an APFS) and a control group (without an APFS). Stratified random sampling was used to select 400 participants, including farmers, residents, local authorities, and community leaders. Data were collected using structured questionnaires and analyzed employing paired t-tests, linear regression, analysis of variance (ANOVA), and Chi-square tests. The results show that the treatment group with an APFS exhibited significant improvements in farming practices (mean change = 4.20 vs. 2.80). Linear regression indicated a strong positive effect of APFSs on renewable energy production. The ANOVA results demonstrated significant mitigation of environmental challenges, and the Chi-square test showed a strong association between APFS implementation and community sustainability, resilience, and prosperity. It is concluded that APFS implementation significantly enhances farming practices, renewable energy production, and environmental sustainability, contributing to the resilience and prosperity of agricultural communities in District Dir Lower. These findings advocate for the broader adoption of APFSs in similar contexts to integrate sustainable agriculture with renewable energy generation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Purpose: The main purpose of this study is to find the key drivers of Global Competitiveness Index (GCI) in the European Union (EU-28) countries from the aspect of country’s global competitiveness: institutions, macroeconomic environment, infrastructure, higher education, market effectiveness, market size, technological readiness, innovation and business sophistication.

The article focuses on the study of performance factors of Slovenian hotel companies through Data Envelopment Analysis between 2001 and 2018. For this purpose, we introduced a balanced panel data of 20 hotel companies which differ by their size, type, the number of hotels within the company, and location. To determine efficiency factors, we used the Malmquist index, which can be broken down into a change in efficiency and technological change. The change in efficiency was further broken down into a change in pure technical efficiency and a change in scalar efficiency. Between 2001 and 2018, hotel companies recorded decline in total factor productivity index which was mainly due to the inability to implement new production technologies. One of the key reasons for deterioration in technological change was the 2008 economic crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Overlooking the importance of non-stationarity and normally distributed models in previous studies, this paper aims to fill the gap in literature based on time series between 2000 and 2019 for an Alps Adriatic country on tourism-led employment. Before implementing the Granger Causality Test, the vector autoregressive model is applied. The results confirmed that tourist arrivals significantly impact the hospitality labour market in Slovenia as employment in the lodging industry was driven in bi-causal directions to overall tourist arrivals. The demonstrated validity of substantial tourism-led employment has implications for job creation and economic growth, focusing on domestic tourists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper investigates the impact of different sources of income on wine farm total income inequality in Hungary using Farm Accountancy Data Network data for the period 2013-2019. The decomposition of the Gini coefficient is applied to focus on the impact of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) shift from market to government budgetary support on wine farm total income inequality. Off-farm income has a rather stable impact on wine farm total income inequality. CAP Pillar 1 subsidies have remained more important than CAP Pillar 2 subsidies, both in the structure of wine farm total income and in the reduction of wine farm total income inequality. The most striking finding is regarding a shift in wine farm market income from a negative (losses) to a positive (profit) value and its increasing role in wine farm total income inequalities. The 20% of the largest wine farms created from almost 90% to less than 80% of wine farm total incomes between 2013 and 2019, but during the same period their participation in CAP subsidy payments was reduced much more from more than 80% to around 60%. Subsidies from Pillars 1 and 2 were reduced, and wine market income increased wine farm total income inequality, while it remained constant for off-farm income. The wine farm market income has driven wine farm total income inequalities. This might strengthen because of the ongoing market selection process with the exit of less efficient and loss-making wine farms and the increasing role of surviving profitable wine farms. This market selection process can be related to managerial, entrepreneurial, and innovation activities based on the differentiation and segmentation of wine farm products and their market incomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper investigates the key insights of European Union (EU) member states agri-food export and import structures and main competitors in the internal and global agri-food markets in terms of geographical distributions and product coverage. The focus is on four agri-food product groups in global trade: fruit and vegetable products, grain products, meat products, and dairy products. The identification of the major competitors in internal EU markets and major EU competitors in global agri-food trade by calculating revealed comparative advantage indices show considerable differences by products and product groups, but in general the major competitors of the EU member states in the analysed global agri-food markets were particularly overseas countries such as the United States of America, Canada, Argentina, New Zealand, and Australia.

The main purpose of our research was to assess the accessibility of existing providers of secondary healthcare using established theoretical models of spatial accessibility. In the study, we analyzed the optimal locations and the optimal number of healthcare providers needed for an efficient network of secondary healthcare providers in Slovenia. We used four different location–allocation models and found that the MA-model is the most suitable for planning a potentially efficient network of general hospitals in Slovenia. We showed various scenarios for the development of the general hospital network based on three distinct accessibility travel time intervals, while also taking into account various population coverage proportions that can access hospital services within a given travel time interval. The key finding is that the same coverage of the population with hospital services could be achieved with a smaller number of general hospitals, if the hospitals were optimally located. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The chief aim of this study was to analyze secondary healthcare providers' efficiency, focusing on the efficiency analysis of Slovene general hospitals. We intended to present a complete picture of technical, allocative, and cost or economic efficiency of general hospitals.