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As the world prioritizes environmental protection, the Sustainable Landscape through Integrated Management (SLIM) project stands out as a significant initiative in Zambia. Jointly co-financed by the European Union (EU), Sweden and the Czech Republic, this ambitious initiative with a total budget of 7 million euros aims to address the pressing challenges of ecosystem degradation and improve livelihoods through integrated landscape approaches.

On 21 November 2023, the handover ceremony of the project “Improvement in WASH sector in Kampong Chhnang Province, Cambodia” took place in Kampong Chhnang Province, Cambodia. This important project, funded by the Czech Development Agency and implemented by a consortium led by the Czech NGO Diakonia, is an important landmark in the history of the Czech-Cambodian partnership in the field of water and sanitation.

The project was announced by the Czech Development Agency in 2021 as a follow-up project to the one that ended in 2019. The project was successfully obtained by the Vita et Futura Foundation, which oversaw the entire planning, preparation, and implementation, including the selection of experts who participated in the project. In the first half of January, a large team directly conducted an extensive multidisciplinary program for the education of obstetricians, anesthesiologists, neonatologists, midwives, and pediatric nurses in Cambodia. On March 21 Cambodian delegation visited Czech Republic including main office of the Czech Development Agency.

On November 22, 2022 in Tbilisi, there was a working presentation and discussion of the Georgian draft Code on chemical substances and mixtures, which was created as part of the development project “Capacity building for sound management of chemicals – Implementation of REACH and CLP regulations” funded by the Czech Development Agency (CzDA).

The Gambia is a country with little manufacturing capacity, where most goods are imported. At the same time, however, the smallest country in continental Africa is opening up to new technologies, especially in the field of education. The interest in innovations in healthcare and production is also on the rise. Therefore, Prusa Research, one of the world’s leading manufacturers of 3D printers, with the support of the B2B Program of the Czech Development Agency, started a project whose goal is the socially beneficial use of 3D printing in the Gambia, especially in the field of healthcare and education. With the support of CzDA, the third largest 3D printing farm in Africa is being created in the Gambia. 

Only 4.4% of Zambia’s rural population has access to electricity for lighting and cooking. As part of pilot projects, People in Need introduced various possibilities of using biofuel technology as a source of sustainable household energy and highly effective organic fertilizer to residents in the Western Province of Zambia already four years ago. Currently, People in Need, with the support of the Czech Development Agency, is implementing the follow-up project called Biogas technology for higher resilience of communities in the Western Province of Zambia.

Projects supported by the Czech Development Agency and implemented in Ethiopia by People in Need and other partners are successfully realized. Recently, a publication entitled “Best Practices in Landscape management” was published by People in Need as part of the project Increasing the Ecological Stability of the Dijo and Bilate Watersheds, which charts examples of good practice in the management of the landscape of Czech development projects in Ethiopia between 2010–2020.

Four years ago, the Czech Development Agency decided to fund the innovative DOT Glasses project for the distribution of patented adjustable, one-size-fits-all eyeglasses to developing countries at low prices, through its B2B grant programme. Since then, DOT Glasses has won the prestigious Red Dot Design Award, built its own sales network in Ethiopia and engaged small business owners in Kenya and India. The company currently has an active presence in 14 countries around the world.

The project “Rehabilitation of an old refinery area in Batumi” under the auspices of Czech Development Agency (CzDA) and within the Program for Foreign Development Cooperation with Georgia was initiated in November of 2021 and is scheduled to finish in May 2023. The aim of the project is to contribute to the reduction of threats to both environment and population in the area of an old oil refinery in the Batumi harbor.

This year will see the completion in Zambia of a successful four-year project called “Agribusiness for life – livelihood, innovation, sustenance & empowerment”, the goal of which is to increase the agricultural productivity and incomes of 125 medium-sized farmers and 22 cooperatives by building capacity, developing the value chain and improving access to local markets. This project supported by the Czech Development Agency and carried out by Caritas Czech Republic also uses a mobile application that provides weather information and other valuable data for the operations of small farmers and larger local agricultural cooperatives.

The end of September saw the grand completion of a foreign development cooperation project coordinated by the Czech Development Agency entitled Sustainable Production of the Traditional Domestic Livno Cheese. The aim of the project was to support local cooperatives of small traditional cheese producers to enable them to supply high-quality and hygienically sound products to the market in Bosnia and Herzegovina and, in the future, to the EU, particularly to nearby Croatia, where Livno cheese is a well-established brand and is popular with Czech tourists.

On Thursday 16 September, the winners of the 5th annual SDGs Awards were announced at the Czernin Palace of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic. Just as in previous years, the Association of Social Responsibility awarded the best projects for meeting the UN Sustainable Development Goals in the Czech Republic. The winners went to projects with a unique impact on various areas of life. Examples of prize winners are a mental health project for schoolchildren, a tool against wasteful procurement, a space for sharing books and textbooks or raising awareness about menstruation in developing countries. This year, one of the categories announced also focused on education.

Despite the promising pace of economic growth, access to electricity for consumers and businesses in the poorer areas of Cambodia still remains low. The predominant sources of energy here are typically expensive and environmentally unsustainable.  That’s why at the beginning of last year, with support from the European Union and the Czech Development Agency People in Need launched a four-year project called SWITCH to Solar, which in total will help over a million Cambodians primarily from rural areas.

Between April and August 2021, Caritas Czech Republic in Moldova in cooperation with AO “Homecare” and AO “Health and Sport”, will train 160 social assistants and social workers from the left bank of Nistru river who will acquire new skills on delivering long-term care for the elderly and people with special needs.

A unique project from the Association of Manufacturers and Suppliers of Medical Devices – a virtual 3D hospital – was presented at the end of March with the participation of representatives of member companies, involved ministries and other state institutions, including a representative of the Czech Development Agency. The Capacity Building project from the Association of Manufacturers and Suppliers of Medical Devices, aimed at involving member companies in development cooperation, was supported by a grant from the Czech Development Agency. The objective of the CzDA project is to strengthen the capacities of non-state platforms for development cooperation.

The Czech Republic has already ranked among the global leaders in the application of nanotechnologies in industry and in consumer goods for many years. In addition, nanotechnologies are also well suited to the Czech foreign development cooperation (FDC) concept. Not only they can address specific environmental, medical, and technical issues at local level, but all the FDC priority states also need to support the adoption of new technologies to strengthen their local business sectors. A professional presentation of available Czech nanotechnologies that can help address problems in FDC priority states was created last year as part of a project supported by the Czech Development Agency. 

Back in 2015, the Czech Development Agency launched a project in Moldova – its objective is to improve care for people with intellectual disabilities and mental health problems. The third part of this project is currently under way and is being implemented by the Centre for Mental Health Care Development. Complications related to the coronavirus pandemic and government measures on both the Czech and Moldovan sides have forced some activities to go online. Moldovan experts have also begun working online, with the result that it has been possible to implement the majority of the planned activities.

Even though over ¾ of Bosnia and Herzegovina is mountainous (with minor exceptions for private ski resorts), its mountain rescue service has no professional workers. It is completely volunteer-based and relies for the funding it needs on sponsors, local government, and civil protection units. There is no central telephone number for the mountain rescue service, nor is there any guaranteed nonstop emergency service. Therefore, this year and with assistance from the CzDA, a three-year project has been launched to improve the cooperation between the rescuers in the different mountain areas, to increase their capacities, to assist with equipment, and to transfer experience from the operation of the Mountain Rescue Service in the Czech Republic.

The majority of Zambian farmers are small or medium-sized. The main problems they face are a lack of knowledge about modern methods and insufficient business skills. Productivity is thus lower, particularly in rural areas, while incomes do not allow the necessary investments to be made and often do not even cover proper nutrition for the family. A CzDA project implemented by a team from Mendel University in Brno is therefore focusing on strengthening business skills and increasing incomes, and thereby the living standards of small and medium-sized farmers in Western Province. Around 8 000 tree seedlings have been planted in four areas of Zambia as part of the second phase of the project.

In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, in March 2020, the European Union Delegation to the Republic of Moldova and the World Health Organization launched an extensive awareness-raising campaign aimed at consolidating the actions of development partners to support the health sector in its efforts to diminish the spread of new coronavirus in the Republic of Moldova.