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Although more than 71 per cent of the Earth is covered by water, 97 per cent of that volume is saltwater held in the oceans. Of the remaining water, 2 per cent is freshwater locked away in snow and ice, leaving less than 1 per cent available for human requirements (Williams, 2016). Yet, water is crucial for human survival. Therefore, access to water must be recognised as a fundamental human right. In 2010, the United Nations adopted Resolution 64/292 which explicitly recognises the human right to water and sanitation, acknowledges that clean drinking water and sanitation are essential for the realisation of all human rights, and seeks to protect water as a national resource and the people that need it the most. Despite the adoption of the aforementioned Resolution, water remains a hugely pertinent issue across the world, particularly in areas where water is considered predominantly as a tradeable commodity. Hence, Water and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by the 2015 UN-Water Annual International Zaragoza Conference are extremely important in terms of water protection, preservation and sustainable development. This chapter discusses access to water as a fundamental precondition of life, noting that the Republic of Slovenia became one of the first countries in the world to include the human right to water in its Constitution in 2017. The authors believe that this is an excellent example for other countries to change their legislation in favour of protecting the fundamental human right to access to water. It also presents further possibilities for achieving SDG 6.1 (and other SDGs related to water) in practice.

Before running workshops on electronic library developments in the Czech Republic and Slovenia in 1996 and 1997, visits were made to several libraries in order to become aware of current developments. In the Czech Republic the ALEPH system is being used by the National Library whilst the TINlib system is used in many other libraries including those visited at the Parliament and at the University of Economics in Prague. A Czech system was being implemented at the state research library at Kladno that was also visited. In contrast, a centralised system, COBISS, was used in all the libraries visited in Slovenia; these included the National and University Library, Maribor Public Library, Maribor University Library and the Central Technological Library. The Internet is widely used in libraries in both countries. The paper provides descriptions of the libraries visited and their use of electronic library systems, along with brief details of material covered in the workshops.

There has been over the last decade an emergence of new democratic states in Eastern Europe and a growing aspiration by many of these states to enter the EU. There would appear to be six front runners in this move towards EU membership – Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Poland and Slovenia. Slovenia, though a small state and previously part of Yugoslavia, is one of these front runners with aspirations for early entry into the EU. This paper is intended to give an insight into Slovenia, giving some comparison of its case to other aspiring EU entrants. It looks at the culture and background of Slovenia, the extent of western European penetration into its fashion market, the extent of its clothing industry and considers the implication of EU membership to this emerging democracy. The paper takes a broad look at a country that may soon be a fellow member of the EU and a potential partner in EU projects.

This chapter outlines the research management and administration (RMA) as a profession and work field in Slovenia. Thus, we present an overview of the Slovenian research system, describing how this system has evolved over time. In addition, we explain the emerging need for RMA skills, including its self-organisation component and the challenges that lie ahead. A section is dedicated to Slovenian RMA demographics using RAAAP-2 and RAAAP-3 surveys. The conclusions of the chapter focus on a forecast for the future of RMA in Slovenia and several possible paths to follow for its community.

Highlights the unique difficulties of Slovenia’s current public administrative system which has to find ways to change from the previous Yugoslav system to a more modern administrative system. First describes Slovenia’s economic and political make‐up and proceeds with a description and discussion of Slovenia’s current public sector inefficiencies and ineffectiveness. Concludes with a call for continuous reforms of Slovenia’s central government administration and suggests that strengthening of the administration’s internal management development capability should be one of the key prerequisites for embarking on the reform process.

This chapter focuses on the underlying levers of diversity management, namely inclusive leaders, authenticity, networking and visibility, and clear career paths in two best practice cases. The aim of our research is to provide the strategic orientation of developing diversity management through business education in Slovenian business environment based on best practice cases as well as content analysis of 104 responses within management course at the Faculty of economics University of Ljubljana.

Qualitative joint content analysis was selected to analyze the data, in order to quantify qualitative data collected, by understanding its context.

Based on findings, the conceptual model of diversity management curriculum is introduced.

Limitations of the study are in the open-ended questionnaire design in addition to analyzing only two purposely chosen best practice cases, which do not provide for the overall state of diversity management in Slovenia.

Discussion is based on the findings of diversity management inclusiveness, offering also concrete theoretical and practical implications for deans, academic community, as well as students who want to practice inclusive diversity management.

Our chapter raises awareness on diversity management development and implementation on the basis of identified good practice examples. By presenting Slovene cases and analyses of the diversity management implementation, we promote the value of inclusion and diversity in the workplace.

Our chapter presents two original case analyses within Slovene diversity management and offers the conceptual model of diversity management curriculum.

The importance of gastronomy for tourism development has been broadly recognised in academic literature and practice, as it represents an essential element of tourism services and has a significant impact on customer satisfaction. Gastronomy in the Western Balkans has attracted increasing attention from tourism and hospitality researchers since the fall of Yugoslavia in the 1990s. As a relatively new topic in academic literature, it requires frequent and critical monitoring that can shed light on current research and practice and make needed adjustments in terms of future development. However, to date, there have been few systematic reviews of this body of work. As such, this study aims to fill this void by conducting a qualitative analysis of the development of gastronomy in the Republic of Slovenia. Particular attention has been devoted to the presentation of gastronomic heritage, tourism and policies implemented by Slovenian authorities in order to strategically develop the national gastronomic identity. Based on a literature review and interviews with experts from academia and practice, the findings reveal that for the successful development of gastronomy, a strategic approach to gastronomy and tourism development is needed. The development of gastronomy is also vital for the improvement of tourism and gastronomic services at the regional, local and entrepreneurial levels. The results of this study will be of interest to policymakers, researchers and practitioners. This research has also raised many questions requiring further investigation. It is suggested that future longitudinal studies include interviews with different groups of stakeholders and empirically investigate the different perspectives of gastronomy development.

The authors discuss a large system transformation project they designed and implemented in Slovenia at the start of its independence in the early 1990s. Post-mortem insights are useful for practitioners who embark on similarly broad transformation processes. Design issues are discussed such as structuring the pre-contracting phase to guarantee inclusive stakeholder representation and participation throughout the transformation process and how intervention design needs to allow for experimentation and multi-stakeholder alliance building. Application of action research and action learning in a risk-averse environment typical of central governments helped create a sense of ownership, control, and collective accountability in the partner country.

This paper aims to provide an overview of the quality of corporate governance (CG) disclosures in the framework of CGS and the “comply or explain” code principle in Slovenia. It aims to observe the differences among companies of the prime, standard and entry markets in terms of the differences in governance standards and regulatory frameworks.

This paper analyzes the historical development, legal approach and methods used in the regulation of the “comply or explain” principle in Slovenia. In the 2014 SEECGAN research – Slovenia, we measured the quality of CG by applying the newly created SEECGAN index methodology covering seven segments of CG and assessing 98 attributes. This paper upgrades the results of this research with additional case study research.

The analysis from 2011 to 2014 on the “comply or explain” principle showed a gradual improvement of transparency in Slovenian public companies. The 2014 SEECGAN research – Slovenia revealed that the number of specific and high-quality explanations of deviations has increased. The study in this paper showed that the governance practice in some cases is still not in line with code recommendations and does not disclose the deviations from the code.

Disclosures of the Slovenian public companies are presented for the period 2004-2018. This paper points out the improvements to be realized to change unsatisfactory practices. The measurement of the quality of CG by the 2014 SEECGAN research – Slovenia introduced a methodology, which could be recognized and improved by the EU and/or its member states.

The purpose of this paper is to describe the construction of the nature conservation information system in Slovenia, into which all official and more detailed data related to nature conservation will be integrated. The existing databases are to be replaced by a single base, which will diminish the possibility of errors occurring in data production, collection and distribution. The arrangement of data is transparent, their accessibility simple. Website data editing is enabled.

On the basis of the existing databases analysis, an information system is constructed by the inverse engineering method. The database is organised per separate sets, where uniform codes are used. For web site users, the Nukleus graphical interface is built, which is connected with other information system components and enables web site data examination and processing.

A modularly composed information system has been built, which establishes a uniform database, enables interoperability between separate data sets, introduces uniform codes and standardisation of data organisation in the information sense. In the information system, the graphic and attributive data are interlinked, which enables a simplified data search, analysis and processing also via the web site with the aid of the so‐called Nukleus graphical interface. The information system modular scheme enables a simple improvement of the system with new data modules in the future.

The nature conservation information system in Slovenia is one of the first that enables web site editing of graphical and attributive data at the same time. It contributes to an easier accessibility of data, a better organisation of data, as well as a rationalisation of working processes associated with nature conservation data.