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162programmes, communes offering programmes based mainly on mutual help, and asylumsoffering programmes based mainly on cohabitation and group work. According to the Act,non-residential programmes include day centres offering organized assistance programmesin which drug users and their loved ones participate while continuing with their everydaylives, and centres which implement programmes designed to reduce the harmful effects ofillicit drug use. In addition, the Social Security Act (Official Gazette RS, No. 36/2004) furtherprovides for the establishment of programmes for people in need outside the public service.The Resolution on the 2004 - 2009 National Programme on Drugs Control (Official GazetteRS, No. 28/2004) ensured the establishment and support of therapeutic communities inSlovenia in accordance with a comprehensive and balanced approach in the field of drugs.The Resolution classifies therapeutic communities among social programmes that areMLFSA's responsibility. One of the objectives set by the MLFSA in the field of social securityis to develop new approaches to addressing social distress of drug users. NGOs have playedan important role in this respect, as they continue to develop new programmes tailored tousers' needs. Providers of these programmes should mainly include NGOs which, due totheir position in the civil society, can more easily identify specific needs of individuals andpopulation groups. In its relationship with NGOs, MLFSA acts as a facilitator of theirdevelopment, arranges legal options for their operation and defines the role of the nongovernmentalsector in performing social security services, provides and redistributesfinancial resources allocated for NGOs' operation, issues tenders for co-funding ofprogrammes, grants work authorizations and ensures high-quality performance of activities.The Ministry has been supporting NGOs by co-funding programmes in the field of socialsecurity since 1993 (source: MLFSA website). In the field of social security in Slovenia, thetask of spreading various types of professional assistance has been continuously transferredto NGOs for more than a decade. NGOs often start initiatives to provide various services,and the government usually provides the necessary funds if it determines that such servicesare in public interest. As some programmes and their providers have proved themselves inthe past years by working in a professional manner and achieving good results, the Ministryintroduced multi-annual co-funding of programmes in 1998. It continued to award multiannualcontracts in the following years. Through a public tender, the Ministry has extendedthe co-funding period by five years for those programmes whose five-year co-funding periodexpired, if these programmes still met the requirements (source: MLFSA website). TheMinistry provides programmes with funds amounting up to 80% of the cost of their project;programme providers must ensure that the remaining funds are provided by localcommunities, through donations, participants' contributions and from other sources.Evaluation of programmes is becoming a regular task for more and more providers. MLFSArequires programme providers to draw up partial and final reports on the implementation ofprogrammes. If a contract administrator finds that a programme is not being implemented inaccordance with the contract, he or she may suggest professional or financial supervision ofimplementation, and, based on the findings, request that the contract be terminated and theresources returned. Furthermore, if programme providers do not spend all allocatedresources and fail to request in time for the remaining part to be transferred to the followingyear, unused financial resources will be withdrawn (source: MLFSA website). The funding of