National Development Strategy Croatia 2030: Roadmap for a Better Future

Broad areas for policy interventions 
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Strengthen social safety nets for the most vulnerable groups. Assess and revise amounts of social ben-
efits and allocation criteria to increase their effectiveness.
•
Incorporate to greater extent territorial aspect to measures tackling poverty. Use the Index of Multiple 
Deprivation to assist in the deployment of the right mix of policies targeted to the correct areas, tailor-
ing policies to each place’s characteristics and competencies. 
•
Improve the governance in the sector. Strengthen vertical and horizontal coordination in social service 
planning, through cross-sectional cooperation of local, regional and national services. Ensure the con-
tinuity of previously initiated reforms. 
•
Strengthen the role of social welfare centers as key policy stakeholder at local level. 
•
Increase publicly available sources of information (databases) on social services provided. Ensure the 
timely delivery of statistical data by social service providers. 
•
Determine social service prices according to a unique methodology and ensure equality in the market 
of state and non-state providers (especially in case of homes for elderly people). Estimate costs and 
pricing to facilitate the development of new community-based services. 
•
Continue the transformation of institutions providing institutional care and exercise strict admission 
control.
•
Review gender-based violence reporting and monitoring and strengthen gender-based violence pre-
vention programs.
Required actions 
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Increase the social assistance program’s coverage among the poorest 20 percent of the population. 
Increase the resources devoted to means-tested programs to achieve even larger impacts on poverty.
•
Improve housing conditions for vulnerable groups and accommodation for the elderly who are not 
covered by the process of deinstitutionalization, especially in the lagging regions. 
•
Provide adequate working conditions for the social welfare centers, including through infrastructure 
investments. 
•
Support investments in skill development of social services providers’ employees. 
•
Reallocate part of budget sources for institutional care to financing of non-institutional services. Emer-
gency residential care in social welfare homes should be replaced by emergency residential care in 
foster families. 
•
Support training of public service servants in gender-based violence response. Strengthen counseling 
services and intensify outreach to vulnerable women that are susceptible to exploitation.
Pension system