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Quality of Life in Croatia
About one-fifth of Croatian citizens perceive themselves as socially excluded or at risk of social exclusion, according to UNDP's most recent National Human Development Report for Croatia, Unplugged: Faces of Social Exclusion presented in February 2007. The groups most at risk of social exclusion include people with physical and intellectual disabilities, returnees, the Roma and Serb minorities, long term unemployed, youth, single parent families, homeless, old people and prisoners. Regional development in Croatia is uneven and people have different perception of their well being depending on which counties they live in. According to UNDP Quality of Life report presented in November 2007, the regions with lower quality of life roughly corresponds to the war affected regions of Croatia and include Western and Eastern Slavonia, Banovina, Kordun, Lika and the Dalmatian hinterland. The same regions are roughly those with the higher percentage of socially excluded people. The Social Inclusion programme provides support to social groups and individuals who are at risk of social exclusion and to those who have difficulties in achieving their civic, political and social rights. Through this programme, UNDP assists the Croatian central and local governments to effectively address social exclusion through data gathering, public debate and a transparent decision making process in social policy. The overall aim is to assist in the development and implementation of more inclusive and strategic social policies that target vulnerable social groups.
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The programme activities
The programme embraces four groups of activities:
1) local level data gathering and analysis of the quality of life and risks of social exclusion throughout Croatia as a basis for regulating social policies;
2) promoting transparency in decision-making processes in social policy and participation of beneficiaries of social services;
3) promotion of public debate at the national level on the scope and consequences of social exclusion, and
4) the analysis of social policy measures contributing to poverty alleviation The outcome of the programme will contribute to the achievement of nationalized MDG 1, the reduction of relative poverty, and will support the Government's efforts to meet key accession requirements of the European Union in particular, the preparation and implementation of the Joint Inclusion Memorandum (JIM). Through its support for returnees, minorities and excluded groups in war-affected and underdeveloped areas, the Social Inclusion programme contributes to the implementation of the Local Development programme. The Social Inclusion programme also supports the work of the UN Theme Group on HIV/AIDS which promotes capacity building of the National AIDS authority, the expansion of the National monitoring and evaluation system and new partnerships with civil society. The Ministry of Health and Social Welfare is the main implementing partner responsible for ensuring that lessons from UNDP-supported programme are fed into national and sector policy development. Other key partners include the Central Bureau of Statistics and the Ministry of Family, Veterans and Intergenerational Solidarity. Programme interventions are coordinated with the EC delegation, UNHCR, UNICEF and the World Bank.
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Croatia
