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Deep dive analysis of public policies aimed at combating child poverty and social exclusion of children in the Republic of Croatia

Current projects / 13-05-2021

Under the program Phase III: Testing the Child Guarantee in Croatia, financed by the European Union, MAP is carrying out a comprehensive mapping of public policies, practices, and institutional regulations combating poverty and social exclusion of children in Croatia, with the aim of developing recommendations and guidelines to improve the situation of children at risk of poverty or living in poverty.

During 2020, the UNICEF Office in Croatia started implementing a two-year program called Phase III: Testing the Child Guarantee in Croatia, in partnership with the Government of the Republic of Croatia. The program was initiated by the European Commission and financed by the European Union with the ultimate aim of breaking the cycle of poverty and exclusion of children in the EU.

After the public call, UNICEF Office in Croatia selected MAP Consulting in cooperation with three external experts in children’s rights from the Faculty of Law in Zagreb, to conduct a deep dive analysis with an emphasis on mapping and assessment of public policies, legislative, programme, and strategic documents, practices, services, sources of funding and other mechanisms that are crucial for combating poverty and social exclusion of children in the Republic of Croatia.

For this purpose, MAP will cooperate with three external experts in children's rights from the Faculty of Law in Zagreb. The research will seek to identify key aspects of the decision-making process and/or relevant strategic-programme frameworks and services that prevent or slow down the development of policies to combat poverty and social exclusion of children in Croatia. Furthermore, efforts will be made to recognize the institutional and public policy elements that are missing or that are underdeveloped, but relevant for the implementation of services and programmes related to this topic.

The research findings, as well as the recommendations and guidelines, will be presented to working groups and a wider range of stakeholders of these public policies through policy dialogues facilitated by UNICEF and the Ministry of Labor and Pension System, Family and Social Policy. The special importance of this dialogue is its planned contribution to the development of a new Strategy for Combating Poverty and Social Exclusion in the Republic of Croatia and a new National Strategy for Children's Rights in the Republic of Croatia since the implementation period of both strategies expired in 2020.

The research will implement various qualitative methods of data collection and analysis, and findings will be triangulated to improve the quality and credibility of the results. Therefore, the research will cover the following methods:

1.             analysis of public documents including legislative documents, strategic-programming documents, budgetary plans and other financing options (including ESI funds);

2.             analysis of available relevant statistics and indicators;

3.             analysis of existing research and academic papers including a detailed overview of relevant theoretical and empirical research on child poverty and exclusion, especially in the Republic of Croatia;

4.             semi-structured individual interviews with several Croatian experts in the area of child poverty and social exclusion in order to deepen the research findings.

© MAP Consulting Ltd., 2021: “The information and views set out in this web announcement are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official opinion of the European Union. Neither the European Union institutions and bodies nor any person acting on their behalf may be held responsible for the use which may be made of the information contained therein.”