Towards Balanced Regional Development in Croatia
From Strategy Design to Implementation
Since joining the EU in 2013, Croatia’s macroeconomic performance has improved significantly.
At the same time, large demographic and socio-economic disparities across Croatian
regions persist. These trends provide the backdrop against which Croatia has reformed
its legislative and strategic planning framework for regional development. Such reforms
culminated in the adoption of the National Development Strategy 2030, which includes
balanced regional development among its main long-term objectives. They have also
led to the creation of regional development agencies, and the design of development
plans at the county and local levels.
This report assesses the extent to which Croatia’s multi-level governance system is
supporting its regional development objectives. In particular, it provides an overview
of the country’s regional development performance on several demographic, economic
and well-being indicators. From there, it considers how the regional development reforms
adopted since 2014 affect the ability of national and subnational governments to design,
implement, fund, monitor and evaluate place-based regional development plans. Finally,
this report provides practical recommendations to help national and subnational policy
makers develop and implement strategic frameworks to meet their territorial development
objectives and deliver tangible results to communities across the country.
Published on April 29, 2024
In series:OECD Multi-level Governance Studiesview more titles