Towards Balanced Regional Development in Croatia
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 ther...
| Autor principal: | |
|---|---|
| Formato: | Libro electrónico |
| Idioma: | Inglés |
| Publicado: |
Paris :
Organization for Economic Cooperation & Development
2024.
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| Edición: | 1st ed |
| Ver en Biblioteca Universitat Ramon Llull: | https://discovery.url.edu/permalink/34CSUC_URL/1im36ta/alma991009822998606719 |
Tabla de Contenidos:
- Intro
- Foreword
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations and acronyms
- Executive Summary
- Key findings
- 1 Assessment and recommendations
- Regional development trends in Croatia
- Croatia's governance framework for regional development
- Croatia's regional development planning instruments and practices
- Funding and financing of regional development in Croatia
- References
- 2 Setting the scene: Regional development trends in Croatia
- Introduction
- National trends in Croatia since joining the EU
- The governance dimension
- Croatia's territorial-administrative structure has remained stable
- Progress in governance has been modest since EU accession
- The economic dimension
- Economic growth has exceeded the EU average
- Unemployment has fallen considerably since 2013
- The demographic dimension
- Croatia's population is both shrinking and ageing
- Migration has contributed significantly to population decline
- The well-being dimension
- Inequality, poverty and life expectancy has remained constant
- Household internet access has increased rapidly throughout Croatia
- Regional trends
- The economic dimension
- Zagreb City's economic dominance has grown, with other regions falling behind
- The demographic dimension
- The well-being dimension
- County trends
- Economic changes at county level
- GVA is concentrated around Zagreb and coastal counties
- Tourism is booming but only in coastal areas
- Long-term unemployment has fallen rapidly in all counties and Zagreb City
- Demographic changes at the county level
- Well-being changes at the county level
- Health outcomes are highly uneven across counties and Zagreb City
- Crime rates vary across counties, but with no clear geographic pattern
- Internet speeds vary significantly across counties.
- University graduation rates are broadly consistent across counties
- Conclusion
- References
- Annex 2.A. Employment by sector and county
- Notes
- 3 Croatia's regional development governance framework
- Introduction
- Croatia's legislative framework for regional development
- Regional development policies and strategies across the OECD
- Implications of top-down versus bottom-up regional development planning
- Croatia's legislative framework for regional development
- 2017-2018 adjustments of the legislative framework for strategic planning
- Strength of Croatia's current legislative framework for regional development
- Main strategic planning documents supporting Croatia's regional development framework
- Croatia's national-level planning documents supporting regional development
- Croatia's county and local-level planning documents supporting territorial development
- Opportunities to further streamline Croatia's multi-level planning framework for regional development
- National and subnational actors supporting regional development
- National-level actors involved in supporting Croatia's regional development governance framework
- Subnational actors supporting regional development
- RDAs are critical to subnational development planning
- While RDA human resource capacity has increased sharply, skills gaps remain
- Oversight of RDAs is shared between county administrations and the MRDEUF
- Croatia's RDAs operate more locally than many of their international peers
- Croatia could consider the feasibility and benefits of RDAs working at a larger territorial scale
- Cities' and municipalities' planning capacities are strained
- Few cities and municipalities have a local development agency to support local development planning.
- Additional incentives for inter-municipal co-operation may be needed to build local strategic planning capacities
- Regional development co-ordination in Croatia
- Croatia's vertical and horizontal mechanisms for regional development
- National-level co-ordination mechanisms supporting regional development
- Subnational co-ordination mechanisms, supporting exchange across jurisdictions and with the national government
- Challenges to the co-ordination of regional development in Croatia
- The organisation of the Prime Minister-led regional development co-ordination body could be adjusted to improve its impact
- Further institutionalising co-operation across RDAs can improve peer-to-peer exchange
- Strengthening communication between the MRDEUF and RDAs
- Conclusion
- References
- Notes
- 4 Regional Development Planning Instruments and Practices
- Introduction
- Croatia's national-level strategic planning guidelines and documents
- The National Development Strategy 2030 guides Croatia's regional development policy
- Balanced regional development is not fully integrated as a cross-cutting priority in the NDS
- The need for a new national-level regional development strategy in Croatia
- Croatia's Regional Development Strategy 2017-2020 provides a starting point for designing a new national-level regional development strategy
- Policy makers should also ensure that other high-level planning documents include a territorial perspective
- Croatia's subnational-level strategic planning guidelines and documents
- Strengths in the county-level strategic planning process
- Areas for improvement in the design of the county-level strategic planning
- Clarifying who contributed to the design of development plans, can increase a sense of ownership of regional development efforts.
- Improving the alignment between county development plans and relevant higher-level strategic planning documents
- Enhancing clarity about the actors involved in county development plan implementation
- More specific objectives and performance indicators can foster targeted policy action and facilitate monitoring and evaluation
- Incentives for implementing county development plans
- There is a lack of financial incentives for the implementation of county development plans
- Areas for improvement in the local-level strategic planning process
- Additional incentives for inter-municipal co-operation could strengthen local strategic planning
- Opportunities to build the strategic planning skills of local governments
- Monitoring and evaluation of regional development in Croatia
- Institutional framework for monitoring and evaluation of regional development policy
- Croatia has adopted a clear and shared definition of monitoring and evaluation
- Legislation provides high-level guidance but the monitoring methodology could be further clarified
- Responsibilities for monitoring and evaluation across government are clearly defined in law, but may not always be fit-for-purpose
- Quality of regional development monitoring and evaluation
- Developing quality assurance and control mechanisms could improve the technical standard of evaluation reports
- A lack of access to, or awareness of, timely and granular data in Croatia constrains monitoring effectiveness
- Improving the quality of indicators can help policy makers track progress in meeting regional development objectives
- The impact of monitoring and evaluation evidence on regional development policy making
- Creating feedback loops through decision-making processes
- Communication of monitoring and evaluation results can be improved through the creation of a web searchable platform.
- Conclusion
- References
- Annex 4.A. Legislation guiding the monitoring and evaluation of regional development in Croatia
- Notes
- 5 Regional development funding and financing
- Introduction
- Sources of regional development funding and financing in Croatia
- Croatia's performance on selected fiscal indicators
- Subnational governments continue to rely heavily on grants and subsidies, despite increasing tax revenue
- Cities and municipalities receive most of their transfers from EU funds
- Subnational tax autonomy has gradually increased in Croatia
- Driven by EU accession, subnational investment increased by 82.7% over the last decade
- Subnational governments have maintained sound fiscal health during crises thanks to national government support
- EU and national funding and financing mechanisms for regional development
- Integrated Territorial Investments
- National Recovery and Resilience Plan
- Regional development funding from the national government
- Funding for the operation of RDAs
- Financing options for regional development
- Public finance-related challenges to regional development in Croatia
- Making the most of EU funding for regional development
- An increasing use of EU funding may pose challenges for policy makers to effectively address local needs
- Resource disparities across cities and municipalities can affect equal access to EU funding opportunities
- Subnational governments should diversify their revenue streams
- Under certain conditions, subnational public-private partnerships could mobilise funding for regional development initiatives
- Ensuring that the recent PIT reforms do not exacerbate regional and local disparities
- The 2023 PIT reform could reduce city and municipal dependency on inter-governmental grants
- A race to lower PIT rates may widen fiscal gaps between cities and municipalities.
- Strengthening the Regional Development Index as a tool to encourage territorial development.
