Poverty Alleviation: The Case of Croatia

In economic literature, poverty is usually defined as the inability to satisfy basic material needs, particularly adequate nutrition, but also ensuring satisfactory housing, means of production and other assets. The goal of the chapter is to present the current situation of poverty in Croatia with the intention to identify measures for the enhancement of poverty alleviation. From the multidimensional perspective, what matters is a focus on the opportunities--such as a possibility for education and employment, adequate contact to markets and so on--that are available to people. If a person does not possess sufficient capabilities or endowments, he or she has a limited possibility to escape from the unfavourable situation. Poverty in Croatia is stagnant--those who become poor need a long period to escape from poverty. The inactive and persons unemployed are the dominant groups of the poor in Croatia. The current social protection system is a mix of old and new programmes and it has been adjusted in response to altering social needs and opportunities. Successful poverty reduction is associated with the improvement of the labour market, a consistent increase in decentralisation of financial sources and services, the reduction of corruption, carefully reallocating expenditures and improving coordination among existing social programmes.