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1. Political Commitment to Evidence-Based Youth Policy

2. Cooperation between policy-making and research

3. National Statistics and available data sources

4. Budgetary Allocations supporting research in the youth field

Political commitment to evidence-based youth policy

Youth policies in Croatia, as outlined in the National Youth Programme, are developed in accordance with European Union recommendations and Council of Europe best practices. The process involves knowledge-based and evidence-based approaches. All policy documents related to youth are grounded in official statistics, scientific research findings, European Commission and Council of Europe youth-related documents, and relevant strategic documents from the Government of the Republic of Croatia.  It should be noted that members of the academic community specialising in youth are consistently engaged in expert working groups. They contribute to the creation, definition, regulation, and analysis of various youth policy segments.

Cooperation between policy-making and research

There are three modes of co-operation between the research community and policy decision-makers. The first mode entails research serving as the foundation for  developing normative and other documents related to youth policy. Since 2000, such analyses have been conducted to inform the creation of national youth programmes and the Act on Youth  Advisory Boards, with currently ongoing research to define work with young people. The second mode of cooperation involves integrating social scientists into the process of drafting aforementioned documents, including appointing researchers to expert working groups related to youth policy. Since 2000, members of the academic community specialising in youth have actively participated in all working groups for drafting normative acts. The third mode of cooperation involves consultations between policymakers and researchers with scientific focus on specific aspects of youth policy.

National statistics and available data sources

• Croatian Bureau of Statistics; Census 2011; Census 2021
• Institute for Social Research in Zagreb, Centre for Youth and Gender Studies, specialised in the study of youth and women. The Centre conducts research in the scientific domains of sociology, political science, and philosophy, emphasising an interdisciplinary approach and the longitudinal monitoring of social phenomena and processes.

Budgetary allocations supporting research in the youth field

There are no governmental budgetary allocations supporting research in the youth field.