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1. Governance

2. Cross-sectoral cooperation

Governance

The primary decision-maker for youth volunteering is the Ministry of Labour, Pension System, Family and Social Policy (MLPSFSP). It is important to note that the MLPSFSP oversees volunteering for all ages, not just youth. According to the Chapter 18, Paragraph 2, of the Volunteering Act, the MLPSFSP is responsible for:

• ensuring the enforcement of this Law and related regulations
• monitoring the situation in the field of volunteering and proposing appropriate measures
• gathering data on the number of volunteer organisers, the number of volunteers in the Republic of Croatia and the number of Croatian citizens who volunteer abroad, as well as other data based on annual reports of volunteer organisers
• convening the inaugural session of the National Committee for the Development of Volunteerism (NCDV)
• undertaking other measures and tasks to promote volunteering and implement the Volunteering Act

The NCDV is an advisory body of the Government of the Republic of Croatia tasked with implementing measures and activities to promote and develop volunteering. It consists of 21 members appointed by the Government of the Republic of Croatia, who are also representatives of the following:

• Ministry of Labour, Pension System, Family and Social Policy
• Government’s Office for Cooperation with NGOs (OCNGOs)
• Government’s Office for Human Rights and National Minorities' Right
• National Foundation for Civil Society Development
• Ministry of Science and Education
• Ministry of Health
• representative of the state administration body responsible for youth 
• representative of the state administration body responsible for civil defence
• representative of the state administration body responsible for tourism and sports
• representative of the Agency for Mobility and the EU Programmes
• volunteer organisers and/or civil society organisations involved in promoting volunteering (eight representatives)
• independent experts (three representatives)

According to the Volunteering Act (Chapter 19), the NCDV is responsible for: 

• proposing measures to enhance the position of volunteers in society
• collaborating with relevant bodies to propose regulations regarding volunteer benefits
• awarding the State Award for Volunteering
• initiating the adoption or modification of regulations related to volunteering
• releasing the Ethics Code of Volunteers
• undertakes additional activities for the development of volunteering and performing other measures and activities outlined in the Act

The Office for Cooperation with NGOs (Ured za udruge) is a professional service of the Government of the Republic of Croatia, established by the Decree on the Office for Cooperation with NGOs (Uredba o Uredu za udruge). The Office performs the tasks related to creating conditions for cooperation and partnership with the non-governmental, non-profit sector, especially with associations operating in the Republic of Croatia. The Office has a wide scope of activities, from cooperation in creating and proposing new legislative frameworks for the activity of non-governmental, non-profit sector in the Republic of Croatia, monitoring the implementation of the National Strategy for the Creation of an Enabling Environment for Civil Society Development and measures of the Operational Implementation Plan for the Strategy to forming a programme, standards and recommendations for financing the activity of civil society organizations from the state budget and other public funds, as well as pre-accession and structural funds of the European Union.

Non-public actors participating in the development of policies in the field of youth volunteering include regional volunteer centres (non-profit/non-governmental organisations): Volunteer Centre Zagreb, Volunteer Centre Split, Volunteer Centre Rijeka, Associations for Civil Society Development SMART, and Volunteer Centre Osijek. Their primary objective is to promote and develop volunteer activities at the local, regional, and national levels. Regional volunteer centres have established the Croatian Volunteer Development Centre (CVDC) and thus work jointly with decision-makers in the field of volunteering. In addition to regional volunteer centres, about thirty local volunteer centres, upon meeting specific criteria, have the opportunity to become members of the national network of volunteer centres – a programme facilitated by the CVDC.

Since Croatia is an EU member, with establishment of European Solidarity Corps its volunteering projects (including transnational projects) became available to Croatian citizens. However, on a national level, there are no valid strategic documents which regulate cross-national (transnational) cooperation in the field of volunteering. 

Cross-sectoral Cooperation

In the past, the framework for cross-sectoral cooperation in this field had been laid out in the National Strategy for the Creation of an Enabling Environment for Civil Society Development 2012-2016 and the National Youth Programme 2014-2017. However, there are currently no valid strategic documents regulating cross-sectoral cooperation in the field of volunteering. Presently, there is no National Programme for the Development of Volunteering, which was last prepared in 2013, and the new National Youth Programme 2023 - 2025 does not list youth volunteering as one of its measures. Nevertheless, the NCDV, as a platform for cross-sectoral cooperation, is active (the current members were nominated in 2022 for a four-year term).