European Commission’s Development Education and Awareness Raising Programme (DEAR) has published a country report on Croatia as part of a series of country studies that reflect on the context in which DEAR projects operate in different EU Member States.
“Croatia, as the youngest EU member state, is experiencing the transition from aid recipient to aid donor. This transition is still not finished, and topics related to international development cooperation are still on the margins. Allocations for international development projects are symbolic and very much directed towards the Croatian diaspora. CSOs are more advanced in promoting global education and campaigning/advocacy on global issues than the Government. However, their interests are more focused on national issues than on global ones. National financing for DEAR projects almost doesn’t exist.
There are no national strategies for integrating global education in schools. Teachers are using the cross-curricula subject civic education to teach about global issues in their extra-curricular time. However, there are motivated informal networks of schools and teachers committed to these topics working mostly with CSOs. CSOs, in general, face a lack of capacities and are small. However, there are a significant number of influential watch-dog NGOs shaping Government policies –including the ones in the field of development cooperation and global learning.
Some local communities/authorities are very much open to DEAR topics. It is easier sometime to implement DEAR projects on a local than on a national level. Important partners on DEAR projects could be journalists and artists.
Although there is no significant foreign policy media scene in Croatia, foreign policy reporters are open to collaborations with CSOs. Artistic interventions on global issues, in the form of street performances or cooperation with a mainstream cultural festivals, have been proven to attract a wider audience.
Although recent research on youth shows how Croatian youth is more conservative than their counterparts is western EU member states, the pupils and students participating in DEAR projects have shown strong motivation and interest in global issues, particularly around environmental protection. DEAR projects in Croatia ensure and support that future generations are more open towards global issues and resistant to the overall trends of national policies.”, states the conclusion of the report.
The full report is available here:
