Poverty

Opening Remarks
· Andrew Vorkink, Country Director of the World Bank Croatia Country Office Zagreb, made remarks on the importance of social capital to development. Social capital is not just the sum of institutions and individuals in a country but the fabric that holds society together, which can be positive (community organizations, associations of parents or professionals, etc.) or negative (indigenous or ethnic groups reluctant to interact with other groups in society, groups promoting elitism, etc.). According to Mr. Vorkink, what makes social capital positive is not just the strength of the bonds holding the members together but whether the objectives of the group promote greater good in society. Mr. Vorkink briefly described a positive example of social capital he has observed in Romania, where a village which needed paved road managed to put together a funding proposal with assistance from an NGO, came up with a feasibility study, decided to become general contactor for the road and prepared the surface of the road by use of tractors and hand shovels with all families in the village contributing labor. Although, as Mr. Vorkink emphasized, Croatia is not Romania, the need for social capital to build a vibrant society which raises the incomes and living standards of all Croatians is the same. Although Croatia is endowed with many wonderful assets, its most valuable asset is its people. Social capital is all about creating connections and trust among the people so these most valuable of assets can be harnessed.
· Þeljka Antunovi¿, Deputy Prime Minister of the Government of the Republic of Croatia, emphasized the Government's understanding and strengthening of social capital in Croatia. Ms. Antunovi¿ stressed that one of the main reasons behind the currently unsatisfactory structure of social capital in Croatia is lack of trust and respect for social norms. Although the new Government has recognized the importance of civil initiatives and significantly improved the relationship with NGOs (even a cooperation agreement has been signed), the NGO sector still experiences problems that result from inadequate level of trust towards the GoC, public sector, as well as other NGOs. In Government’s view, NGOs should redirect their current orientation on larger cities towards more rural areas, improve coordination within the sector and attempt to improve their media coverage. The private sector in Croatia still does not adequately participate in civil initiatives and bears a partial responsibility for the insufficient social capital levels. Ms. Antunovi¿ concluded by saying that the GoC supports the further development of NGO sector and aspires to have good communication with NGOs and private sector. Therefore events like this workshop represent a positive endeavor in that direction.
· Nives Ivelja, Director of Association MI from Split, stressed that the Croatian society currently places too much emphasis on structures, while the individual as such is getting neglected. According to Ms. Ivelja, social capital is underdeveloped in Croatia due to polarization of the society (polarity between innovative and conventional, simple (acceptable) and complex (intolerable, such as civil society), science and practice, known and unknown). In addition to public and private sectors, the civil sector has also managed to build its identity over the last few years. However, the level of integration of NGOs in the overall society has been inadequate. The concept of volunteering has still not been accepted by the Croatian society and there are too few models that support such an idea. She hoped that after this workshop we all will have clearer answers on the following questions: What are objectives of our society and how the responsibility should be distributed? How to assess efficiency of intervention models? How to develop social capital growth models?

This workshop is also available in Croatian.

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