Browse by: "2024"
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A comprehensive investment facilitation framework is necessary to create favourable conditions for foreign direct investment (FDI) to contribute to host economies’ inclusive and sustainable growth. This report analyses investment facilitation frameworks in five selected Southern Neighbourhood countries (Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco and Tunisia), benchmarked against key standards enshrined in the Sustainable Investment Facilitation Agreement (SIFA) signed between the European Union (EU) and Angola in late 2023. This report informs the EU and interested partners of the region on the potential of future SIFA negotiations with the EU with a view to improve local investment climates and promote mutually beneficial investments.
Over 100 million workers in Southeast Asia have jobs that are directly or closely linked to the environment, making them vulnerable to climate change impacts. These same workers likely earn at least 20% lower than the national average and are largely in informal employment. The region’s necessary transition towards greener growth could affect them in several ways: some sectors will create jobs and others will lose jobs or disappear altogether. Understanding the effects of both climate change and green growth policies on jobs and people is thus essential for making the transition in Southeast Asia an inclusive one. The study explores these issues, with emphasis on the potential effects on labour of an energy transition in Indonesia, and of a transition in the region’s agricultural sector, illustrated by a simulated conversion from conventional to organic rice farming.
Since joining the EU in 2013, Croatia’s macroeconomic performance has improved significantly. At the same time, large demographic and socio-economic disparities across Croatian regions persist. These trends provide the backdrop against which Croatia has reformed its legislative and strategic planning framework for regional development. Such reforms culminated in the adoption of the National Development Strategy 2030, which includes balanced regional development among its main long-term objectives. They have also led to the creation of regional development agencies, and the design of development plans at the county and local levels.
This report assesses the extent to which Croatia’s multi-level governance system is supporting its regional development objectives. In particular, it provides an overview of the country’s regional development performance on several demographic, economic and well-being indicators. From there, it considers how the regional development reforms adopted since 2014 affect the ability of national and subnational governments to design, implement, fund, monitor and evaluate place-based regional development plans. Finally, this report provides practical recommendations to help national and subnational policy makers develop and implement strategic frameworks to meet their territorial development objectives and deliver tangible results to communities across the country.
This Toolkit synthesises learning and examples gathered from Development Assistance Committee (DAC) members and partners, including their work through international fora such as the OECD, as well as additional research. It aims to support DAC members and partners in deepening their work and accelerate progress on any number of topics contained within the DAC Recommendation’s six pillars. Progress in Sexual Exploitation, Abuse and Harassment (SEAH) prevention and response can be very incremental and difficult to measure, in part because it relies on addressing the many underlying factors that support the perpetuation of SEAH, such as cultural and social norms, as well as power dynamics. This Toolkit aims to support progress by DAC members on both technical and political levels, as well as support their coordination efforts with their partners to work towards long-term, sustainable change.
Ireland has shown a strong commitment to addressing child poverty and improving outcomes for children and young people. Responding to the needs of children and young people, particularly those most vulnerable, requires integrated policies and services. This report is part of a joint project between the OECD and the European Commission to strengthen policy and governance arrangements for tackling child poverty and improving outcomes for children and young people based on a whole-of-government approach.
The report assesses recent policy, institutional and legislative developments in Ireland and compares outcomes for children and young people with those in other EU and OECD countries. It finds that despite progress, Ireland still has room for improvement on child poverty reduction, and more can be done to address the trust gap between young people in Ireland and their government. The report recommends Ireland to adopt measures to enhance inter-departmental and inter-agency co-operation, strengthen evidence-informed approaches, reinforce policy monitoring tools, and improve accountability mechanisms. It also recommends measures to support the effective implementation of Young Ireland, the National Policy Framework for Children and Young People (2023-28), and to ensure policy coherence.
In 2021, over 350 000 individuals died from tobacco use and second-hand smoke in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). Over 40% of respiratory cancers in LAC were attributable to tobacco use, and the smoking-attributable medical costs can reach up to 1.5% of GDP per year. The total social and economic costs of tobacco use significantly outweigh the tobacco tax revenue that is raised. The OECD Report “Tobacco Taxation in Latin America and the Caribbean” finds that countries in LAC have significant scope to improve the effectiveness of their tobacco tax policies and administration in order to reduce the prevalence and societal costs of tobacco use. The Report examines the trends and effects of tobacco consumption, analyses tobacco tax revenue, provides an extensive overview of tobacco tax policy design in the region, discusses the need for tobacco tax reform and offers tobacco tax policy recommendations. The Report also provides detailed information on tobacco taxation in 18 countries in LAC (Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay).
This report provides an assessment of the Swedish corporate bond market and policy recommendations to improve its functioning, drawing from detailed empirical analysis and in-depth interviews with market participants. It includes two empirical chapters which provide insights into the market's evolution over the last two decades based on original data, emphasising changes since the 2008 financial crisis with respect to market size, issuer characteristics, credit quality, industry composition and investor universe. These developments are also considered in an international context, comparing the Swedish market with selected peer countries, both in Europe and elsewhere.
Given the important role of strategic foresight in policymaking and resilience, the Government of Flanders has been taking steps to improve its capabilities in this area. This report outlines the main findings and recommendations of the OECD assessment of the strategic foresight system of the Government of Flanders. It includes a blueprint and roadmap for incorporating strategic foresight into the public administration of Flanders over the next five years.
This report builds on the recommendations of the 2022 OECD Peer Review of Competition Law and Policy in Tunisia. It presents an overview of how to develop competition law guidelines across four areas (merger control, pecuniary penalties, leniency programmes and compliance programmes) and includes a comparative analysis of selected jurisdictions, with the view of assisting Tunisian authorities to develop their own guidelines. While competition guidelines can play an important role in fostering competition policy in Tunisia, it should go hand in hand with addressing specific shortcomings in the enforcement and advocacy framework as identified in the Peer Review.
Tackling climate change, addressing other environmental threats, and achieving the green transition all require the profound transformation of network sectors such as water, energy, e-communications, and transport. As leading public bodies in the governance of network sectors, economic regulators can significantly affect environmental outcomes. This publication discusses the role of economic regulators and the tools they can use to contribute to environmental sustainability and the green transition in the sectors they oversee. Survey data and information gathered in collaboration with the OECD Network of Economic Regulators is used to analyse the use of such tools and regulator’s governance arrangements, highlighting a number of common challenges and opportunities. The publication includes data relating to regulators’ objectives, powers and functions, mechanisms for co-ordination, use of regulatory management tools, and levels of capacity and resources, and integrates OECD guidance related to these topics. As such, this publication will prove valuable to economic regulators, governments and legislators with relevant responsibilities.
Lobbying and influence activities are legitimate acts of democratic participation and enable different groups to provide input and expertise to the policymaking process. This report looks at Chile’s existing framework to ensure equity, integrity and transparency in public decision-making processes, and assesses its resilience to the risks of undue influence by special interest groups. The report also explores how to improve transparency and facilitate the disclosure of lobbying and influence activities. Finally, it discusses complementary reforms of the legal framework on integrity and transparency that could help strengthen the lobbying framework.
As governments grapple with environmental and digital transitions and an erosion of trust in public institutions, bold action is needed to build people’s trust and strengthen democracy. To this end, the OECD launched its Reinforcing Democracy Initiative in 2022. This report offers an overview of collective progress made in OECD countries across the five pillars of the Initiative and their respective action plans: combatting mis‑ and disinformation; enhancing participation, representation, and openness in public life, including a focus on gender equality; stronger open democracies in a globalised world; governing green; and digital democracy. In each of these areas, the report provides recent cross‑country indicators of progress (when available) and highlights best practices from countries. The report draws on OECD and other data to assess progress, including the 2024 results of the OECD Survey on the Drivers of Trust in Public Institutions. It also identifies gaps in action and points to a set of common priorities for moving forward together.
Decentralised finance, including crypto-asset markets and DeFi protocol activity, has been promoted as a tool to support the democratisation of finance. This report presents quantitative evidence from ASEAN economies that participation in decentralised finance markets has been largely driven by speculative forces and a fear of missing out, rather than by practical use-cases that can promote financial inclusion. Since decentralised finance today involves unregulated or uncompliant financial service provision, the complexity and the non-custodial nature of such activity (particularly DeFi protocol activity) make these practically difficult for retail participation. The report provides policy considerations and discusses other digital finance tools that could be considered as alternative catalysts for financial inclusion, particularly when it comes to MSME financing.
Well-funded public transport services that provide easy access for all citizens to the opportunities they seek are essential to decarbonising transport, making our cities more liveable, and connecting people living in rural areas. This report aims to help governments meet the challenge of funding public transport sustainably and equitably. It recommends revisiting investment allocations, moving away from a road focus, and ensuring the efficiency of public transport services. Governments must also optimise the contributions of users, indirect beneficiaries of public transport (including landowners and businesses) and the public sector.
Earth's orbits are polluted by more than 100 million debris objects that pose a collision threat to satellites and other spacecraft. The risk of perturbing highly valuable space-based services critical to life on Earth, such as weather monitoring and disaster management, is making debris mitigation an urgent policy challenge. This book provides the latest findings from the OECD project on the economics of space sustainability, which aims to improve decision makers’ understanding of the societal value of space infrastructure and costs of space debris. It provides comprehensive evidence on the growth of space debris, presents methods to evaluate and quantify the value of the satellites at risk and discusses ways to ensure a more sustainable use of the orbital environment. It notably includes case studies from Italy, Japan and Korea on the socio-economic value of different types of space infrastructure and discusses the feasibility and optimal design of fiscal measures and voluntary environmental rating schemes to change operator behaviour. This work is informed by contributions from researchers worldwide involved in the OECD project.
Ensuring equality for LGBTI+ individuals is a human rights imperative, but it also makes a lot of economic sense. Inclusion enables LGBTI+ individuals to achieve their full employment and labour productivity potential, benefitting not only their economic and social well-being, but also society as a whole. Yet, robust evidence supporting the economic case for greater LGBTI+ equality is still scarce due to challenges in accurately measuring the size and life situation of the LGBTI+ population. This report bridges this gap by using a unique set of microdata from the United States. The report begins with an overview of the share of US adults identifying as LGBTI+, their geographic distribution and key demographics. It then evaluates the extent to which LGBTI+ Americans face discrimination, assessing how this population fares, including in the labour market. Finally, utilising the OECD long-term model, the report quantifies the potential increase in GDP resulting from closing the unexplained LGBTI+ gaps in employment and labour productivity. The findings highlight significant economic gains, although they capture only a portion of the potential benefits. Notably, the broader societal impacts, such as the advancement of women's empowerment through the disruption of heteronormative standards, are not quantified.
The digital transformation of public procurement promises a host of benefits. It can make transactions more efficient and effective, support innovative approaches, enable more precise measurement of outcomes, and improve transparency. The shift towards digital systems can also foster greater participation from small and medium-sized enterprises and promote competition. At the same time, the digital transformation of public procurement should connect and build on existing systems and initiatives and contribute to broader policies such as the digital government and digital transition agendas.
This report maps the current state of digital public procurement in Ireland, identifying areas of strength and opportunities for improvement. It presents stakeholders’ perspectives on related challenges and opportunities, with a view to informing a future strategy for the digital transformation of public procurement. The report also defines key concepts and terminology on the digital transformation of public procurement and includes an overview of European experiences and orientations in terms of similar or related strategies, standards, emerging technologies, and lessons from other European Union and OECD Member countries.
While Norway is a leader in digital government amongst OECD countries − ranking 4th overall in the 2023 OECD Digital Government Index − there is scope to improve the efficiency, efficacy, and innovation of Norway’s public sector through digitalisation. This report reviews Norway's digitalisation efforts since its 2017 OECD Digital Government Review and provides recommendations to help the government develop a new strategy for digital transformation. It looks at eight areas ranging from digital governance and digital government investments to artificial intelligence, digital talent and service design and delivery.
The blue economy is a major driver of urban and regional development, creating millions of local jobs in water-dependent sectors such as fisheries, tourism, and shipping. However, it can also contribute to carbon emissions and ecosystem degradation, while its reliance on freshwater, coastal and marine ecosystems exposes it to the impacts of climate change. As the places where the blue economy takes place, creates value and provides jobs, cities and regions play a key role in unlocking the potential of a resilient blue economy that preserves the ecosystems that sustain it. Building on a global survey of 80+ cities, regions and basins, this report highlights the costs and benefits of the blue economy at subnational level, shedding light on the link between the blue economy and water security. This analysis provides an overview of the multi-level governance of the blue economy and related gaps. It calls on cities and regions to develop resilient, inclusive, sustainable and circular (RISC-proof) blue economies by establishing the right governance conditions related to policy making, policy coherence and policy implementation. The report concludes with a RISC Assessment Framework that offers a self-evaluation tool for subnational governments.
The in vitro macromolecular test method is a biochemical in vitro test method that can be used to identify chemicals (substances and mixtures) that have the potential to induce serious eye damage as well as chemicals not requiring classification for eye irritation or serious eye damage. The in vitro macromolecular test method contains a macromolecular reagent composed of a mixture of proteins, glycoproteins, carbohydrates, lipids and low molecular weight components, that when rehydrated forms a complex macromolecular matrix which mimics the highly ordered structure of the transparent cornea. Corneal opacity is described as the most important driver for classification of eye hazard. Test chemicals producing protein denaturation, unfolding and changes in conformation will lead to the disruption and disaggregation of the highly organised macromolecular reagent matrix, and produce turbidity of the macromolecular reagent. Such phenomena is quantified, by measuring the changes in light scattering (at a wavelength of 405 nm using a spectrometer), which is compared to the standard curve established in parallel by measuring the increase in OD produced by a set of calibration substances.