Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) play an important role in Georgia’s economy. SMEs provide more than 67% of employment and about 62% of gross value added. Although the environmental footprint of individual SMEs may be low, their aggregate impact in many respects exceeds that of large businesses.
Commercial banks have an important role to play in providing access to green finance, particularly for SMEs. This report reviews the experience with green lending in the SME sector in Georgia. The analysis identifies the main challenges with lending to SMEs for green projects and discusses possible solutions. The report, in particular, looks at the role of the government and the policy instruments it can use to stimulate higher demand for green lending in the SME sector.
Like many OECD countries, Latvia is taking an innovative, user-centred approach to improving legal and justice services by strengthening the judicial sector and law enforcement authorities This report reviews the commercial, legal and regulatory framework in Latvia, highlighting its impact on businesses and its suitability for different forms of commercial activity. It analyses business’ legal and justice needs, and evaluates the accessibility and responsiveness of public services for business, including dispute resolution mechanisms. Finally, the report provides recommendations to help Latvia better tailor justice services to the needs of business and thus support more inclusive growth.
This report provides a case study for the development of sustainable energy lending in Ukraine. It reviews the macro-economic and political context for green investments in Ukraine, before looking in more detail at the role and capacity of the banking sector. The study is part of a wider OECD project promoting access to private finance for green investments in the EU Eastern Partnership (EaP) countries, and follows on from a regional assessment undertaken in 2015. This work forms part of the “Greening Economies in the European Union’s Eastern Neighbourhood” (EaP GREEN) programme, which aims to support the six Eastern Partnership countries to move towards a green economy by decoupling economic growth from environmental degradation and resource depletion.
This report identifies the success factors for accessibility-based approaches to transport project appraisal. It explores the role of cost-benefit analysis as an appraisal tool and how it could better address distributional issues. Finally, it reviews the case for aligning accessibility metrics more closely with policy objectives and how they can be communicated via accessibility mapping.
Brandenburg’s economy is undergoing structural change, which opens exciting new prospects for highly skilled workers. The state has intensified efforts to diversify the economy towards cleaner and more knowledge-intensive industries, including the development of advanced manufacturing, spill-over effects from the start-up scene in Berlin, fostering entrepreneurial activities at its own higher education institutions, promoting innovative places for working and living, and phasing out of coal production in favour of next-generation technologies. As the engine of skills development and research, the higher education system will play an important role in helping the state unleash these opportunities. The German State of Brandenburg has therefore entrusted the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development – in close collaboration with and supported by the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Structural Reform Support – with the development of recommendations on how to enhance the visibility of its institutions’ programme offer, align this offer with the skills and innovation demand, and make it more attractive to prospective students from the state and beyond.
This report presents findings from a survey on green finance conducted among 1 000 households in the Kyrgyz Republic (Kyrgyzstan) in 2019. Although green finance is an emerging trend, knowledge about the appetite for green financial products and services in Kyrgyzstan is almost inexistent. The OECD prepared the household survey to close this gap in evidence. The research identified needs and demand from existing and potential clients of Kyrgyz financial institutions for financial instruments, including those that promote sustainable development. This will help commercial banks, policy makers and central bankers design more targeted interventions to increase access to and use of financial products and services, including green finance, in Kyrgyzstan.
The ability of citizens to demand accountability and more open government is fundamental to good governance. There is growing recognition of the need for new approaches to the ways in which donors support accountability, but no broad agreement on what changed practice looks like. This publication aims to provide more clarity on the emerging practice. Based on four country studies Mali, Mozambique, Peru and Uganda, a survey of donor innovations and cutting-edge analysis in this field, and the findings of a series of special high-level international dialogues on how to best support accountability support to parliaments, political parties, elections and the media. The publication takes the view that a wholesale shift in behaviour is required by parts of the development assistance community - moving outside conventional comfort zones and changing reflexes towards new approaches to risk taking, analysis and programming around systems of accountability and ‘do no harm’ efforts in political engagement.
This piece is aimed at a range of development practitioners, as well as a wider audience, including civil society actors and citizens around the world who interact with donors working on accountability support.
Using this Guide will facilitate the practical implementation of the OECD Guidelines on Corporate Governance of State-Owned Enterprises in the areas of transparency and accountability. It provides viable policy options and a step-by-step road map on how to address typical difficulties, risks and hurdles that may be encountered. It also provides concrete examples of good practices that can serve as a reference and inspiration. The Guide will help governments, their ownership entities and other stakeholders to evaluate existing practices and support reforms.
In most countries, improving transparency and accountability in state-owned enterprises entails a number of complex challenges. Addressing these, with the help of this Guide, is an important step in the process of establishing well-governed and economically sound state-owned enterprisesDesigned to strengthen and deepen implementation of the Paris Declaration, the Accra Agenda for Action (AAA) takes stock of progress and sets the agenda for accelerated advancement towards improving the quality and impact of aid. The AAA represents an unprecedented alliance of more than 80 developing countries, OECD Development Assistance Committee donors, some 3 000 civil society organisations, emerging economies, UN and multilateral institutions, and global funds.
Financial reporting is one of the foundations of good fiscal management. High-quality financial reports are essential to ensure that a government’s fiscal decisions are based on the most up-to-date and accurate understanding of its financial position. Financial reports are also the mechanism through which legislatures, auditors, and the public at large hold governments accountable for their financial performance. Over the past two decades, a growing number of governments have begun moving away from pure cash accounting toward accrual accounting to improve transparency and accountability and better inform fiscal decision making. This study reviews and compares accounting and budgeting practices at the national government level in OECD countries. It also discusses both the challenges and benefits of accruals reforms. Finally, it looks at some steps countries are taking to make better use of accrual information in the future. This is a joint publication with the International Federation of Accountants and the OECD.
This summary report provides an overview of the impact that standards and labelling programmes are having on the energy efficiency of energy-using appliances and equipment in countries around the world. It draws on a global review of nearly 400 published reports, studies and papers covering more than 100 products – representing one of the most comprehensive datasets assembled on the topic to date. It confirms that improvements to the energy efficiency of appliances and equipment are some of the lowest-cost options available today for reducing energy consumption and associated emissions, with typical society benefit/cost ratios of 4:1. Programmes that have been operating the longest, such as those in the United States and the European Union, are estimated to deliver annual reductions of around 15% of total current electricity consumption. These programmes provide net financial benefits to individuals and the community. Other benefits, including employment, product innovation, water savings, improvements in air quality and the reduction of public expenditure on health, add to the case for stronger standards and labels.
Rising public health care spending remains a problem in virtually all OECD and EU member countries. As a consequence, there is growing interest in policies that will ease this pressure through improved health system performance. This report examines selected policies that may help countries better achieve the goal of improved health system efficiency and thus better value for money. Drawing on multinational data sets and case studies, it examines a range policy instruments. These include: the role of competition in health markets; the scope for improving care coordination; better pharmaceutical pricing policies; greater quality control supported by stronger information and communication technology in health care; and increased cost sharing.
Achieving Financial Stability in Asia sets out to identify the elements which could restore confidence to the countries of the region and stabilise financial flows on a global basis. Thus, measures must be taken which include improving public and corporate governance, strengthening democracy and improving the efficiency of regulatory institutions. At the same time, emerging economies ought to be given a greater measure of participation in international regulatory bodies, so that any solutions proposed to dampen the volatility of financial flows might take their interests and opinions into account. This book reflects the contributions to the fifth edition of the International Forum on Asian Perspectives, which was held in Paris in June 1999. The Forum was created by the Asian Development Bank and the OECD Development Centre as an annual meeting place of ideas and strategies from Asian countries and from the OECD region. The aim of the Forum is to create an area where the knowledge bases of the partners can be combined to exploit their specific advantages in the search for solutions to the economic problems of Asia. The Forum also includes an open meeting where these ideas can be tested in front of a wide audience of people from the worlds of politics, administration, academia, the media and business.
With an electricity system defined by high shares of hydropower, large capacity for interconnection with its neighbours and low carbon intensity, Switzerland is well positioned to attain its objective of net zero carbon emissions by 2050. However, the exact pathway remains the subject of discussion. First, what should the shares of nuclear energy and variable renewable energies such as solar PV and wind be in the energy mix? Second, what degree of electricity trade should Switzerland have with its European neighbours?
New system modelling of different energy policy choices with the Nuclear Energy Agency’s POSY model shows that all considered scenarios are technically feasible. However, relying on variable renewables alone or decoupling Switzerland from neighbouring countries could increase total system costs by up to 250%. Instead, continuing to operate Switzerland’s newest nuclear power plants alongside existing hydropower resources, while maintaining interconnection capacity at current levels, emerges as the most cost-effective option to achieve net zero emissions in 2050. Ample data and technical documentation of a least-cost mixed integer (MILP) modelling with hourly resolution are also provided in order to allow replication, extension and discussion of this study’s findings
Achieving Net Zero Electricity Sectors in G7 Members is a new report by the International Energy Agency that provides a roadmap to driving down CO2 emissions from electricity generation to net zero by 2035, building on analysis in Net Zero by 2050: A Roadmap for the Global Energy Sector.
The new report was requested by the United Kingdom, under its G7 Presidency, and followed the G7 leaders’ commitment in June 2021 to reach “an overwhelmingly decarbonised” power system in the 2030s and net zero emissions across their economies no later than 2050. It is designed to inform policy makers, industry, investors and citizens in advance of the COP26 Climate Change Conference in Glasgow that begins at the end of October 2021.
Starting from recent progress and the current state of play of electricity in the G7, the report analyses the steps needed to achieve net zero emissions from electricity, and considers the wider implications for energy security, employment and affordability. It identifies key milestones, emerging challenges and opportunities for innovation.
The report also underscores how G7 members can foster innovation through international collaboration and, as first movers, lower the cost of technologies for other countries while maintaining electricity security and placing people at the centre of clean energy transitions.
Achieving Net Zero Heavy Industry Sectors in G7 Members is a new report by the International Energy Agency that focuses on the implementation of policies aimed at drastically lowering CO2 emissions from heavy industries in the G7 and beyond. This work, requested by Germany’s 2022 G7 Presidency, builds on analysis from the IEA’s Net Zero by 2050: A Roadmap for the Global Energy Sector. It follows Achieving Net Zero Electricity Sectors in G7 Members, produced as an input to the UK’s G7 Presidency in 2021.This report focuses on two key areas for achieving net zero heavy industry sectors in G7 members, both of which are priority areas for Germany’s 2022 G7 Presidency. The first is a toolbox of policies and financing mechanisms to initiate and sustain the industry sector transition. The second is a series of common and practicable definitions of what constitutes near zero emission steel and cement production, a key step to establishing future policy mechanisms, irrespective of the exact mitigation pathway or the specific technologies chosen. The report is designed to inform policy makers, material producers and consumers, investors, leading sectoral initiatives and the research community in the lead up to the G7 Climate and Energy Ministerial in May 2022, and beyond.
Agility is a tool that can help governments to not only maintain but even improve public services in a time of fiscal consolidation. Financial uncertainty is not the only challenge governments face today. Changing demographics, globalisation, climate change, risk of potential large-scale disasters are among the many others. Agility can help governments meet these challenges as well. It's also not enough to be "agile". Governments must be quick and responsive in a strategic way. This means being aware of emerging opportunities, being able to make tough collective decisions and stick to them, and mobilising appropriate financial and human resources rapidly and efficiently to where/when they are needed most. This publication is supports reforms towards greater strategic agility in the public sector including the use of budgeting policy levers, human resource management strategies and ICTs. It presents, in a sense, a toolkit for reform, together with a broader framework for action, taking into account the enabling factors and potential risks that may occur. This report is also an attempt to show that the public sector has the capacity to reinvent itself during difficult times and that large public sector organisations are able to take on the challenge.
Achieving sustainable, equitable and resilient societies is humankind’s challenge for the 21st century. In pursuit of this ambition, the international development community needs a shared, universal framework, within which to work more closely together. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are the obvious answer, but a number of technical, political and organisational challenges prevent development co-operation providers from using them as their common results framework. Based on seven case studies, this publication identifies two critical factors and one game changer that can help overcome those challenges. First, country leadership needs to be supported by the international community. Second, development partners need to change their set-ups in order to deliver on the SDGs. Finally, by forcing governments and development partners to reset their long-term strategies and rethink their internal systems, the COVID-19 pandemic provides them with a rare opportunity to use the SDG framework collectively as a roadmap to recovery: this can be a game changer.
This study provides a review of the food and agricultural sector in Ukraine. It assesses the current status of the food and agricultural sector with special reference to the agricultural policy regime and the form and level of government support to the sector. The paper reviews the sector’s readiness to compete on open global markets for food and agricultural products. Given the importance and sensitivity of the food and agriculture sector in the country, the report highlights a number of critical issues for the Ukrainian government to address. The report goes beyond the narrower focus of the agricultural policies and reviews the status of current rural physical and social infrastructure and issues of rural poverty.
The Executive Summary highlights policy recommendations for Ukrainian policymakers, while the individual chapters provide technical analysis on key policy issues.
Wales (United Kingdom) is on the path to transform the way children learn, with a new curriculum aimed to prepare its children and young people to thrive at school and beyond. The new curriculum for Wales intends to create a better learning experience for students, to engage teachers’ professionalism, and to contribute to the overall improvement of Welsh education. An education policy is only as good as its implementation, however, and Wales turned to the OECD for advice on the next steps to implement the curriculum. This report analyses the progress made with the new curriculum since 2016, and offers suggestions on the actions Wales should take to ready the system for further development and implementation. The analysis looks at the four pillars of implementation — curriculum policy design, stakeholders' engagement, policy context and implementation strategy — and builds upon the literature and experiences of OECD countries to provide tailored advice to Wales. In return, the report holds value not only for Wales, but also for other education systems across the OECD looking to implement a curriculum or to enhance their implementation processes altogether.