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Asian cities are particularly vulnerable to risks associated with natural disasters. While they are exposed to various types of natural hazards, flooding and other water-related disasters pose particularly significant risks and undermine long-term economic growth, especially in coastal cities. Managing such natural disaster risks is an essential component of urban policies in fast-growing Southeast Asian cities, especially as the impacts of climate change worsen.
In addition to providing a framework for assessing disaster risk management policies in cities, this report also presents the results of assessment and locally tailored policy recommendations in five cities of different institutional, geographic, socio-economic and environmental contexts in Southeast Asia. They include Bandung (Indonesia), Bangkok (Thailand), Cebu (Philippines), Hai Phong (Viet Nam) and Iskandar (Malaysia). The study highlights that Southeast Asian cities are largely underprepared for natural disaster risks.
Through an assessment of disaster risk management (DRM) policies at national and subnational levels, the study aims to enhance urban resilience by: i) identifying policy challenges related to DRM ; ii) assessing the impacts of current DRM policy practices; and iii) proposing more efficient and effective policy options to enhance urban resilience.
This report analyzes labor migration trends in Asia and emphasizes the importance of partnerships to promote effective labor migration management. It addresses temporary migrant worker programs, focusing on the Republic of Korea’s Employment Permit System and Malaysia’s Electrical and Electronics industry. It also highlights the key role multilateral and bilateral agreements play in protecting migrant workers’ social security entitlements. Key issues covered are how these partnerships can provide safe, orderly, and fair labor migration, and, hence, a fair environment in Asia’s labor market.
The four chapters capture the ideas, insights, and discussions from the “Eighth Roundtable on Labor Migration in Asia - Building Partnerships for Effectively Managing Labor Migration: Lessons from Asian Countries for the UN Global Compact on Migration”, hosted by Human Resource Development Korea in Incheon, Republic of Korea, in January 2018. The event, co-organized by the Asian Development Bank Institute, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, and the International Labour Organization, brought together regional experts and policy makers.
The report’s introductory chapter reviews recent regional trends, and two statistical annexes offer detailed coverage of intra-Asia migration flows, as well as cross-regional migration flows.
Kazakhstan has made major economic and social advances in the past decade and a half. Yet, Kazakhstan needs to sustain high growth rates in the future to converge towards the living standards of OECD countries. This report provides a review of the labour market and social policies that could help Kazakhstan in its dual objectives of building more inclusive labour markets, while maintaining a path of strong growth. It explores the role that institutions and policies play in helping vulnerable groups to access gainful and productive jobs, particularly focusing on three key groups: youth, older workers, and people with disabilities, and provides a comprehensive set of policies to increase the employment and employability of these groups. Evaluations and lessons from innovative experiences in OECD and other countries are used to formulate recommendations tailored to Kazakhstan.
Since 2011 an annual Roundtable on Labor Migration in Asia has been organized by the Asian Development Bank Institute, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and, since 2013, the International Labour Organization. The fourth edition of the event, held in January 2014 and titled “Building Human Capital across Borders,” focused on the critical role of human capital both in bolstering migrants’ employment opportunities in foreign countries and in helping them to reintegrate, with new skills and work experiences, after returning. This report, an outcome of the roundtable, captures key trends in migration in Asia and highlights the challenges of building, and benefi ting from, human capital through the migration process.
A changing world of work brings the importance of Vocational Education and Training (VET) to the forefront, as it has the ability to develop the skills that are needed in today’s labour markets and societies. At the same time, structural changes highlight the need to re-engineer certain parts of VET systems in some countries to make them more resilient and ensure they can make the most of the opportunities ongoing changes present.
This report zooms in on four key dimensions of future-ready VET systems: i) responsiveness to changing skill needs; ii) the flexibility to make VET work for all; iii) the ability to support transitions into a changing labour market and further learning; iv) the potential of digital technology to innovate VET design and delivery. For each of these dimensions, the report presents a set of key questions that policymakers and other VET stakeholders should consider when re-engineering VET to make it more future-ready, as well as insights from data and international examples of policies and practices.
This report explores effective policy solutions to the current and future challenges related to food security in the countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). While robust GDP growth, rising agricultural productivity and output, and strong growth in agricultural incomes have all contributed to vast improvements in the food security of the region, 60 million people remain undernourished. ASEAN governments have therefore justifiably kept food security as a policy priority. The regional policy architecture set out in ASEAN frameworks provides sound guidance, yet some of the current policies adopted by members are not helping to address food insecurity and its causes, including the formidable challenges related to climate change and the need for continued growth in sustainable food production to feed growing populations. This report puts forward a number of policy recommendations to ensure that the ASEAN agricultural and fisheries sectors contribute effectively and efficiently to ensuring regional food security.
Governments are facing significant climate-related risks from the expected increase in frequency and intensity of cyclones, floods, fires, and other climate-related extreme events. The report Building Financial Resilience to Climate Impacts: A Framework for Governments to Manage the Risks of Losses and Damages provides a strategic framework to help governments, particularly those in emerging market and developing economies, strengthen their capacity to manage the financial implications of climate-related risks. The goal of the framework is to support sound public financial management strategies that take into account budgetary and financing constraints, and to foster broader actions at the national and international levels.
The report examines the role of governments in identifying and assessing climate-related physical risks and their impacts on public finances, and reporting climate-related fiscal risks to promote transparency in public financial management. It discusses how to mitigate those risks through protecting households and businesses, and developing integrated multipronged financial strategies to fund government expenditure needs. Finally, it calls for promoting integrated strategies to strengthen financial resilience at the country and regional levels, and for mobilising development co-operation to strengthen global climate financial resilience.
In recent years, the main focus of territorial policy has been on sustaining growth, not only to address relative decline, but also to make regions more competitive. Putting this in practice is complicated because different regions have different characteristics (urban, intermediate, industrial, rural, etc.), which imply specific policy and investment needs. This report assesses the strategies pursued by OECD member governments to address the competitiveness of regional economies and the accompanying governance mechanisms on which the implementation of these strategies rests. The report is principally based on findings from the series of reviews undertaken by the OECD Territorial Development Policy Committee at national and regional levels.
This report analyses the skills and capacities governments need to strengthen evidence-informed policy-making (EIPM) and identifies a range of possible interventions that are available to foster greater uptake of evidence. Increasing governments’ capacity for evidence-informed is a critical part of good public governance. However, an effective connection between the supply and the demand for evidence in the policy-making process remains elusive.
This report offers concrete tools and a set of good practices for how the public sector can support senior officials, experts and advisors working at the political/administrative interface. This support entails investing in capability, opportunity and motivation and through behavioral changes. The report identifies a core skillset for EIPM at the individual level, including the capacity for understanding, obtaining, assessing, using, engaging with stakeholders, and applying evidence, which wasdeveloped in collaboration with the European Commission Joint Research Centre.
It also identifies a set of capacities at the organisational level that can be put in place across the machinery of government, throughout the role of interventions, strategies and tools to strengthen these capacities. The report concludes with a set of recommendations to assist governments in building their capacities.
Natural hazard-induced disasters (NHID), such as floods, droughts, severe storms, and animal pests and diseases have significant, widespread and long-lasting impacts on agricultural sectors around the world. With climate change set to amplify many of these impacts, a “business-as-usual” approach to disaster risk management in agriculture cannot continue if we are to meet the challenges of agricultural productivity and sustainability growth, and sustainable development. Drawing from seven case studies – Chile, Italy, Japan, Namibia, New Zealand, Turkey and the United States – this joint OECD-FAO report argues for a new approach to building resilience to NHID in agriculture. It explores the policy measures, governance arrangements, on-farm strategies and other initiatives that countries are using to increase agricultural resilience to NHID, highlighting emerging good practices. It offers concrete recommendations on what more needs to be done to shift from coping with the impacts of disasters, to an ex ante approach that focuses on preventing and mitigating the impacts of disasters, helping the sector be better prepared to respond to disasters, and to adapt and transform in order to be better positioned for future disasters.
Effective systems for allocating, managing and controlling public sector resources are fundamental elements of good governance. The need for continuing fiscal restraint and demands for more and better public services are changing budgetary practices in OECD countries. Budgets are being used increasingly as instruments for promoting managerial improvement and programme effectiveness, in addition to their control and allocation functions. This report analyses budget practices and innovations in twenty-two OECD countries. It describes how the practice of budgeting is contributing to a greater performance orientation in the public sector. It also provides standard summaries of the institutional framework and procedures governing budgeting in each of these countries.
This report provides a comprehensive view of practices and developments in the governance, implementation and performance of budgeting across OECD countries. It looks at recent practices such as the application of medium-term frameworks and the use of data and analytics to highlight the impacts of policies on concerns such as gender equality and the environment. Reflecting countries’ efforts to strengthen the insitutions supporting ficsal policy, the report also discusses trends in Parliamentary oversight, citizen participation, transparency, infrastructure governance and the management of fiscal risks.
The OECD Budget Practices and Procedures Database provides detailed data on how budgets are made in OECD countries from formulation, to approval, execution and reporting based on surveys conducted every four to five years. This publication presents the results of the latest survey, conducted in 2012, and compares this with the previous survey, conducted in 2007. It finds that fiscal sustainability is a key issue for countries today. It also highlights the growing use of medium-term expenditure frameworks, capital budgeting and top-down budgeting, and it examines transparency of budgeting as well as budgeting flexibility.
This brochure is published within the framework of the Scheme for the Application of International Standards for Fruit and Vegetables established by OECD in 1962. It comprises explanatory notes and illustrations to facilitate the uniform interpretation of the Broccoli Standard. This brochure illustrates the standard text and demonstrates the quality parameters on high quality photographs. Thus, it is a valuable tool for the inspection authorities, professional bodies and traders interested in international trade of broccoli.
This brochure is published within the framework of the activities of the Scheme for the Application of International Standards for Fruit and Vegetables set up by the OECD in 1962. It comprises comments and illustrations to facilitate the common interpretation of the standard in force and is therefore a valuable tool for both the Inspection Authorities and professional bodies responsible for the application of standards or interested in the international trade in this product.
The State continues to remain an important shareholder in listed companies worldwide, especially among emerging economies, which rely increasingly on mixed-ownership models. With the benefit of hindsight and more recent examples, this book provides fresh perspectives on the motivation to list state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and the process it entails. Drawing from the experiences of five economies (People's Republic of China, India, New Zealand, Poland and Turkey), the book concludes that broadened ownership generally has a positive impact on the governance and performance of these companies. However, country practices show that the act of listing cannot guarantee that these companies are completely averse to State interests; and deviations from sound corporate governance practices, as enshrined in the OECD Guidelines on Corporate Governance of SOEs, can in some cases, raise concerns with regards to non-State shareholder rights, commercial orientation, board independence, conflicting State objectives, transparency, disclosure and more.
This report examines what ongoing shifts in the objectives of transport policy mean for transport project appraisal and planning processes. Many countries are rethinking their transport policy and planning objectives. Their focus is increasingly shifting from providing mobility to ensuring accessibility; giving greater priority to equitable access for all; recognising the urgency of decarbonising transport; and making urban environments healthier, safer and more liveable. The report summarises the findings of a discussion among 44 experts from 21 countries at an ITF Roundtable held from 29 September to 31 October 2021.
This joint initiative by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the OECD seeks to encourage the expansion of broadband networks and services in the region, supporting a coherent and cross-sectorial approach, to maximise their benefits for economic and social development. Drawing on a wealth of experience from LAC and OECD countries, the Toolkit outlines the main policy objectives in this area and provides guidance for their measurement, an overview of developments in the region, and a compilation of good practices in several areas related to broadband policy making.
This comprehensive volume encompasses a wealth of areas including digital strategies, regulatory frameworks, spectrum management, competition and infrastructure bottlenecks, broadband access, affordability, sector taxation, inclusion, convergence, regional integration, education, skills, business uptake, entrepreneurship, local content, e-health, digital government, consumer policy, and digital security and privacy.
Broadband connects consumers, businesses and governments and are now therefore a vital instrument in ensuring the competitiveness of OECD countries. This report examines broadband developments and policies, and highlights challenges such as connecting users to fibre-based networks or coverage of rural areas. It also outlines emerging issues that may need policy attention as we move to next-generation networks. The findings are also relevant to emerging and developing economies designing broadband strategies.
This publication summarises the main findings of a series of high-level expert workshops, organised with support by the European Commission, to deepen the understanding how OECD countries can move towards a broad‑based form of innovation policy for regions and cities. Weaknesses in technology and knowledge diffusion are weighing on productivity growth and innovation in OECD countries, particularly in firms that are distant from the technological frontier (global or national). This in turn weakens their capacity to meet future challenges and undermines inclusive growth.
This report examines where current tools for innovation policy are too narrowly focused, targeting mainly research and development as well as science and technology-based interventions. It seeks to help empower firms to benefit from global trends and technological change, in order to better adapt to the different capacity and innovation eco‑systems across regions and cities.