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Shifting Wealth is the first edition of Perspectives on Global Development, a new publication from the OECD Development Centre.

Shifting Wealth examines the changing dynamics of the global economy over the last 20 years, and in particular the impact of the economic rise of large developing countries, such as China and India, on the poor. It details new patterns in assets and flows within the global economy and highlights the strengthening of “South-South” links – the increasing interactions between developing countries through trade, aid and foreign direct investment.

What do these changes imply for development and development policy? The report explores potential policy responses at both national and international levels. Nationally, developing countries' need to re-position their development strategies to capitalise on the increasing potential of South-South co-operation and to fully benefit from new macroeconomic drivers. Internationally, the global governance architecture needs to adjust to better reflect current economic weights.

“OECD Perspectives on Global Development is a very welcome new publication that contributes to investigating the permanent structural breaks with the past now occurring in the global economy. It documents the need to address new challenges in development finance and social development.” -- Justin Yifu Lin, Senior Vice President and Chief Economist, The World Bank

"Perspectives on Global Development is a landmark report about the biggest economic story of our era. It describes and analyses the new economic world we live in, where countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America provide the dynamism for future growth. It shows how this shift in the economic centre of gravity is cause for optimism, rather than consternation."  --Alan Hirsch, Deputy Director General: Policy, South African Presidency

"Based on the irrefutable fact that some developing economies have grown very rapidly in recent decades, some of this study’s analytical and policy conclusions will undoubtedly contribute to important debates as the world strives to draw appropriate lessons from the varied experiences of the last two decades, and especially the last two years." --Jomo Kwame Sundaram, UN Assistant Secretary General for Economic Development

"In this volume, the OECD Development Centre lays bare a new era of economic development. But in doing so, it poses the big questions of sustainability – namely, what development means for the social, political, and economic fabric of an increasingly globalised world." --Stephen S. Roach, Chairman‪, Morgan Stanley Asia

“Shifting wealth” – a process that started in the 1990s and took off in the 2000s – has led to a completely new geography of growth driven by the economic rise of large developing countries, in particular China and India. The resulting re-configuration of the global economy will shape the political, economic and social agendas of international development as those of the converging and poor countries for the years to come.

This report analyses the impact of “Shifting wealth” on social cohesion, largely focusing on high-growth converging countries. A “cohesive” society works towards the well-being of all its members, creates a sense of belonging and fights against the marginalization within and between different groups of societies. The question this report asks is how does the structural transformation in converging economies affect their “social fabric”, their sense of belonging or put generally their ability to peacefully manage collective action problems.

Recent events in well performing countries in the Arab world but also beyond such as in Thailand, China and India seem to suggest that economic growth, rising fiscal resources and improvements in education are not sufficient  to create cohesion; governments need to address social deficits and actively promote social cohesion if long-term development is to be sustainable.   

First launched in 2010, Perspectives on Global Development (PGD) is OECD’s annual publication on emerging development issues. The PGD takes the new geography of economic growth, poverty and power as a point of departure. Each year, the report identifies, analyses and provides evidence and policy solutions to the most pressing global development challenges in the new multipolar world. It provides an overview of global trends and structural transformations in the world economy and informs policy makers in developing countries on the implications in the formulation and implementation of national policies. Each year, the report focuses on a different topic covering diverse socio-economic facets of development from trade, development finance, infrastructure, production development and innovation to gender, employment, migration, fiscal and social policies.

During the past decade, the global economic centre of gravity has shifted eastwards and southwards, creating new opportunities for economic co-operation, trade and investment but also new challenges. This “shifting wealth” is a game changer for economic policy and is at the centre of the first three editions of the Perspectives on Global Development, which document the phenomenon (PGD 2010) and analyse its implications for social cohesion (PGD 2012) and productive growth strategies (PGD 2013).

In 2008, the weight of developing and emerging economies in the global economy tipped over the 50% mark for the first time. Since then, Perspectives on Global Development has been tracking the shift in global wealth and its impact on developing countries. How much longer can the dividends of shifting wealth benefit development, and what does this mean for development strategies?

This new edition first investigates what China’s transformation has meant for global development perspectives, and how shifting wealth has affected countries beyond economic terms, exploring well-being across the developing world. It also analyses and draws lessons from development paradigms over the past 70 years, showing that developing nations in the 21st century have to invent their own, original pathways to greater well-being and sustainability. The time has come to rethink international co-operation and foster more effective exchanges of social and human capital.

This book looks at the impact of OECD-country policies on East Asia in a variety of areas: trade, investment, agriculture, finance and aid, as well as macroeconomic policies and regional co-operation. Further, and most importantly, the book examines the interaction of these OECD-country policies and their coherence with each other.

This book is part of an attempt by the OECD to establish guidelines for defining and adopting coherent policies conducive to development outside the OECD area, thus contributing to the world-wide search for answers to questions of poverty reduction and growth with equity. It is also part of an attempt to provide policy makers in both developing and OECD countries with the tools to formulate policies in harmony with each other to foster the integration of poorer countries into the international economy.

"This is an indispensable source of insight for all scholars seeking fresh and authoritative information and analysis of the still unfinished job to improve the coherence of OECD countries' policies toward East Asia after the crisis."

--Professor Rolf J. Langhammer
Vice-President of the Kiel Institute of World Economics, Germany

"This is a must read volume for anyone who would like to learn seriously about relevant policy coherence for development and actual practices for East Asia's outward-oriented growth within an increasingly integrated world."

--Professor Suthiphand Chirathivat
Chairman, Economics Research Center and Center for International Economics, Chulalongkorn University, Thailand

Policy Coherence for Development: Promoting Institutional Good Practice sets out the latest thinking on institutional approaches to help governments achieve policy coherence in support of development. It provides a synthesis of lessons learned from peer reviews of OECD countries, specific case studies, and recent workshops involving senior government officials. It offers practical ways forward for mustering political will, building analytical capacity, improving co-ordination mechanisms, and taking action in specific priority areas. It suggests an analytical framework to help assess and compare how well countries join-up policies across government to meet agreed development goals. Achieving policy coherence is one of the most difficult political and economic challenges of development, and this book highlights examples of good institutional practice among OECD countries in addressing this issue.

With the adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, all nations committed to a set of universal, integrated and transformational goals and targets, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Translating the new vision of the SDGs into action is a major challenge. This year, Ministers will gather at the High-Level Political Forum of the United Nations to take stock of progress, with a particular focus on eradicating poverty and enhancing prosperity in a changing world.

Against this backdrop, Policy Coherence for Sustainable Development 2017 seeks to inform policy making by showing how a policy coherence lens can support implementation efforts, drawing on OECD evidence and analysis. It identifies challenges and good institutional practices for enhancing policy coherence in SDG implementation, drawing on the experience of the early implementers of the SDGs.

The report introduces eight building blocks for policy coherence for sustainable development as well as a conceptual “coherence monitor” to track progress on policy coherence. It also includes an analysis of the nine OECD countries’ voluntary national reviews which were presented at the 2016 High-Level Political Forum of the United Nations (Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Mexico, Norway, Korea, Switzerland and Turkey).
 

The 2030 Agenda is a universal, collective responsibility that covers all levels: global, national and territorial. To address global policy challenges in a complex and interconnected world, policy coherence will be key. A more coherent multilateral system will be essential to reconcile and deliver the economic, social and environmental transformations needed to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The 2018 edition of Policy Coherence for Sustainable Development shows how integrated and coherent policies, supported by strong institutional mechanisms, can contribute to the “Transformation towards sustainable and resilient societies” – the theme of the 2018 United Nations High-level Political Forum (HLPF). The report applies the institutional, analytical and monitoring elements of the “policy coherence for sustainable development” framework to identify challenges and opportunities facing governments as they move to implement the SDGs, both at the national level and collectively at the global level.

The report suggests eight building blocks for enhancing policy coherence for sustainable development (SDG Target 17.14), and identifies emerging good institutional practices drawing on recent OECD work, country surveys and voluntary national reviews. It includes 19 country profiles and sets out options for tracking progress on policy coherence for sustainable development at the national level.

SDG target 17.14 calls on all countries to “enhance policy coherence for sustainable development” as a key means of implementation. According to countries’ Voluntary National Reviews, this presents a major challenge. It requires meaningful collaboration and co-ordinated action across both policy sectors and different levels of government. It also requires balancing short-term priorities with long-term sustainability objectives and taking into account the impact of domestic policies on global well-being outcomes.

The 2019 edition of Policy Coherence for Sustainable Development looks at countries’ efforts to meet this challenge and identifies opportunities for accelerating progress. The third in a series, it shows how integrated and coherent policies, supported by strong institutional and governance mechanisms, can contribute to empowering people and ensuring inclusiveness and equality.

Competition for foreign direct investment has been neglected as a subject of research. Yet many claim that such competition is having deleterious effects, such as lowering governments’ standards of protection of the environment and workers’ rights.
This book looks at the evidence and assesses the impact of competition among governments to attract FDI. It finds little evidence directly to support fears of a "global race to the bottom" in labour and environmental standards. The widespread use of investment incentives, however, in OECD and developing countries alike, tends to be bad for government transparency and accountability. This is highly detrimental both to economic policy making and to the construction of democratic institutions in developing countries.

The author proposes a shift away from incentive-based policies for attracting FDI towards a rules-based approach on both a national and international level.

OECD's Policy Framework for Investment is designed to encourage policy makers to ask appropriate questions about their economy, their institutions and their policy settings in order to identify their priorities, to develop an effective set of policies and to evaluate progress. This Review of Good Practices in OECD and non-OECD economies is published as a companion volume to the Framework and provides analytical background material on each of the ten chapters of the Framework.

The objective of the Policy Framework for Investment is to mobilise private investment that supports economic growth and sustainable development.  It thus aims to contribute to the prosperity of countries and their citizens as well as to support the fight against poverty.

Drawing on good practices from OECD and non-OECD countries, the Framework proposes a set of questions for governments to consider in ten policy fields identified in the 2002 UN Monterrey Consensus on Financing for Development as critically important for the quality of a country’s environment for investment, including by small enterprises and foreign investors. These are:

• Investment policy
• Investment promotion and facilitation
• Trade
• Competition
• Tax
• Corporate governance
• Policies for promoting responsible business conduct
• Human resource development
• Infrastructure and financial sector development
•  Public governance

Its core purpose is to encourage policy makers to ask appropriate questions about their economy, their institutions and their policy settings in order to identify priorities, to develop an effective set of policies and to evaluate progress.

The Framework was developed by a task force of officials from about 60 governments, with participation by the World Bank and other international organisations, as well as business, trade union and civil society organisations.