Browse by: "2014"

Women in Business 2014 summarises the progress made by the OECD-MENA Women Business Forum (WBF) since the publication of its first Women in Business report in 2012. In 2012, five groups of actions had been identified as priorities to be carried out by governments, international stakeholders, financial and business support organisations, as well as statistical agencies. In two years, the WBF has developed inputs for three of these areas of priority actions. The WBF’s contributions are growing along with its increased recognition as a hub which spurs concrete improvements in the business climate for women entrepreneurs in the MENA region.

Today, women’s entrepreneurship is all the more important as governments in the region are facing the colossal challenge of rebooting job creation to improve the well-being of a growing workforce and confidence in the economy. The economic prospects of MENA economies that are going through a political transition have improved but unemployment has increased, inflation is rising and public finances have deteriorated. In these countries, political uncertainties add to long term structural difficulties. In the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, the challenges still lie in the diversification of their economies.

Southeast Asia’s booming economy offers tremendous growth potential, but also large and interlinked economic, social and environmental challenges. The region’s current growth model is based in large part on natural resource exploitation, exacerbating these challenges. This report provides evidence that, with the right policies and institutions, Southeast Asia can pursue green growth and thus sustain the natural capital and environmental services, including a stable climate, on which prosperity depends.

Carried out in consultation with officials and researchers from across the region, Towards Green Growth in Southeast Asia provides a framework for regional leaders to design their own solutions to move their countries towards green growth. While recognising the pressures that Southeast Asian economies face to increase growth, fight poverty and enhance well-being, the report acknowledges the links between all these dimensions and underscores the window of opportunity that the region has now to sustain its wealth of natural resources, lock-in resource-efficient and resilient infrastructure, attract investment, and create employment in the increasingly dynamic and competitive sectors of green technology and renewable energy.

Some key policy recommendations are that these challenges can be met by scaling up existing attempts to strengthen governance and reform countries’ economic structure; mainstreaming green growth into national development plans and government processes; accounting for the essential ecosystem services provided by natural capital, ending open-access natural resource exploitation; and guiding the sustainable growth of cities to ensure well-being and prosperity.

The Mutual Review of Development Effectiveness is an exercise in mutual accountability undertaken jointly by ECA and the OECD following a request of NEPAD Heads of State and Government in 2003. Its purpose is to assess what has been done by Africa and its development partners to deliver commitments in relation to development in Africa, what results have been achieved, and what the key future priorities are. It complements the self-assessments produced by each side to the partnership, and is in line with the shift in emphasis from aid effectiveness to development effectiveness, and the emphasis on mutual accountability at Busan. NEPAD Heads of State and Government and AU/ECA Finance Ministers have reaffirmed the value of this exercise.

The 2014 report follows the same structure as previous reports, divided into 4 main ‘clusters’ of issues covering: sustainable economic growth, investing in people, good governance and financing for development.

This report examines the effects of recent economic growth in Viet Nam on social cohesion. It finds that recent rapid economic growth in Viet Nam has not resulted in an increase in overall inequality, but the level of inequality was already high. Growth was not particularly inclusive, benefiting most the middle class and the richest households, and favouring less households in the bottom 20th percentile. Income mobility was also high, and while a majority of households experienced upward income mobility, downward absolute income mobility affected one in five households. Economic growth was not particularly job rich with employment growth lagging behind economic expansion.

In particular, important challenges were identified in the area of education and skills policies relating to fast-changing labour market needs. Minimum wage policies had a small but positive effect on employment, but concerns were highlighted over partial coverage and weak compliance. Tax policy and specifically personal income tax had only a small impact on reducing inequality, but transfers from central to local governments produced an equalising effect, albeit with mixed results in terms of satisfaction with public services. Finally, social protection systems have been extended, but important coverage gaps remain among the poor and ethnic minority groups, and informality remains a key challenge for universal extension.

Deepening economic integration via regional co-operation has emerged as a key priority in the reform strategies of most developing economies over the past decade. This is evidenced by the explosive growth in bilateral and regional trading agreements in which they now participate. Regional aid for trade can help developing countries spur regional economic integration, enhance competitiveness, and plug into regional production networks.

Based on a rich set of experiences regarding regional aid for trade projects and programmes, the study finds that regional aid for trade offers great potential as a catalyst for growth, development and poverty reduction. The study recommends greater emphasis on regional aid for trade as a means of improving regional economic integration and development prospects. While regional aid for trade faces many practical implementation challenges, experience has shown that associated problems are not insurmountable but do require thorough planning, careful project formulation, and prioritization on the part of policy makers.

This Peer Review assesses the performance of Japanese development co-operation. Peer reviews of OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) members are based on the two objectives of accountability and learning. The reviews are the only international process to examine regularly key bilateral development co-operation systems and offer constructive commentary for their reform.

Uruguay has made remarkable progress over the past decade. Stable macroeconomic policies and a favourable external environment have permitted brisk growth and the financing of social policies. Substantial improvements in several dimensions of human well-being have occurred during this period, alongside considerable reductions in external risks. The conditions ahead, however, may present challenges to maintaining performance. Overcoming these challenges will require finding the appropriate balance between long run objectives and macroeconomic and fiscal stability.

One of the main obstacles to economic growth is the insufficient and inadequate provision of human capital and skills. A number of challenges remain for education, which, together with fiscal policy, are key means of reducing inequalities and sustaining economic growth. In addition, Uruguay needs to address labour shortages to avoid constraints on future growth, especially as exports become more skills-intensive. It is important to orient social policies and expenditures towards the most vulnerable groups.

In 2011 the international development community committed to make development co-operation more effective to deliver better results for the world’s poor. At the mid-point between commitments endorsed in the High-Level Forum in Busan, Korea in 2011 and the 2015 target date of the Millennium Development Goals,  this report takes stock of how far we have come and where urgent challenges lie.

This report - a first snapshot of the state-of-play since Busan - reveals both successes and shortfalls. It draws on the ten indicators of the Global Partnership monitoring framework. Despite global economic turbulence, changing political landscapes and domestic budgetary pressure, commitment to effective development co-operation principles remains strong. Longstanding efforts to change the way that development co-operation is delivered are paying off. Past achievements on important aid effectiveness commitments that date back to 2005 have been sustained. Nevertheless, much more needs to be done to translate political commitments into concrete action. This report highlights where targeted efforts are needed to make further progress and to reach existing targets for more effective development co-operation by 2015.

Gender equality and the environment are treated as cross-cutting issues in all DAC peer reviews in recognition of their importance in development co-operation. This report highlights some of the common themes and important lessons on mainstreaming gender equality and the environment based on DAC members’ practices as documented in peer reviews, a number of donor evaluations as well as wider work across the OECD.