Browse by: "2013"

This is an updated edition which includes new supplements on Tin, Tantalum and Tungsten and on Gold.

Trade and investment in natural mineral resources hold great potential for generating income, growth and prosperity, sustaining livelihoods and fostering local development. However, a large share of these resources is located in conflict-affected and high-risk areas. In these areas, exploitation of natural mineral resources is significant and may contribute, directly or indirectly, to armed conflict, gross human rights violations and hinder economic and social development. The OECD Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Supply Chains of Minerals from Conflict-Affected and High-Risk Areas provides step-by-step management recommendations endorsed by governments for global responsible supply chains of minerals in order for companies to respect human rights and avoid contributing to conflict through their mineral or metal purchasing decisions and practices. The Due Diligence Guidance may be used by any company potentially sourcing minerals or metals from conflict-affected and high-risk areas, and is intended to cultivate transparent, conflict-free supply chains and sustainable corporate engagement in the minerals sector.

This report provides a comparative overview of common standards and key features of specialised anti-corruption institutions and comprehensive descriptions of 19 anti-corruption institutions operating in different parts of the world, presented in a comparable framework. This new edition of an 2008 report reflects the evolving understanding of international standards and the practice and the most recent experiences of anti-corruption institutions. The report discusses three "models" of anti-corruption institutions: multi-functional anti-corruption agencies, institutions fighting corruption through law enforcement and prevention institutions.  

Encouraged by international conventions and success of some specialised anti-corruption institutions in earlier times, such as the Hong Kong’s anti-corruption commission, many countries around the world, including those in Eastern Europe, have created new specialised institutions to prevent and combat corruption over the past decade. Establishing such bodies was often seen as the only way to reduce widespread corruption, as existing institutions were considered too weak for the task, or were considered to be part of the corruption-problem. The report highlights that while many of these new anti-corruption agencies have shown good results, they cannot fight corruption alone. Other public institutions, including various specialised integrity and control bodies, and internal units in various public institutions should play a role in preventing and detecting corruption in different sectors of public administration.

Korea is confronting a serious challenges. It has to improve income equality in the context of a severe demographic transition. Such a transition, from one of the youngest populations in the OECD at present to the second oldest by 2050, may boost the need for public spending and slow economic growth. In this context and as the pace of population ageing is accelerating, it is important to act quickly in a wide range of areas:
-Policies to sustain Korea’s growth potential in the face of falling labour inputs;
-Measures that improve both growth and equality;
-Carefully-targeted increases in social spending to reduce inequality and poverty;
-Financing higher social spending, with priority given to a reform of tax and social security that minimises the negative impact on output growth.

Against the background of these broad challenges, which are discussed in a specific, setting-the-ground, Chapter, the report suggests policy options, based on the practices and reforms of other countries, in the following four areas: I) Income Distribution and Poverty; II) Tackling the Duality of the Labour Market; III) Early Childcare; and IV) Moving beyond Hospitals to better Care in the Community.

The OECD Environmental Performance Review Programme provides independent assessments of countries’ progress in achieving their domestic and international environmental policy commitments, together with policy relevant recommendations. They are conducted to promote peer learning, to enhance countries’ accountability to each other and to the public, and to improve governments’ environmental performance, individually and collectively. The Reviews are supported by a broad range of economic and environmental data. Each cycle of the Environmental Performance Reviews covers all OECD member countries and selected partner countries. The most recent reviews include: Mexico (2013), Germany (2012) and Slovenia (2012).

This report is the third OECD review of Italy’s environmental performance. It evaluates progress towards sustainable development and green growth, with a focus on policies that promote more effective and efficient water management and provide better incentives to tackle climate change.

l programma degli esami ambientali dell’OCSE ha l’obiettivo di valutare in maniera indipendente i progressi conseguiti dai singoli Paesi a fronte degli impegni ambientali assunti a livello nazionale e internazionale, e di formulare raccomandazioni rilevanti per il miglioramento delle politiche ambientali. Gli esami mirano a incoraggiare il processo di apprendimento tra pari, a promuovere una maggiore accountability dei governi di fronte agli altri Paesi e all’opinione pubblica, nonché ad aiutare i Paesi a migliorare individualmente e collettivamente i risultati ottenuti nella gestione dell'ambiente. Gli esami si basano su un ampio spettro di dati economici e ambientali. Ogni ciclo del programma di esami ambientali copre tutti i Paesi membri dell’OCSE e alcuni Paesi partner. Di recente sono stati pubblicati i rapporti su Messico (2013), Germania (2012) e Slovenia (2012).

Questo rapporto, il terzo che l’OCSE dedica all’esame delle performance ambientali dell’Italia, valuta i progressi compiuti verso il raggiungimento degli obiettivi in materia di sviluppo sostenibile e crescita verde. Un’attenzione particolare è dedicata alle politiche intese a promuovere una gestione delle risorse idriche più efficace ed efficiente e a dare maggiore impulso alla lotta al cambiamento climatico.

Qu’est-ce que l’OCDE a à dire sur la situation actuelle de l’éducation ? Quels sont les principaux messages de l’OCDE concernant l’éducation et l’accueil des jeunes enfants, les politiques relatives aux enseignants et l’enseignement supérieur ? Qu’en est-il des performances des élèves, des dépenses d’éducation et de l’équité dans l’éducation ? Les travaux de l’OCDE sur ces thèmes importants de l’éducation et d’autres ont été compilés sous la forme d’une ressource unique et accessible.

Comptant huit chapitres, ce rapport analyse l’éducation et l’accueil de la petite enfance, l’enseignement scolaire, la transition au-delà de la formation initiale, l’enseignement supérieur, la formation des adultes, les résultats et le rendement, l’équité et enfin, l’innovation. Les chapitres s’organisent sur la base des principales constatations et des orientations pour l’action publique établies grâce aux études récentes menées par l’OCDE sur l’éducation. Chaque information est résumée sous la forme d’un message principal concis et accessible, suivi d’une brève explication et de la référence à la source de l’OCDE.

Ce rapport constituera une ressource précieuse pour toutes les personnes intéressées par une vue d’ensemble de l’éducation dans une perspective internationale, ainsi que pour tous ceux qui souhaitent en savoir plus sur les travaux de l’OCDE dans ce domaine fondamental.

Tax revenues provide governments with funds to invest in development, relieve poverty, deliver public services and build the physical and social infrastructure for long-term growth. Moreover, there are mutually beneficial links between taxation and good governance. Tax and Development: Aid Modalities for Strengthening Tax Systems highlights how taxation can have a positive effect on the quality of governance and a government’s relationship with citizens and, in turn, how good governance can have a positive effect on compliance and revenue mobilisation.

How can international assistance providers, including OECD members, international and regional organisations, support the development of tax systems in developing countries? Tax and Development: Aid Modalities for Strengthening Tax Systems provides practical guidance for policy makers and practitioners based on the results of an extensive literature review, a survey of aid agency officials and six country case studies (Ghana, Guatemala, Liberia, Mali, Mozambique, and Tanzania). It examines the aid instruments that donors use to assist developing countries including general and sector budget support, basket financing, stand-alone bilateral aid and funding South-South organisations. The strengths and weaknesses of each modality for supporting tax systems are identified, and some 50 recommendations to support the development of effective, efficient and growth-oriented tax systems in developing countries are provided.

Tackling mental ill-health of the working-age population is becoming a key issue for labour market and social policies in OECD countries. OECD governments increasingly recognise that policy has a major role to play in keeping people with mental ill-health in employment or bringing those outside of the labour market back to it, and in preventing mental illness. This report on Sweden is the second in a series of reports looking at how the broader education, health, social and labour market policy challenges identified in Sick on the Job? Myths and Realities about Mental Health and Work (OECD, 2012) are being tackled in a number of OECD countries. It concludes that Swedish policy makers recognise the need to take steps to tackle mental ill-health and its labour market implications, but that a more comprehensive reform effort and a long-term commitment to it is needed in order to prevent problems from arising in the first place and respond more effectively when they do occur.

La fourniture de services d’approvisionnement en eau, d’assainissement et de traitement des eaux usées a des répercussions très favorables sur la santé publique, l’économie et l’environnement. Dans les pays en développement, le rapport avantages/coûts peut aller jusqu’à 7 pour 1 pour les services d’eau et d’assainissement de base. Les actions en matière de traitement des eaux usées, par exemple, peuvent s’accompagner d’effets très positifs en termes de santé publique et d’environnement, ainsi que pour certains secteurs économiques comme la pêche, le tourisme et le marché de l’immobilier.

Les retombées favorables des services d’eau sont rarement considérées dans leur pleine mesure pour différentes raisons, notamment la difficulté de quantifier d’importants avantages non économiques tels que les valeurs de non-usage, la dignité, le statut social, la propreté et le bien-être général. Par ailleurs, les informations concernant les avantages liés aux services d’eau sont souvent enfouies dans des documents techniques et échappent aux principaux décideurs des ministères.

Ce rapport réunit et résume les informations existantes sur les avantages de l’eau et de l’assainissement.

By 2015, half of the world’s people living on less than USD 1.25 a day will be in fragile states. While poverty has decreased globally, progress on Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 1 is slower in fragile states than in other developing countries. Fragile states are also off-track to meet the rest of the MDGs by 2015.

Fragile situations became a central concern of the international development and security agenda in the 1990s. Since then, powerful forces have been influencing the causes and manifestations of fragility, including the combination of democratic aspirations, new technologies, demographic shifts and climate change. The last five years have been especially tumultuous, encompassing the 2008 food, fuel and financial crisis and the Arab Spring, which began in 2011.

These events have influenced the international debate on the nature, relevance and implications of fragility. While situations of fragility clearly have common elements – including poverty, inequality and vulnerability – how can we make sense of the great diversity in their national income, endowment in natural resources or historical trajectories? How do we move towards a more substantive concept of fragility that goes beyond a primary focus on the quality of government policies and institutions to include a broader picture of the economy and society? This publication takes stock of i) the evolution of fragility as a concept, ii) analyses of financial flows to and within fragile states between 2000 and 2010, and iii) trends and issues that are likely to shape fragility in the years to come.