Browse by: "2016"

Colombia has made major economic and social advances in recent years. The combination of strong economic growth and policies targeted at the most vulnerable groups improved considerably the living standards of the Colombian population. Today, the country enjoys higher employment and labour force participation rates than the average of OECD countries and unemployment is steadily declining. Nevertheless, despite these positive trends, deep structural problems remain. Labour informality is widespread, the rate of self-employment is high and many employees have non-regular contracts. Income inequality is higher than in any OECD country and redistribution through taxes and benefits is almost negligible. In addition, half a century of internal conflict and violence has displaced a significant part of the population, and many of them are living in extreme poverty. Despite considerable progress, violence continues to be a challenge and also affects trade union members and leaders. The Colombian Government has undertaken important reforms in recent years to address these labour market and social challenges, and the efforts are gradually paying off. However, further progress is needed to enhance the quality of jobs and well-being for all. The main trust of this report is to support the Colombian Government in tackling labour market duality, generate trust between the social partners, develop inclusive and active social policies, and get the most out of international migration.

Backed by strong economic growth Chile has made substantial progress in improving the quality of life of its citizens. Nonetheless, gaps in living standards vis-à-vis other OECD countries remain large and there are strong differences in well-being across the Chilean population. The government has introduced important steps to strengthen redistribution and improve equality of opportunities, including ambitious tax, labour and education reforms. But there is room to further improve the design of many policies to promote inclusiveness. Moreover, to sustain progress in well-being, Chile also needs faster productivity growth which stagnated until recently. This requires policies that foster competition, improve human capital accumulation and increase the diversification of the economy that still relies heavily on commodity exports.

Climate change is expected to increase the frequency and magnitude of extreme weather events, notably of droughts and floods to which the agriculture sector is particularly exposed. While agricultural productivity growth and policy development have allowed to better cope with these risks and reduce overall impacts on the sector and commodity markets, there is substantial room to improve policy responses and co-ordinate across policy domains, including with respect to water rights and allocation, weather and hydrological information, innovation and education, and insurance and compensation schemes. Indeed, drought and flood risks are likely to become a major policy concern as increasing population will increase the demand for food, feed, fibre, and energy, not to mention the competition for water resources, and urbanisation will increase the demand for flood protection and mitigation, raising the issue of the allocation of flood risks across sectors and areas.

This 2016 OECD Economic Survey of Norway examines recent economic developments, policies and prospects. The special chapters cover: Higher education; Agriculture and rural policy.

Gracias a un sostenido crecimiento económico, Chile ha logrado avances significativos en la mejora de la calidad de vida de sus ciudadanos. No obstante, sigue habiendo grandes brechas de nivel de vida en comparación con otros países de la OCDE, junto con importantes diferencias de bienestar entre los distintos segmentos de población del país. El gobierno ha introducido medidas importantes para reforzar la redistribución y mejorar la igualdad de oportunidades, entre las que se incluyen ambiciosas reformas fiscales, laborales y educativas. Sin embargo, hay espacio para mejorar aún más el diseño de políticas que promuevan la inclusión. Asimismo, para sostener los avances conseguidos en materia de bienestar, Chile necesita un mayor crecimiento de la productividad, que ha estado estancada hasta hace poco. Para ello, es necesario adoptar políticas que favorezcan la competencia, mejoren la acumulación de capital humano e incrementen la diversificación de la economía, la cual sigue dependiendo en gran medida de la exportación de materias primas.

This report on the Public Procurement Service of Korea examines the effectiveness of its system, identifying good practices that can inspire reform efforts in other countries. In particular, the report highlights the efficiency gains achieved by implementation of a comprehensive e-procurement system and the savings generated by an integrated support for government-wide contracts. It also looks at how Korea is adopting a strategic and multi-dimensional approach to using public procurement in the support of small businesses and other social objectives. In identifying possible improvements to Korea’s system, recommendations include a more centralised look at workforce training and development issues and additional features for Korea’s e-procurement system, as well as a review of existing certification and preference programs.
 

Kazakhstan’s economy and society have undergone deep transformations since the country declared independence in 1991. Kazakhstan’s growth performance since 2000 has been impressive, averaging almost 8% per annum in real terms and leading to job creation and progress in the well-being of its citizens. Extractive industries play an important role in the dynamism of the economy, but sources of growth beyond natural resource sectors remain underexploited. In the social arena, dimensions of well-being beyond incomes and jobs have not kept pace with economic growth.
Kazakhstan has set itself the goal of becoming one of the 30 most developed countries in the world by 2050. To sustain rapid, inclusive and sustainable growth and social progress, Kazakhstan will need to overcome a number of significant challenges. Natural-resource dependency, the concentration of economic clout and a fragile and underdeveloped financial sector limit diversification and economic dynamism. Widespread corruption still affects multiple state functions, undermines the business environment, meritocracy and entrepreneurial spirit. More generally, the state has limited capacity to fulfil some of its functions, which affects the delivery of public services like health and education, as well as the protection of the environment and the generation of skills.

Cette brochure est publiée dans le cadre du Régime pour l'Application de normes internationales pour les fruits et légumes établi par l'OCDE en 1962. Elle fournit des notes explicatives et des illustrations en vue de faciliter l'interprétation commune des normes en vigueur pour les cerises. Cette nouvelle brochure illustre le texte des normes sur les cerises. Elle décrit les paramètres qualitatifs par des photographies de haute qualité. Elle constitue par conséquent un outil précieux pour les autorités de contrôle, les organes professionnels et les négociants qui manifestent leur intérêt pour le commerce international des cerises.

Ten years after the introduction of publically-funded universal health insurance, the Mexican health system finds itself at a critical juncture. Unquestionably, some measures of health and health system performance have improved: those previously uninsured now use health services more often, whilst numbers reporting impoverishing health expenditure having fallen from 3.3% to 0.8%. Other indicators, however, remain worrying. Rates of survival after heart attack or stroke are markedly worse than in other OECD countries. Prevention is a particular concern: with 32% of the adult population obese, Mexico ranks as the second most obese nation in the OECD and almost 1 in 6 adults are diabetic. Other key metrics imply deep-rooted inefficiencies in the system: administrative costs, at 8.9% of total health spending, are the highest in the OECD and have not reduced over the past decade. Likewise, out-of-pocket spending has stuck at nearly 50% of total health spending - the highest in the OECD - and implies that individuals feel the need to visit private clinic despite having health insurance. In short, Mexico’s massive public investment in its health system has failed to translate into better health and health system performance to the extent wished and a programme of continued, extensive reform is needed. This report sets out the OECD’s recommendations on the steps Mexico should take to achieve this.

Les pays en développement ont de plus en plus recours à des politiques et des plans nationaux stratégiques, dont l'efficacité dépendra de l'évaluation correcte de la vulnérabilité de ce pays au changement climatique. Ce rapport se fonde sur les pratiques de suivi et d'évaluation qui émergent des pays développés et en développement, et identifie quatre outils que les pays peuvent utiliser dans leurs propres cadres d'évaluation: 1) l'évaluation des risques et vulnérabilités liés au changement climatique, 2) des indicateurs pour suivre les progrès réalisés quant aux priorités d'adaptation, 3) l’évaluation de projets ou programmes, permettant de recenser les approches d'adaptation les plus efficaces, et 4) des audits nationaux et suivi des dépenses liées au climat.
La combinaison appropriée d'outils pour suivre et évaluer l'adaptation nationale au changement climatique sera dans une large mesure déterminée par la disponibilité des données, la capacité de suivi et d'évaluation, et la capacité donnée d’un pays à réunir les producteurs et les utilisateurs d'informations climatiques pertinentes. Le rapport examine également comment les apporteurs de coopération pour le développement peuvent soutenir les pays partenaires dans leurs efforts pour suivre et évaluer l'adaptation.

Radioactive waste management is embedded in broader societal issues such as the environment, risk management, energy, health policy and sustainability. In all these fields, there is an increasing demand for public involvement and engagement. This 2015 update of Stakeholder Involvement Techniques: Short Guide and Annotated Bibliography, assists practitioners and non-specialists by outlining the steps and issues associated with stakeholder involvement in decision making and by facilitating access to useful online resources (handbooks, toolboxes and case studies). The updated guide has been considerably enriched with experiences since 2004 and includes extensive references to the literature. It is published alongside the release of an online annotated bibliography that will be updated regularly.