Browse by: "2016"

This report describes a paradigm shift in road safety policy, being led by a handful of countries, according to the principles of a Safe System. A Safe System is based on the premise that road crashes are both predictable and preventable, and that it is possible to move towards zero road deaths and serious injuries. This, however, requires a fundamental rethink of the governance and implementation of road safety policy.
To stem the road death epidemic, the United Nations have set the target of halving traffic fatalities by 2020. Every year, 1.25 million people are killed in road crashes and up to 50 million are seriously injured. Road crashes kill more people than malaria or tuberculosis and are among the ten leading causes of death. Their economic cost is estimated at 2-5% of GDP in many countries. Written by a group of international road safety experts, this report provides leaders in government, administrations, business and academia with emerging best practices and the starting point to chart their own journeys towards a Safe System.
 

Young men and women in the MENA region are facing the highest youth unemployment levels in the world and express lower levels of trust in government than their parents. Since young people 15-29 years old exceed 30% of the working-age population in most MENA countries, governments urgently need to develop and implement strategies focused on fully engaging youth in the economy and society. This report is the first of its kind to apply a “youth lens” to public governance arrangements. It provides recommendations for adjusting legal frameworks, institutions and policies to give young people a greater voice in shaping better policy outcomes.

Urban, demographic and climate trends are increasingly exposing cities to risks of having too little, too much and too polluted water. Facing these challenges requires robust public policies and sound governance frameworks to co-ordinate across multiple scales, authorities, and policy domains. Building on a survey of 48 cities in OECD countries and emerging economies, the report analyses key factors affecting urban water governance, discusses trends in allocating roles and responsibilities across levels of government, and assesses multi-level governance gaps in urban water management. It provides a framework for mitigating territorial and institutional fragmentation and raising the profile of water in the broader sustainable development agenda, focusing in particular on the contribution of metropolitan governance, rural-urban partnerships and stakeholder engagement.

Good risk communication is crucial for raising awareness among citizens and business about the risks their countries face. However, many countries have seen their risk communication tools fail in the past, leading to persistently low levels of risk awareness, especially in the absence of recent disasters. This OECD report surveys current trends in risk communication policies and practices across OECD and partner countries. It seeks to understand why risk communication tools have failed and what OECD countries can do to improve the effectiveness of their risk communication policies. Based on an OECD-wide survey, the report evaluates the degree to which countries have used  risk communication tools to not only increase risk awareness, but to inform stakeholders about potential preparedness and prevention measures they can take to boost their resilience to future risks.

Counterfeit and pirated products come from many economies, with China appearing as the single largest producing market. These illegal products are frequently found in a range of industries, from luxury items (e.g. fashion apparel or deluxe watches), via intermediary products (such as machines, spare parts or chemicals) to consumer goods that have an impact on personal health and safety (such as pharmaceuticals, food and drink, medical equipment, or toys). This report assess the quantitative value, scope and trends of this illegal trade.

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.
 

A set of clear standards of conduct for public officials can provide a critical tool for governments to promote openness, transparency and accountability in the public sector and eventually restore citizens’ trust in government. With a view to strengthening the ethics framework, the Palestinian Authority has undertaken significant progress to implement a Code of Conduct and Ethics for its civil service. This report analyses the underlining factors of an effective Code of Conduct in the overall framework of public governance reform to build open and transparent institutions. The report traces the evolution of the code from the first draft to the adopted document and discusses the final version against OECD recommendations and international good practices. The report provides actionable policy recommendations to operationalise the code towards a stronger governance framework for public sector integrity in the Palestinian Authority. The report points to the code’s strategic role alongside other measures to upgrade the ethics framework and sets an agenda to drive effective implementation in line with international principles of ethics and open government in the Palestinian Authority.

Achieving inclusive growth relates closely to how governments work and how policies are designed, implemented, delivered and evaluated. This publication presents an overview of country initiatives concerning inclusive growth in 39 OECD member and partner countries. It was prepared in the context of the OECD Public Governance Ministerial Meetings held in Helsinki, Finland, on 28 October 2015. The publication focuses on four core issues: engaging with citizens and businesses for more inclusive policies and services; innovative policy design for inclusive growth; improving the delivery of services for and with citizens; and, strengthening accountability through better performance management and evaluation.

Public governance can make a broad-based contribution to sound, sustainable and inclusive growth. Aligning public governance tools and processes with the broader objectives of policy making for inclusive growth can help governments deal with the complexities that go hand-in-hand with reconciling growth and inclusiveness. These complexities include setting out a vision, ensuring that policies complement each other and that different parts of government work together towards common goals, and engaging stakeholders to improve effectiveness, delivery and inclusion. After describing the OECD approach to inclusive growth, the report discusses which public governance principles, tools and arrangements can be used, and when, to enable a whole-of-government shift towards inclusive growth.

This report maps the activities of ten leading Supreme Audit Institutions (SAIs) in Brazil, Canada, Chile, France, Korea, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, South Africa and the United States. In particular, it looks at how these SAIs assess key stages of the policy cycle as well as resulting policies and programmes. SAIs have untapped potential to go beyond their traditional oversight role and contribute evidence for more informed policy-making. The report provides examples and case studies of SAIs’ activities that consider and support the integration of international good practices into policy and programme formulation, implementation and evaluation. It provides guidance for SAIs seeking to engage in oversight, insight and foresight, taking into account the SAI’s internal strategy as well as policy challenges and actors in the external environment.

An estimated 22% of the world’s largest firms are now effectively under state control, this is the highest percentage in decades. These firms are likely to remain a prominent feature of the global marketplace in the near future. The upsurge of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) as global competitors has given rise to concerns related to a level playing field.  Some business competitors and observers claim that preferential treatment granted by governments to SOEs in return for public policy obligations carried out at home can give SOEs a competitive edge in their foreign expansion. The OECD has taken a multidisciplinary approach, looking at the issue from the competition, investment, corporate governance and trade policy perspectives.  The report aims to sort fact from fiction, and develop a stronger understanding, based on empirical evidence, on how to address growing policy concerns with regard to SOE internationalisation. The report concludes that although there is no clear evidence of systematic abusive behaviour by SOE investors, frictions need to be addressed, in view of keeping the global economy open to trade and investment.

This report examines Israel’s performance in stimulating SMEs and entrepreneurship and makes recommendations for government policy. A dual economy has gradually emerged in Israel, in which high rates of successful technology-based entrepreneurship contrast with low average productivity and growth in traditional SMEs. Israel has excellent framework conditions and programmes for technology-based start-ups and SMEs in areas such as R&D, high-level skills generation and venture capital finance. These strengths need to be maintained. At the same time, more needs to be done to spread success to all types of SMEs and all groups of the Israeli population. This report recommends a range of new and expanded interventions for example in access to credit, broad innovation, workforce skills development, management support and entrepreneurship education. It recommends underpinning these actions with a national SME and entrepreneurship policy strategy and new arrangements for inter-ministerial co-ordination.

Taking risks is a fundamental driving force in business and entrepreneurship. To reap the full rewards of risk-taking, however, firms need to have in place effective risk management practices. This publication provides a stocktaking of ways in which SOEs and those exercising the state’s ownership role address the issue of risk management from the perspective of corporate governance (“risk governance”), as recommended in the OECD Guidelines on Corporate Governance of State-Owned Enterprises. The report looks at this issue from three perspectives: by taking stock, first, of national legal and regulatory SOE risk management frameworks, and then by taking stock of risk-management practices at the level of the SOE and then at the level of the state.

Regulation is one of the key levers of government intervention. When properly designed, it can help achieve environmental and social objectives, and contribute to economic growth. The OECD Review of Regulatory Policy of Peru assesses the policies, institutions, and tools employed by the Peruvian government to design, implement and enforce high-quality regulations. These include administrative simplification, evaluation of regulations, public consultation, and the governance of independent regulators, amongst others. The review provides policy recommendations based on best international practices and peer assessment to strengthen the government’s capacity to manage regulatory policy.

One of Chile’s biggest strengths is its very sound macroeconomic framework that reinforces its economic resilience. This is partly based on a prudent regulatory and supervisory framework governing the financial system. Furthermore, the government’s Agenda for Productivity, Innovation and Growth, co-ordinated by the Ministry of Economy with the participation of other ministries and state services, constitutes a good opportunity to use regulatory policy as a driver to reform the policymaking framework of Chile. For example, Chile has already made substantive progress in making regulations more accessible and communicating administrative requirements. However, while in Chile national regulations provide the general framework for administrative procedures and an efficient state administration, the lack of a comprehensive regulatory reform programme has reduced the possibility of achieving even better economic outcomes and unleashing resources to boost productivity. The regulatory policymaking framework lacks some key features seen in other OECD countries (e.g. stakeholder engagement, regulatory impact assessment, oversight body) that would make sure that regulations are designed in the best way. Good practices in rule-making procedures are also rather limited. This review presents the way forward for improving the government’s capacity to ensure high-quality regulation in Chile.

This innovative book combines results from research conducted in Colombia about how communications services consumers make consumption choices with OECD expertise in regulatory policy, behavioural economics, and data analytics, in order to help improve the consumer protection regime in Colombia. It focuses on the types of incentives that should be provided to change both provider and user behaviour, and considers where appropriate regulatory interventions may be needed to ensure that these incentives are realised. This work supports the Communications Regulator of Colombia in redesigning its consumer protection regime. This effort has refocused the regulatory framework from “protecting rights” towards making the market function best; this involves encouraging the providers to improve the quality of their services and rates offered in the market and to foster a better understanding of what is being offered and how. The book also makes specific recommendations on possible follow-up experiments to test some of the possible solutions to help communications services consumers better understand the information provided by service operators.