Browse by: "S"

This report analyses the legislative and institutional framework in France relating to the transparency and integrity of foreign influence activities. It identifies concrete policy measures adapted to the French context to make foreign influence activities more transparent, and to discourage foreign interference attempts that are made notably through opaque lobbying and influence activities. It also ensures that the risk of foreign interference is better taken into account when public officials move between the public and private sectors.

From steering decision-making in times of complexity to stewarding cross-cutting policies and guiding good practices across the public administration, centres of government (CoGs) play an important role in achieving government ambitions. CoGs have recently found themselves under pressure to help navigate increasingly complex policy challenges in an environment characterised by multiple crises, polarisation and declining trust in public institutions. This compendium gathers and shares practices and experiences of CoGs in undertaking their various roles and functions. It describes the mechanisms CoGs use in roles such as bridging the political-administrative interface, stewarding cross-cutting policies, guiding public administration reform, and engaging with citizens and other stakeholders. Finally, it discusses the lessons learnt and key enablers that emerge from the experiences. This compendium serves CoG leaders and government officials who seek to better understand the role of the centre in contributing to better outcomes for citizens and society.

The behaviours of both top- and middle-level managers matter for promoting open organisational cultures, mitigating integrity risks and fostering ethical behaviour by their staff. This report examines key issues around integrity leadership in Brazil’s federal public administration, based on an extensive survey of senior public officials. Informed and inspired by behavioural insights, it provides concrete recommendations for strengthening integrity leadership in Brazil.

This report examines the innovative capacity of the public sector of Romania, exploring opportunities for the public sector to work in new and novel ways to improve outcomes. It assesses the current innovative capacity and suggests paths forward to enhance capacity. The report provides foundational evidence for the creation of an action plan to enhance the public sector’s capacity to innovate for impact.

Smart cities leverage technologies, in particular digital, to generate a vast amount of real-time data to inform policy- and decision-making for an efficient and effective public service delivery. Their success largely depends on the availability and effective use of data. However, the amount of data generated is growing more rapidly than governments’ capacity to store and process them, and the growing number of stakeholders involved in data production, analysis and storage pushes cities data management capacity to the limit. Despite the wide range of local and national initiatives to enhance smart city data governance, urban data is still a challenge for national and city governments due to: insufficient financial resources; lack of business models for financing and refinancing of data collection; limited access to skilled experts; the lack of full compliance with the national legislation on data sharing and protection; and data and security risks. Facing these challenges is essential to managing and sharing data sensibly if cities are to boost citizens’ well-being and promote sustainable environments.

This report provides an overview of the current sustainability disclosure policies and practices, the responsibilities of company boards and shareholder rights in Asia. The report also presents current trends in corporate sustainability globally and in Asia based on the OECD Corporate Sustainability dataset. Importantly, climate change is one of the most critical sustainability matters currently facing companies in most Asian jurisdictions where companies that account for two-thirds of total market capitalisation are experiencing climate change related financial risks.

The assessment report explores the innovative capacity of the Latvian public sector to understand how innovation can be better supported and leveraged to improve the public sector's effectiveness and impact. It provides an evidence base for the development of a public sector innovation strategy and action plan.

This report assesses Romania’s efforts to strengthen its integrity and anti-corruption system. It looks at the achievements of the 2021-2025 National Anticorruption Strategy (NAS) as well as the challenges that remain, including addressing structural issues such as political engagement, the role and placement of ethics offices and the design and review of integrity plans. The report provides recommendations for mainstreaming central government integrity policies into practical and concrete actions at the sectoral level, with a view to improving implementation of the 2021-2025 NAS as well as future strategies.

State-owned enterprises (SOEs) remain vulnerable to being used as conduits for political finance, patronage, and personal or related-party enrichment. Lingering weaknesses in corporate governance and ownership arrangements can expose SOEs to such exploitation and undermine SOE efforts to uphold integrity. This report highlights these weaknesses and provides state owners with a better understanding of which activities are effective in insulating SOEs from undue influence. It also takes stock of how OECD member and participating countries are implementing relevant provisions of the OECD Guidelines on Anti-Corruption and Integrity in SOEs, serving as the first report on the implementation of the Guidelines since their adoption in 2019.

This report serves to support the development of Latin America’s legal and regulatory frameworks for sustainability disclosure, the responsibilities of company boards and shareholder rights. The report presents the results of two OECD surveys on sustainability practices of listed companies and asset managers in the region. It also draws upon an OECD dataset on the current trends and features of corporate sustainability at the global level.

This report explores ways for Mexico’s supreme audit institution, Auditoría Superior de la Federación (ASF), to strengthen its use of analytics. While the report focuses on the use of data to enhance the detection of integrity risks, it also recognises the implications of better analytics for the ASF’s broader digital transformation strategy. It offers a range of proposals for enhancing ASF’s data governance and embedding analytics into strategic initiatives. It also looks at building ASF’s analytics capacity, including addressing integrity considerations through better co-ordination, digital skills development and nurturing a data-centric culture.

The price regulation conducted by economic regulators is a high-stakes process, with significant and lasting impacts on current and future service quality and the overall performance of the regulated sector. This report tracks the efforts of the economic regulator of the Scottish water sector to make the results of its price-setting process work better for the customers of today and tomorrow, addressing issues such as customer engagement, sustainable asset management and climate change. Based on the results of a multi-year peer review, it analyses the process and outputs of the price setting process. It also sets out recommendations to help parties strengthen the resilience and stability of the regulatory framework while not losing sight of strategic vision and objectives.

Regulatory reforms have long been a focus for Southeast Asian nations, often as a way to improve the business climate and policy frameworks for trade and investment. The recent COVID-19 pandemic has spurred countries around the world to review and update their regulatory policies to respond to the current crisis and prepare for the next one. This publication presents a snapshot of the current state of regulatory reform across the region, with country profiles from all 10 Member States of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) highlighting practices in three priority areas: whole-of-government initiatives, good regulatory practices, and use of digital technologies. It also offers an analysis of common themes identified across the profiles, including trends in regulatory reform, common challenges faced by countries, and future priorities in the region. It was developed in collaboration with the members of the ASEAN-OECD Good Regulatory Practices Network, and key regional partners including the ASEAN Secretariat and the Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA).

States of Fragility 2022 arrives during an ‘age of crises’, where multiple, concurring crises are disproportionately affecting the 60 fragile contexts identified in this year’s report. Chief among these crises are COVID-19, Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and climate change, with the root causes of multidimensional fragility playing a central role in shaping their scale and severity. The report outlines the state of fragility in 2022, reviews current responses to it, and presents options to guide better policies for better lives in fragile contexts. At the halfway point of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, it is more critical than ever for development partners to focus on the furthest behind: the 1.9 billion people in fragile contexts that account for 24% of the world’s population but 73% of the world’s extreme poor.

Dieser Bericht enthält Daten, internationale Praxisbeispiele und politikrelevante Erkenntnisse für die Gestaltung der Wohnungspolitik. Besonders im Fokus stehen dabei drei wichtige Aspekte: Teilhabe, Effizienz und Nachhaltigkeit. In vielen OECD-Ländern ist es zunehmend schwierig geworden, für alle Menschen ausreichend Wohnraum zur Verfügung zu stellen. Grund dafür sind vor allem die steigenden Wohnungspreise, die wiederum eine Folge des unzureichenden Angebots sind, das – gerade in städtischen Räumen mit zahlreichen Arbeitsplätzen – nicht mit der wachsenden Nachfrage Schritt halten konnte. Dies erklärt sich zwar z. T. aus geografischen Gegebenheiten, in vielen Städten beschränken aber auch Flächennutzungs- und Bebauungsvorschriften das Angebot. Zugleich behindern manche mietrechtlichen Bestimmungen die Entwicklung des Mietwohnungsmarkts, was die Mieten steigen lässt. Hinzu kommt, dass die Klimawende für den Wohngebäudesektor eine besondere Herausforderung darstellt, schließlich entfallen auf ihn 17 % der CO₂-Emissionen und 37 % der Feinstaubemissionen weltweit. In fast zwei Dritteln der Länder weltweit fehlt es immer noch an energietechnischen Bauvorschriften. Angesichts der langen Lebensdauer von Wohngebäuden müssen die Klimaanstrengungen hier möglichst frühzeitig greifen. Gestützt auf solide Daten beschreibt dieser Bericht Optionen für konzertierte Maßnahmen, um diese Herausforderungen anzugehen und dabei Komplementäreffekten und Konflikten zwischen verschiedenen Zielen der Wohnungspolitik Rechnung zu tragen. Er ist Teil des „OECD Housing Toolkit“, das auch ein interaktives Online-Dashboard mit Indikatoren und Country-Snapshots enthält.

This report analyses sustainability policies and practices for corporate governance, both in Brazil and globally. It serves to support the development of Brazil’s legal and regulatory framework for sustainability disclosure, the responsibilities of company boards and shareholder rights. The report presents the results of two OECD surveys conducted with the participation of some of the largest public companies and asset managers in the country.

Many lower density regions in the OECD face shrinkage, with projections suggesting that half of Europe will need to manage decline in remote regions by 2050. Half of Estonia’s counties experienced population decline greater than 25% since 1991. Shrinkage leads to problems including lower municipal revenues, ageing, and greater per capita costs of service and infrastructure provision. Estonia is also the most carbon-intensive economy in the OECD, and heavily utilises its forests and land. To tackle these challenges, the report provides analyses in a number of policy areas to respond to demographic change in a smart and sustainable manner. A policy framework that emphasises a spatially oriented, coordinated approach for responding to shrinkage is developed. The report provides policy recommendations to make land use more efficient and spatial planning more coherent. It suggests ways to improve the transfer system and strengthen the municipal revenue base while encouraging inter-municipal cooperation. It also discusses education, the municipalities’ largest spending responsibility, providing recommendations that adapt the school network to shrinkage while ensuring access to high-quality education for all students.

Mainstreaming integrity policies throughout a public administration is a common challenge in many countries. Brazil’s Office of the Comptroller General (CGU) has implemented a series of measures to do so, including establishing the Public Integrity System of the Federal Executive Branch (SIPEF). This report analyses these recent developments and provides recommendations on how to better promote a culture of integrity through the Integrity Management Units with targeted support by the CGU. The report also highlights opportunities to improve the clarity and coherence of policies to promote public integrity and public ethics, manage conflicts of interest, and foster integrity risk management by streamlining these areas under the umbrella of public integrity.

Students in Scotland (United Kingdom) engage in learning through Curriculum for Excellence (CfE), which aims to provide them with a holistic, coherent, and future-oriented approach to learning between the ages of 3 and 18. CfE offers an inspiring and widely supported philosophy of education. Schools design their own curriculum based on a common framework which allows for effective curricular practices. In 2020, Scotland invited the OECD to assess the implementation of CfE in primary and secondary schools to understand how school curricula have been designed and implemented in recent years. This report analyses the progress made with CfE since 2015, building upon several months of observations in Scotland, the existing literature and experiences from other OECD countries. The OECD analysis and recommendations aim to support Scotland as it further enhances CfE to achieve its potential for the present and future of its learners. Just as Scotland’s Curriculum for Excellence was among the pioneers of 21st century learning, its most recent developments hold valuable lessons for other education systems and their own curriculum policies.