Browse by: "S"
Index
Title Index
Year Index
Public sector reform requires internationally comparable statistics. This report explores several important aspects of currently available statistical sources on public sector employment. It examines who is responsible for collection, data collection methods, and available statistical publications. It also assesses the degree of similarity of national statistical concepts of the government sector, of comparability of national statistics across countries, and of adherence to international standards.
This study offers is a limited "snapshot" of basic pre-tax pay for senior civil servants. It does not cover other factors relating to total lifetime rewards, such as the rewards likely to be available on leaving public service employment; lifetime earnings in a career public service structure, and alternative employment opportunities in the public and private sector for senior public servants. For cross-national comparison, pay levels have been expressed in purchasing power parities in US dollar equivalents.
This publication continues efforts by the OECD’s Development Assistance Committee (DAC) to develop tools and instruments for conflict prevention and for improving security and stability in the long term. The guidance underlines the positive role that the integrated reform of a country’s security system can play in stabilising fragile, conflict-prone or conflict affected states. This includes not only the armed forces, police and gendarmerie, intelligence services and justice and penal systems, but also the civil authorities responsible for oversight and democratic control.
Part I contains a policy statement and paper endorsed in 2004 by development ministers and agency heads of the DAC and by the OECD council. It sets out the key concepts of security system reform (SSR) and suggests ways to support it in developing countries, taking into account regional dynamics. In Part II, a lead consultant examines the origins of the SSR agenda and the challenges that donors face in promoting it in partner countries. The Annex to the publication contains work by an expert working in each of the four regions: Africa, Asia-Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean, and South-east Europe, the Baltics and the CIS. It sets out their assessment of the changes that are taking place in the way that developing countries in these regions think about security and provides an account and analysis of individual reform activities currently being undertaken.Unsustainable subsidies are pervasive in the industry, agriculture, transport and energy sectors of most OECD countries. They are expensive for governments and can have harmful environmental and social effects. Eliminating these supports requires comprehensive approaches which are supported by top political leadership, transparent in their potential effects on all parties, consistent over the long-term, and often accompanied by transition supports. This volume uses sectoral case studies to illustrate that achieving change in structural policies such as subsidies depends largely on good governance practices.
International anti-corruption treaties, including the UN Convention against Corruption, require member states to establish two types of anti-corruption institutions – one to prevent corruption and the other to combat corruption through law enforcement. The treaties also establish standards for such anti-corruption institutions – they should be independent, specialised and have sufficient resources to meet their challenging tasks. This book analyses the main functions of prevention and combating corruption and discusses practical ways to ensure the independence, specialisation and resources of anti-corruption bodies.
The book further studies the different forms of specialisation which exist in different countries and describes 14 anti-corruption agencies from around the world, including preventive, law-enforcement and combined or multipurpose agencies. Analysis of key factors which can lead anti-corruption bodies to success or failure, together with a rich body of country specific information, practical facts and contact details will make this book a useful tool for those policy-makers who seek to strengthen anti-corruption institutions in their countries.
The Southeast Asian region has experienced remarkable economic dynamism in the past few decades. An interesting feature of recent developments in the region, is that in spite of its diversity, several initiatives have been launched towards integration.
The peer review mechanism has been a tried and tested instrument for OECD member states to work together successfully over the past decades. This tool could benefit the Southeast Asian region as it helps identify good practices, establish standards and principles and ultimately improve the performance of participating economies. This publication presents the proceedings of a conference in which the possible application of peer reviews to address regional and domestic challenges in Southeast Asia were discussed.
The conference, organized by the ADB/OECD Anti-Corruption Initiative for Asia and the Pacific in late November 2008, explored (i) possible drivers and incentives for anti-corruption reform; (ii) the role of criminal law standards and corporate compliance mechanisms; (iii) the risks and countermeasures against private-to-private corruption; (iv) preventing and managing conflicts of interest; (v) international initiatives to counter bribery; (vi) how development partners can become involved in the fight against bribery and corruption. This book presents the proceedings of the conference.
The service sector, in aggregate, now dominates total employment and value-added in OECD countries, accounting for more than 70% of these two measures, and continues to increase in importance. While services may play a slightly smaller role in rural regions than in urban areas, they are the dominant component of the rural economy. It is clear that a vibrant service sector is both vital for a prosperous local economy and crucial for meeting the needs of rural citizens.
This book provides an overview of the underlying problems in delivering services to rural regions. It contains a conceptual structure for thinking about rural service delivery problems and a strategy for thinking about the role of government in service delivery, as well as a discussion of the role that innovation and public management tools like co-design and co-delivery can play in designing better service delivery approaches. Also included are examples of different, successful policy strategies drawn from OECD countries.
Also available
The New Rural Paradigm: Policies and Governance (2006)
OECD Rural Policy Reviews: Germany (2007)
OECD Rural Policy Reviews: Mexico (2007)
OECD Rural Policy Reviews: Finland (2008)
OECD Rural Policy Reviews: The Netherlands (2008)
OECD Rural Policy Reviews: China (2009)
OECD Rural Policy Reviews: Italy (2009)
OECD Rural Policy Reviews: Spain (2009)
OECD Rural Policy Reviews: Québec, Canada (forthcoming)
This publication reviews measures taken to support investment policy and governance reforms in Iraq. It finds that Iraqi parliamentary elections, held without major security incidents in March 2010, are the latest in a series of indicators suggesting that the country may be achieving greater stability in governance and security - a key prerequisite for foreign and domestic investment, growth and job creation. Furthermore, the business environment is gradually improving as a result of an ongoing institutional capacity building process supported by the international community.
The MENA-OECD Initiative on Governance and Investment for Development is part of this effort, playing a key role in building the capacity of the National Investment Commission and its one-stop shop for investment licensing. The Initiative has helped raise awareness on corruption and bribery issues, provided training for the negotiators of international agreements, and advised on implementing regulations for the landmark Investment Law of 2006. This publication examines these issues, and MENA-OECD involvement in advancing them, for the period 2007-2008.
This report reflects long-term, in-depth discussion and debate by participants in the Latin American Roundtable on Corporate Governance. It seeks to encourage the emergence of active and informed owners as an important lever for influencing better corporate governance, adapted to the Latin American context.
This book presents a comprehensive review of governance and public management in Slovenia.It identifies how reforms can better reinforce each other in support of overall government objectives and examines reform strategies that have worked in other countries to provide a series of recommendations.
This book features the results of a stocktaking exercise of business integrity and anti-bribery policies for 20 countries in Africa. It is the result of a collaborative initative between OECD and the African Development Bank. Countries covered include Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.
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.
Security and justice are core responsibilities of the State, and the foundations of good governance and healthy democracies. Moreover, they are precursors to economic growth and competitiveness, with potential impacts on businesses' transaction costs and the quality of human capital. Generating and utillising evidence on security and justice therefore is key to strengthening justice sector performance and reducing crime. This can pose a challenge to governments however as crime is a distrinctly territorial phenomenon, particularly in Mexico. This study offers a framework to treat security and justice as a central concern of public policy. It examines the availability and quality of sub-national level data in Mexico, and discusses how to transform this data into evidence that can feed into each stage of the policy cycle. It presents available indicators at sub-national level in Mexico and compares the extent to which crime and justice data follow regional paterns with respect to a sample of other OECD Member Countries.
Knowledge-based capital (KBC) results from business investment in non-physical assets such as R&D, data, software, patents, new business models, organizational processes, firm-specific skills and designs. This publication brings together the results of a two-year programme of work at the OECD on New Sources of Growth and the role of Knowledge-based Capital (NSG-KBC). This work shows that business investment in KBC is a key to future productivity growth and living standards. In many countries, business investment in KBC has increased faster than - and in some countries significantly exceeds - investment in physical capital (like machinery). To promote long-term growth and the jobs of tomorrow, governments must ensure that framework conditions, institutions and policies facilitate business investment in KBC. Emerging economies are also making concerted efforts to help their businesses accumulate KBC. This book sets out policy analyses and recommendations in the fields of: innovation; taxation; entrepreneurship and business development; corporate reporting; big data; competition and measurement.
State-owned enterprises (SOEs) are an important feature of the economic landscape in the Middle East and North Africa region and yet, their contribution to the local economies has not been subject to a systematic investigation. SOEs in the region are generally perceived as inefficient and subject to sub-optimal governance arrangements but at the same time, and somewhat paradoxically, they are often charged developmental mandates that typically go beyond their stated commercial objectives. This phenomenon owes to the historically prominent role of the state in the economic development in the region and the recently renewed interest in using select SOEs as anchors of national industrialisation and competitiveness strategies.
This publication contributes to the limited existing literature on the role of SOEs in the economic development by examining the contribution of MENA SOEs to industrial development, diversification, poverty elimination and the provision of goods and services to the public more generally. Second, it provides an overview of the diverse mandates and roles of MENA SOEs and assesses the costs of these obligations with a view to isolate ownership and governance practices that have contributed to the success of some companies and poor performance of others. Recommendations to policymakers as well as management and boards of SOEs are made based on these observations at the end of the publication.