Browse by: "A"
Index
Title Index
Year Index
In a first-ever joint report by the UN, the OECD, the World Bank and the IMF, the world’s four principal development institutions assess progress towards poverty reduction goals and agree on a common vision for the way forward. The goals for international development address that most compelling of human desires-a world free of poverty and free of the misery that poverty breeds. This report focuses on seven goals, which, if achieved in the next 15 years, will improve the lives of millions of people. In words and pictures, with numbers and charts, it describes progress towards the goals, what has been achieved and the effort required to reach them.
This report provides new evidence on social mobility in the context of increased inequalities of income and opportunities in OECD and selected emerging economies. It covers the aspects of both social mobility between parents and children and of personal income mobility over the life course, and their drivers. The report shows that social mobility from parents to offspring is low across the different dimensions of earnings, education, occupation and health, and that the same prevails for personal income mobility over the life course. There is in particular a lack of mobility at the bottom and at the top of the social ladder – with “sticky floors” preventing upward mobility for many and “sticky ceilings” associated with opportunity hoarding at the top. The lack of social mobility has economic, societal and political consequences. This report shows that there is space for policies to make societies more mobile and protect households from adverse income shocks. It discusses the options and measures that policy makers can consider how to improve social mobility across and within generations.
A new vision of the purpose of social policy is needed. Scaremongers present decision-makers as facing an overwhelming number of complex problems with more and more limited budgets. Society is indeed undergoing profound upheaval. Ageing populations are increasing pressure on the workforce. Changes in the labour market have hit low-skilled workers hard; the term "social exclusion" has entered the political lexicon, and policies can no longer be based on "traditional" family life. But social policy should not be presented as "papering over the cracks" in society caused by economic and demographic change. As knowledge plays an increasing role in generating wealth, empowering individuals to develop their potential is a central and essential part of economic policy. Indeed, economic and social policies are more intertwined than ever.
This book paints a complete and accessible picture of the current situation and pinpoints how policies can be reformed. Social policy should aim to promote employment and healthy living, rather than just coping with joblessness and ill-health. Investing in children and families helps ensure that all can contribute fully to society. Innovations and experiments in new social policies to better equip individuals and families with the support they need in responding to change abound in OECD countries. Ministers from OECD countries have committed themselves to the ambitious task of creating just such a caring world.
The development of plastic products does not systematically take sustainability, particularly from a chemicals perspective, into account. This report seeks to enable the creation of inherently sustainable plastic products by integrating sustainable chemistry thinking in the design process. By applying a chemicals lens during the plastic material selection process, designers and engineers can make informed decisions to incorporate sustainable plastic during the conceptualisation phase of their products.
The report provides an integrated approach to sustainable plastic selection from a chemicals perspective, and identifies a set of generalisable sustainable design goals, life cycle considerations and trade-offs. At a more granular level, considerations are identified for each life-cycle phase, which are brought together as a whole-product assessment and optimisation taking the full life cycle into account. The report also considers trade-offs that will need to be carefully balanced in the design phase and reflection on implications of design choices. Ultimately, the report helps to equip designers and engineers with knowledge of relevant chemical considerations when selecting sustainable plastic, supporting better outcomes and a more transparent process.
The report provides an overview of development finance with biodiversity-related objectives from a wide range of sources: bilateral Development Assistance Committee (DAC) members, non-DAC and South-South and triangular co-operation providers, multilateral institutions, private finance mobilised by development finance, and private philanthropy. The estimates are based on OECD statistical data. The report identifies the main gaps between biodiversity-related priorities and investments, and provides detailed estimates on financial allocations to the fight against illegal wildlife trade; nature-based solutions; indigenous peoples and local communities; the mainstreaming of biodiversity; gender equality; and climate change. These elements can help DAC members and other stakeholders to step up and target their biodiversity-related investments, notably to implement the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework under the Convention on Biological Diversity.
Over the past ten years economic growth in Asia has contributed to a reduction of poverty as well as fertility rates, and greater prosperity has contributed to gains in life expectancy. However, at present many workers still work in informal employment, frequently for long hours at little pay and without social protection coverage. A growing demand for social support, extending the coverage of social protection benefits and improving the job quality of workers will be among Asia’s major challenges in future. This report considers these challenges, providing policy examples from countries to illustrate good practice, including Bangladesh, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Pakistan, Singapore and Viet Nam.
This DAC Reference Document draws on donor responses to international terrorism. It is intended to guide the international community and governments in their efforts to address linkages between terrorism and development, and suggests how donor programmes might be designed or adjusted.
What approach to treating certain ageing-related diseases works best and at what cost? That is, what combination of health care system characteristics, prevention, detection, technology and treatment, is the most cost-effective? The OECD Ageing-Related Diseases study investigated how health systems treat three diseases: ischemic heart disease, stroke and breast cancer. This book includes papers discussing the results of the OECD study with essays by leading experts, and uses a disease-based approach to comparing health-systems.
Addressing teacher education in all its complexity is fundamental to ensuring that all students reach their potential in today’s increasingly diverse classrooms and rapidly changing environment. This report provides insight into key features of selected teacher preparation systems by analysing the information collected in the OECD Initial Teacher Preparation (ITP) study. The ITP study investigated the policy environments of the first phase of continuous teacher learning in seven countries to identify challenges, strengths and innovations: Australia, Japan, Korea, the Netherlands, Norway, the United States and Wales (United Kingdom).
A Flying Start: Improving Initial Teacher Preparation Systems describes the challenges of designing and sustaining initial teacher preparation systems and proposes strategies for different levels of the system (policy, teacher education institutions and schools), based on both international evidence and practices identified in the study. The report can therefore act as a resource for policy makers, teacher educators, educational leaders, teachers and the research community.
A lack of finance for water resources management is a primary concern for most OECD countries. This is exacerbated in the current fiscal environment of tight budgets and strong fiscal consolidation, as public funding provides the lion’s share of financial resources for water management.
The report provides a framework for policy discussions around financing water resources management that are taking place at local, basin, national, or transboundary levels. The report goes beyond the traditional focus on financing water supply and sanitation to examine the full range of water management tasks that governments have to fulfill; when appropriate, a distinction is made on distinctive water issues.
The report identifies four principles (Polluter Pays, Beneficiary Pays, Equity, Policy Coherence), which have to be combined. In addition, it identifies five empirical issues, which have to be addressed on a case-by-case basis. Finally, it sketches a staged approach that governments might wish to consider, to assess the financial status of their water policies and to design robust financial strategies for water management. Case studies provide illustrations of selected instruments and how they can be used to finance water resources management.
Drawing on the OECD’s expertise in comparing country experiences and identifying best practices, the Better Policies series tailors the OECD’s policy advice to the specific and timely priorities of member and partner countries, focusing on how governments can make reform happen.
As ageing societies are pushing a growing number of frail old people into needing care, delivering quality long-term care services – care that is safe, effective, and responsive to needs – has become a priority for governments. Yet much still remains to be done to enhance evidence-based measurement and improvement of quality of long-term care services across EU and OECD countries. This book offers evidence and examples of useful experiences to help policy makers, providers and experts measure and improve the quality of long-term care services.
La Muette, home of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, has a long and rich history. This book tells its story from its inception as a royal hunting lodge to its present-day use as the headquarters of the OECD. The reader may find it amusing, and sometimes instructive, to meet some of the colourful characters who once roamed its galleries. The place itself has played a significant role in French history; the Château and its extensive park were once the theatre of many a strong sentiment and the locale is impregnated with memories, comic, tragic, venal, lofty, solemn and ludic. These traces of the past are the real substance of La Muette’s charm; they are also the voices that echo through this text and linger in the halls of the Château.
Approaches to radiological protection have been evolving, particularly over the past several years. This has been driven by the emergence of modern concepts of and approaches to risk governance, and by calls from within the radiological protection community for the simplification and clarification of the existing system of protection, as based on the Recommendations of the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP).
The NEA Committee on Radiation Protection and Public Health (CRPPH) has been very active in developing its own suggestions as to how the system of radiological protection should evolve to better meet the needs of policy makers, regulators and practitioners. One of those suggestions is that a generic concept of “regulatory authorisation” of certain levels and types of exposure to radiation should replace the current and somewhat complicated concepts of exclusion, exemption and clearance. It has also been suggested that by characterising emerging sources and exposures in a screening process leading into the authorisation process, regulatory authorities could develop a better feeling for the type and scale of stakeholder involvement that would be necessary to reach a widely accepted approach to radiological protection.
In order to verify that these suggestions would make the system of radiological protection more understandable, easy to apply, and acceptable, independent consultants have “road tested” the CRPPH concepts of authorisation and characterisation. Their findings, which show that applying these concepts would represent significant improvement, are reproduced herein. Specific approaches for the application of the new CRPPH ideas are also illustrated in this report.
Mental ill-health affects millions of people, and drives economic costs of more than 4% of GDP. A good mental health system helps people stay in good mental health, and connects those in need to appropriate support to manage their mental health condition or even fully recover from it. However, mental health care has long been neglected and under-funded, and unmet need for care is still high. The long-lasting COVID-19 crisis and the toll it is taking on mental health has made mental health systems more important than ever. This timely report provides an in-depth analysis of how well countries are delivering the policies and services that matter for mental health system performance. The report highlights recent reforms countries have taken to strengthen mental health performance, including by increasing access to mental health care, ensuring that service users take the lead in planning and even delivering services, and prioritising integration and mental health promotion. The report also identifies promising approaches countries should pursue to better meet their populations’ mental health needs. This report sets up a framework for understanding mental health performance through internationally comparable indicators, an approach set to grow stronger still in the coming years as more data become available.
What is driving recent growth in OECD countries? Why is it that their levels of GDP per capita are no longer converging? Why is it that some countries, operating at the technological frontier, where advances are difficult, appear to be widening the gap? Whether or not it is appropriate to speak of a "new economy", innovation and technology play crucial roles.
This study shows that success requires not some silver bullet, but a range of complementary factors that support the innovation-intensive growth exemplified by new information and communication technologies such as the Internet and Internet applications like electronic commerce. Supportive policies include those favourable to innovative start-ups and to financial systems able to support them, those that facilitate the reorganisation required to reap the full benefits of ICT, regulatory and institutional frameworks that facilitate links between science and industry, and efforts to train and obtain the necessary human capital, as well as public support for basic scientific research. While this study is far from exhaustive, it represents an important step in understanding the conditions under which economies flourish.
Three billion people live in rural areas in developing countries. Conditions for them are worse than for their urban counterparts when measured by almost any development indicator, from extreme poverty, to child mortality and access to electricity and sanitation. And the gulf is widening, contributing to large-scale migration to urban areas. This situation exists despite half a century of rural development theories and approaches, and despite the global momentum built around the Millennium Development Goals between 2000 and 2015. Without greater progress on rural development, it is unlikely that the new Sustainable Development Goals will be met. This book calls for a new paradigm for rural development that is equipped to meet the challenges and harness the opportunities of the 21st century – including climate change, demographic shifts, international competition and fast-moving technological change.
In light of the elimination of quantitative import restrictions under the WTO at the end of 2004, A New World Map in Textiles and Clothing identifies the most recent market developments throughout the entire supply chain, from natural fibres to retail distribution. It outlines the policy and regulatory challenges in the fields of trade, labour adjustment, technology and innovation, and suggests a policy framework to help deal effectively with such changes as well as to capitalise on the trade opportunities that are being created through improved market access.
“A highly useful contribution to the debate on policy challenges in textiles and clothing, the book stands out from the others in recognising the influence that trade policy measures continue to exert on investment and production decisions, and in providing a synthesis of key market developments and policy issues.”
Munir Ahmad, Executive Director, International Textiles and Clothing Bureau
“Policy makers in all textile and clothing trading countries would be wise to heed the sound advice proffered in this comprehensive and thorough, fact-based assessment."
Laura Baughman, President, Trade Partnership Worldwide, LLC.
“A must read for anybody interested in the future of textiles and clothing around the world. This study provides a comprehensive analysis of the expected adjustment process in usefully underscoring the role of technology and innovation and the growing importance of the business facilitation agenda.”
Carlos A. Primo Braga, Senior Adviser, International Trade Department, The World Bank
Policy makers and privatisation experts agree that it is critical to “get privatisation right.” A well-planned and executed transaction, backed by sound rationales, institutional and regulatory arrangements, good governance, and integrity can have consequences on future divestment activity by enhancing investor confidence while gaining the support of stakeholders and the public. Drawing on the internationally agreed OECD Guidelines on Corporate Governance of State-Owned Enterprises and decades’ worth of national experience across both OECD and Partner economies, this Policy Maker’s Guide to Privatisation provides practical advice to newcomers on key stages of the process from inception to post-privatisation. With global privatisation activity trending upwards and expected to rise, this Guide can support policy makers in their decision making process in the years to come.
The Lifestyle for Environment (LiFE) initiative, launched in 2022 by India, aims to promote environmentally responsible consumption choices and behaviour in India and worldwide. High level principles on implementing LiFE were adopted by the G20, under India’s presidency.
Following the first IEA report on LiFE, which examined the impact on energy consumption, costs and emissions of measures like those proposed by the LiFE initiative, this report provides a concrete policy toolkit for advancing LiFE implementation at the level of countries, subnational jurisdictions and individuals, and through international fora such as the G20.
Enabling people to adopt sustainable consumption choices and habits requires dedicated and sustained policy interventions. This report examines the mechanisms of policies in driving change. Of the almost 1.7 billion tonnes (Gt) of CO2 savings that would be achieved in G20 countries by an implementation of LiFE-aligned measures, around 60% could be directly influenced or mandated by policies.
It showcases that the LiFE movement is gaining traction, tracking around 120 LiFE-aligned policies already implemented across G20 countries and building policy toolkit based on experiences and best practices.
Finally, it examines the multiple co-benefits of LiFE measures on equity, air pollution, employment and economic development, health, water, food and land-use.