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The OECD’s relations with Africa have been strengthened since the launching of NEPAD and the contacts organised in May 2002 between the Ministers of OECD Member countries and their colleagues on the African Union/NEPAD Steering Committee. As a result of this dialogue, the OECD was entrusted with a mandate that calls for it to co operate with AU/NEPAD. The OECD supports AU/NEPAD’s objectives in four domains:
1. The African Peer Review Mechanism;
2. Peer learning and policy dialogue in support of reform;
3. Aid policies and aid effectiveness;
4. The monitoring of development trends and progress.
This brochure provides an overview of the OECD’s activities in each of these areas. In 2006, the OECD established a special unit to support, in close collaboration with AU/NEPAD, the work of the Africa Partnership Forum. It also collaborates with the African Development Bank and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa in the production of a valuable monitoring tool, the African Economic Outlook.
In order to curb rising unemployment and to upgrade low value-added activities, the competitive edge lost in low-cost labour must be earned back through education and innovation. Regional policy stands as a key tool to achieve this shift in a relatively small yet diverse country with moderate economic growth and limited public spending capacity. This report analyses how a paradigm shift in regional policy, building on the knowledge of both public and private stakeholders in specific regions (ranging from dynamic urban areas on the coast to lagging inland areas), could help Portugal fully exploit its potential for sustainable development.
Although Poland has managed to maintain high growth levels since the mid-1990s, with the second-best performance in the OECD in 2006-07, territorial disparities are persistent and rising, especially between large urban areas and rural ones. Like many OECD countries, Poland must seek to achieve an appropriate balance between support for poles of growth and the development of lagging regions, particularly its eastern peripheral regions, which are among the poorest in the European Union. This report explores the various challenges and opportunities for Polish regional development policy, and provides recommendations to best design and implement the policy mix, looking in particular at governance challenges.
Few other countries feature the combination of very low population densities and difficult topography that hinders communication, in addition to a variety of contrasting climates. But the “Nordic welfare model” strives, with a good degree of success, to offer equal living conditions to all citizens by providing proper access to quality public services across the country. This comes, however, at great cost. This publication asks whether such a model can be sustainable in the long run, when population ageing and the reduction of petroleum reserves will reduce the leeway that the rapidly growing economy offers. It examines whether competitiveness and innovation could be further developed, given the high share of resource-based and traditional activities and whether urban policy could be better integrated into regional policy so as to better harness the energy of regional growth engines in different areas of the country, including the northern most parts. Lastly, it looks at whether impending regional reform could facilitate the necessary adaptations by transferring more power to regional councils.
In the short span of just a few decades, Luxembourg has moved from a steel-based economy to one more broadly based on financial services. But being nestled between three other countries, each with their own infrastructure and development issues presents challenges. This review examines the economic trends and disparities within the region, including under-exploited assets. It makes recommendations regarding planning, the urban-rural balance, housing and land policy, transport, and R&D and education.
Istanbul has established itself as the industrial, financial and logistics centre of the country, producing almost one-third of the national output and absorbing the bulk of foreign direct investment. And, on the international scale, Istanbul ranks among the fastest growing OECD metro-regions.
This review finds, however, that Istanbul faces challenges that could hamper its ambition to become a Eurasian hub for finance, logistics, culture and tourism, as well as its development in general. Its economy is changing from one driven by labour-intensive activities to one based on knowledge industries, while traditional and labour-intensive sectors (e.g. textiles and its supply chain) are shifting only gradually and slowly to other complementary industry segments. Constraints on human capital development and the informal sector have hindered productivity levels and increased income disparities. Over-migration is putting a burden on Istanbul’s transport, public infrastructure and housing, and earthquake risk management. The scale and variety of these challenges necessitates improving local public management and implementing a national strategy to reduce regional disparities and to limit migration flows towards the megalopolis.
The Cape Town city-region, which is the second-largest area in South Africa (4 million inhabitants), reflects the national challenge of creating new economic opportunities while correcting past inequities. Since the end of the apartheid system, Cape Town has benefited from macroeconomic stabilisation and has outpaced the national average growth rate. It has both modernised its traditional strengths in port logistics and developed innovative sectors in tourism, agro-food processing, viticulture, financial and business services. However, 22% of the population is unemployed and 38% of residents live below the poverty line. This report identifies the key missing collective goods that could both create externalities for firms and foster a more equitable distribution. It provides a platform for the development of a forward-looking, cross-cutting regional development strategy and proposes new "second generation" governance reforms to consolidate previous achievements and respond to emerging obstacles.
This publication, which is jointly produced by the OECD and Eurostat, includes statistics by detailed type of service on international trade in services for the 30 OECD countries*, the European Union and the euro area as well as analysis, definitions and methodological notes. The data are reported within the framework of the fifth edition of the IMF's Balance of Payments Manual and the Extended Balance of Payments Services Classification (EBOPS).
This OECD publication provides statistics on international trade in services by partner country for 28 OECD countries plus the European Union (EU) , the euro area, and Hong Kong (SAR China) as well as definitions and methodological notes. The data concern trade between residents and non-residents of countries and are reported within the framework of the Manual on Statistics of International Trade in Services. This book includes summary tables of trade patterns listing the main trading partners for each country and by broad service category. Series are shown in US dollars and cover the period 2002-2005.
The OECD Science, Technology and Industry Outlook 2008 reviews key trends in science, technology and innovation in OECD countries and a number of major non-member economies including Brazil, Chile, China, Israel, Russia and South Africa. Using the latest available data and indicators, the book examines topics high on the agenda of science and innovation policy makers, including science and innovation performance; trends in national science, technology and innovation policies; and practices to assess the socio-economic impacts of public research. This volume also provides an individual profile of the science and innovation performance of each country in relation to its national context and current policy challenges.
Rural Scotland represents an important resource for national development and growth, but large unexploited potential remains. Many of Scotland’s strengths are rural in nature, including an abundant land area, rich natural and cultural resources, higher standards of living, and a stable and relatively diversified economy with good employment and entrepreneurship indicators. This comprehensive review of rural policy in Scotland recommends a more integrated approach to rural policy which addresses land and housing related issues, economic diversification in key emerging sectors, service delivery improvements and actions to exploit rural-urban linkages.
Faced with high population density, close proximity of urban areas and urban-rural linkages, rural areas in the Netherlands have witnessed a gradual disappearance of characteristically rural landscapes and a deterioration of biodiversity. Future developments will increase pressures on rural land use, making a policy framework to address these challenges only more pertinent.
This comprehensive review of rural policy in the Netherlands examines the character of rural areas in the Netherlands and how they have evolved. It then examines rural policies and their decentralisation, rural land use planning, and landscape and nature policies. The final chapters discusses how to strengthen rural policies in the Netherlands. The book includes a series of recommendations.
Learning for Jobs is an OECD study of vocational education and training (VET) designed to help countries make their VET systems more responsive to labour market needs.
Sweden has a well-established VET system at upper secondary level, grounded on strong outcomes in basic schooling, with high-status VET tracks and modest rates of dropout. The challenges to the system include relatively high rates of unemployment for young people, an ageing workforce of school-based trainers, and very limited engagement by the social partners.
The OECD review assesses the main challenges faced by the VET system and presents an interconnected package of policy recommendations. For each recommendation, the report describes the challenge, the recommendation itself, supporting arguments, and issues of implementation.
Learning for Jobs is an OECD study of vocational education and training (VET) designed to help countries make their VET systems more responsive to labour market needs.
The Norwegian VET system has many strengths including strong and trustful co-operation between employers, unions and VET authorities and high-status VET tracks in upper secondary education. Many employers are keen to attract apprentices and there is a high level of adult literacy. But there are significant challenges, including an ageing workforce of school-based trainers, weak quality assurance mechanisms, high levels of dropout and concerns that the priority accorded to student choice may make the system unresponsive to labour market needs.
The OECD review assesses the main challenges faced by the VET system and presents an interconnected package of policy recommendations. For each recommendation, the report describes the challenge, the recommendation itself, supporting arguments, and issues of implementation.
Learning for Jobs is an OECD study of vocational education and training (VET) designed to help countries make their VET systems more responsive to labour market needs.
Since 1989, Hungary has made significant efforts to restructure its VET system and it now has many strengths, including a strong national qualifications framework. But there are significant challenges, including weak links between VET and the labour market, early tracking and multiple selection mechanisms in the school system, and the low status of VET.
The OECD review assesses the main challenges faced by the VET system and presents an interconnected package of policy recommendations. For each recommendation, the report describes the challenge, the recommendation itself, supporting arguments, and issues of implementation.
Learning for Jobs is an OECD study of vocational education and training (VET) designed to help countries make their VET systems more responsive to labour market needs.
The Australian VET system has many strengths including strong engagement of employers, a well established national qualification system, extensive VET data and research. The system is flexible and allows for a fair degree of local autonomy and experimentation. But at the same time there are a number of challenges, including a lack of clarity and potentially duplication in the respective roles of Commonwealth, states and territories in planning and delivering VET, a lack of clear and simple rules for entitlement to funding, difficulties in providing a reliable foundation in skills forecasts, some gaps in the data base, somewhat complicated and cumbersome training packages and an ageing teacher and trainer workforce.
The OECD review assesses the main challenges faced by the VET system and presents an interconnected package of policy recommendations. For each recommendation, the report describes the challenge, the recommendation itself, supporting arguments, and issues of implementation.
In many OECD countries, tertiary education systems have experienced rapid growth over the last decade. With tertiary education increasingly seen as a fundamental pillar for economic growth, these systems must now address the pressures of a globalising economy and labour market. Within governance frameworks that encourage institutions, individually and collectively, to fulfil multiple missions, tertiary education systems must aim for the broad objectives of growth, full employment and social cohesion.
In this context, the OECD launched a major review of tertiary education with the participation of 24 nations. The principal objective of the review is to assist countries in understanding how the organisation, management and delivery of tertiary education can help them achieve their economic and social goals. New Zealand is one of 14 countries which opted to host a Country Review, in which a team of external reviewers carried out an in-depth analysis of tertiary education policies. This report includes:
- an overview of New Zealand's tertiary education system;
- an account of trends and developments in tertiary education in New Zealand;
- an analysis of the strengths and challenges in tertiary education in New Zealand; and
- recommendations for future policy development.
This review of tertiary education in New Zealand forms part of the OECD Thematic Review of Tertiary Education, a project conducted between 2004 and 2008.
A comprehensive review of the Dutch tertiary education system, covering governance, resourcing, access and equity, research and innovation, connections with the labour market, quality assurance and enhancement and the international dimension. This review was conducted with a view to helping the Netherlands reach its economic and social goals and includes recommendations.
In many OECD countries, tertiary education systems have experienced rapid growth over the last decade. With tertiary education increasingly seen as a fundamental pillar for economic growth, these systems must now address the pressures of a globalising economy and labour market. Within governance frameworks that encourage institutions, individually and collectively, to fulfil multiple missions, tertiary education systems must aim for the broad objectives of growth, full employment and social cohesion.
In this context, the OECD launched a major review of tertiary education with the participation of 24 nations. The principal objective of the review is to assist countries in understanding how the organisation, management and delivery of tertiary education can help them achieve their economic and social goals. Mexico is one of 14 countries which opted to host a Country Review, in which a team of external reviewers carried out an in-depth analysis of tertiary education policies. This report includes:
- an overview of Mexico's tertiary education system;
- an account of trends and developments in tertiary education in Mexico;
- an analysis of the strengths and challenges in tertiary education in Mexico; and
- recommendations for future policy development.
This review of tertiary education in Mexico forms part of the OECD Thematic Review of Tertiary Education, a project conducted between 2004 and 2008.