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This report addresses multilevel governance challenges in water policy implementation and identifies good practices for coordinating water policy across ministries, between levels of government, and across local actors at subnational level. Based on a methodological framework, it assesses the main “coordination gaps” in terms of policymaking, financing, information, accountability, objectives and capacity building, and provides a platform of existing governance mechanisms to bridge them. Based on an extensive survey on water governance the report provides a comprehensive institutional mapping of roles and responsibilities in water policy-making at national/subnational level in 17 OECD countries. It concludes on preliminary multilevel governance guidelines for integrated water policy.
Public administration has entered a new age. In the 1980s, “less” government was the prevailing idea; in the 1990s and early 21st century, “New Public Management” was the dominant theme. Today, public administration is moving in new directions. Reforms are focusing on the quality of services for citizens and businesses and on the efficiency of administration (the “back office” of government). The OECD is studying these new trends in a multi-annual, cross-country project called “Value for Money in Government”.
This publication focuses on the Netherlands and provides an overview of previous Dutch reforms and recommendations for further reforms in view of the need to get better value for money from government.
This report analyses the partnerships that governments form with citizens, users and CSOs in order to innovate and deliver improved public service outcomes. These approaches can offer creative policy responses that enable governments to provide better public services in times of fiscal constraints. Although co production and citizens’ involvement are still in the developmental stage in many countries, early efforts appear to lead to cost reductions, better service quality and improved user satisfaction. This report identifies the risks of citizen and user involvement in service delivery, and the barriers that must be overcome to make these models work. Top-level political commitment, adequate public sector capacity, and aligned financial incentives are the key factors for success.
“Co-production is attracting increasing interest among scholars and practitioners alike. This report, which offers a comprehensive survey of existing practice across OECD countries, is a valuable contribution to our understanding of the state of play internationally.”
-Professor John Alford, Australia and New Zealand School of Government, (author, Engaging Public Sector Clients: From Service-Delivery to Co-Production, Palgrave Macmillan, 2009)
This report presents the results of the second thematic peer review based on the OECD Principles of Corporate Governance. The report is focused on the role of institutional investors in promoting good corporate governance practices including the incentives they face to promote such outcomes. It covers 26 different jurisdictions, including in-depth reviews of Australia, Chile and Germany.
This special report assesses the impact of the crisis on the insurance sector and reviews policy responses within OECD countries. It is based to a large extent on a quantitative and qualitative questionnaire that was circulated to OECD countries in 2009. The report shows that generallythe insurance sector demonstrated resilience to the crisis, though with some variation across the OECD, and concludes with a number of policy conclusions.
This report explores likely future changes in family and household structures in OECD countries; identifies what appear to be the main forces shaping the family landscape between now and 2030; discusses the longer-term challenges for policy arising from those expected changes; and on the basis of the three subsequent thematic chapters, suggests policy options for managing the challenges on a sustainable basis.
Criminalisation is a key component of all international anti-corruption instruments. For example, the OECD Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions (Anti-Bribery Convention) and the UN Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) both require States Parties to enact specific criminal offences on bribery. The Asian Development Bank (ADB)/Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Anti-Corruption Initiative's Action Plan commits countries to ensure ‘the existence of legislation with dissuasive sanctions which effectively and actively combat the offence of bribery of public officials’.
However, criminalisation can be a challenging task, as experienced by many countries Party to the Anti-Bribery Convention. This report reviews the criminalisation of bribery offences in Asian countries under the UNCAC. Drawing on the experience of the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention's monitoring mechanism, the review focuses on each member's implementation of UNCAC Articles 15, 16 and 26 (domestic and foreign bribery by natural and legal persons). The review also identifies trends and challenges across the Asia-Pacific region.
This report presents an overview of country initiatives concerning efficient, effective public services and open and innovative government. It focuses on four core issues: delivery of public services in times of fiscal consolidation; a more effective and performance-oriented public service; promotion of open and transparent government; and strategies for implementation of a reform agenda. These issues were discussed at the OECD Public Governance Ministerial Meeting held in Venice, Italy, in November 2010, hosted by the Italian Ministry for Public Administration and Innovation.
This report evaluates how well EECCA countries have done in ensuring people’s access to adequate water supply and sanitation services since their Economic, Finance, and Environment Ministers adopted the Almaty Guiding Principles to support such efforts in 2000. Besides looking at trends in the technical and financial performance of the water sector, the report analyses the results of institutional reforms at different levels of governance, as well as financing arrangements. Analysis focuses mainly on urban areas, but some of the challenges in rural areas are also examined. The report draws policy recommendations to help countries stem the decline in the sector’s performance that has occurred over the last decade, despite opportunities provided by rapid economic growth in many EECCA countries in this period.
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.
The OECD contributes to the improvement of the financial management of major catastrophes both through the activities of the International Network on the Financial Management of Large-Scale Catastrophes and through the leadership of its High-Level Advisory Board. This publication compiles a series of reports reflecting the OECD’s extensive work in this field over recent years. These reports include: 1) a stocktaking of initiatives to promote natural hazard awareness and disaster risk reduction education, resulting in the publication of a policy handbook; 2) a review of and recommendations on catastrophe-linked securities and the role of capital markets in supporting the financial mitigation of large-scale risks, aimed at governments promoting these instruments; 3) a review of current mechanisms used to quantify catastrophe losses within the OECD; and 4) a review of hazard risk mapping efforts in South East Asian countries.
Regulations are indispensable to the proper functioning of economies and societies. They underpin markets, protect the rights and safety of citizens and ensure the delivery of public goods and services. At the same time, regulations are rarely costless. Businesses complain that red tape holds back competitiveness while citizens complain about the time that it takes to fill out government paperwork. More worrying still, regulations can be inconsistent with the achievement of policy objectives. They can have unintended consequences and they can become less effective or even redundant over time. The 2008 financial crisis, and the ensuing and ongoing economic downturn are stark reminders of the consequence of regulatory failure.
Reflecting the importance of getting regulation right, this report encourages governments to “think big” about the relevance of regulatory policy. It assesses the recent efforts of OECD countries to develop and deepen regulatory policy and governance. It evaluates the comprehensive policy cycle by which regulations are designed, assessed and evaluated, revised, and enforced at all levels of government. It describes progress developing a range of regulatory management tools including consultation, Regulatory Impact Assessment, and risk and regulation. It also illustrates more nascent effort to promote regulatory governance including creating accountability and oversight of regulatory agencies and creating a “whole of government” approach for regulatory design and enforcement. The report provides ideas on developing a robust regulatory environment, a key to returning to a stronger, fairer and more sustainable growth path.
Regions and Innovation Policy addresses the needs of national and regional governments for greater clarity on how to strengthen the innovation capacity of regions. The first part of the book examines strategies, policies and governance, explaining why regions matter, what makes smart policy mixes, and multilevel governance. The second part of the book looks at agencies, instruments and country information, showing how agencis can maximize their impact and what policy instruments work. The final chapter provides country-by-country summaries of what countries are doing.
This publication provides new information on public research institutions (PRIs) and government strategies. Public research institutions are crucial for innovation due to their role in knowledge creation and diffusion. While absolute real expenditure on R&D in this sector has risen, it now accounts for a smaller share of total R&D spending by OECD countries and of OECD GDP. The targets and focus of many PRIs have evolved in recent years. Changing activities, new policy challenges and wider economic and political developments have driven change in missions and mandates and linkages have become focal points for many. Internationalisation has also increased and relationships are frequently collaborative. PRIs’ sources of income are diverse but funding has become increasingly competitive. Funding instruments need to balance short-and long-term goals to uphold research quality and ensure the sustainability of PRI activities.
“Shifting wealth” – a process that started in the 1990s and took off in the 2000s – has led to a completely new geography of growth driven by the economic rise of large developing countries, in particular China and India. The resulting re-configuration of the global economy will shape the political, economic and social agendas of international development as those of the converging and poor countries for the years to come.
This report analyses the impact of “Shifting wealth” on social cohesion, largely focusing on high-growth converging countries. A “cohesive” society works towards the well-being of all its members, creates a sense of belonging and fights against the marginalization within and between different groups of societies. The question this report asks is how does the structural transformation in converging economies affect their “social fabric”, their sense of belonging or put generally their ability to peacefully manage collective action problems.
Recent events in well performing countries in the Arab world but also beyond such as in Thailand, China and India seem to suggest that economic growth, rising fiscal resources and improvements in education are not sufficient to create cohesion; governments need to address social deficits and actively promote social cohesion if long-term development is to be sustainable.
This comprehensive review of urban policy in Poland looks at the urban system and the challenges it faces, national policies for urban development in Poland, and adapting governance for a national urban policy agenda.