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Building more equitable, connected, cohesive and sustainable societies is at the top of policy agendas, but several challenges stand in the way of achieving this goal. The report focuses on three key challenges policy makers face in the pursuit of better societies: bridging digital divides, combatting harmful content online, and effectively harnessing digital technologies to fight climate change and other environmental problems. This report provides insights into key trends across OECD countries and partner economies, and offers policy actions that can help decision makers tackle these three critical challenges, together with better measurement. The report builds on previous work on the topic and seeks to inform further debate and discussion on how to ensure that today’s divides, biases and inequalities are not perpetuated into the future.
Classrooms have become increasingly diverse places where students from various backgrounds share their learning experiences. To promote inclusive school settings for all, building teacher capacity for inclusive teaching represents a key policy area. Education systems need to ensure that teachers are adequately prepared for inclusive teaching and supported throughout their career. Mechanisms to attract and retain a more diverse teaching body as well as to monitor and evaluate teacher preparation and work with respect to diversity and inclusion should also be developed. While teacher policies have increasingly addressed some of these areas, most education systems lack comprehensive capacity-building frameworks for inclusive teaching. This paper maps policies and practices to build teacher capacity for inclusive teaching across OECD countries. It then presents core elements and competences to design and implement inclusive teaching strategies. Finally, the paper reviews some of the evidence available on teacher diversity and interventions for inclusive teaching.
This report looks at the human resource requirements for data-intensive science, focusing primarily on research conducted in the public sector, and the related challenges and training needs. Digitalisation is, to some extent, being driven by science, while simultaneously affecting all aspects of scientific practice. Open science, including access to data, is being widely promoted, and investment in cyber-infrastructures and digital platforms is increasing; but inadequate attention has been given to the skills that researchers and research support professionals need to fully exploit these tools. The COVID-19 pandemic, which struck as this report was being finalised, has underscored the critical importance of data-intensive science and the need for strategic approaches to strengthening the digital capacity and skills of the scientific enterprise as a whole. The report includes policy recommendations for various actors and good practice examples to support these recommendations.
The COVID-19 pandemic risks widening further the divide in labour market outcomes for the most vulnerable groups who face numerous employment obstacles, such as limited work experience, care obligations, low skills or health limitations. Not all these groups show up on the radar of public employment services (PES), which is why it is important to identify the groups at risk and their needs, develop effective outreach strategies, and provide integrated, comprehensive and well-targeted support. This in turn requires a good exchange of information and co-operation between the relevant institutions responsible for the provision of employment, health, education and social services, as well as income support.
Social innovations have proven to be valuable in identifying, designing and implementing new solutions to social and environmental problems. The recent COVID-19 outbreak has put a spotlight on the potential of social innovation as a resilience mechanism, including for local development. This paper presents a preliminary framework for analysing social innovation ecosystems at the local level. It can help policy makers to better understand the different concepts around social innovation, and to develop policies to support social innovation and its implementation. The first section considers the features of social innovation and the benefits it can bring. The second section provides an analytical framework for social innovation at the local level. The final section sets a number of guidelines that support the implementation of social innovation ecosystems at local level, including examples of specific policy instruments.
Southeast Asia has experienced unprecedented growth and development as a result of market-led and export-driven policies over the last thirty years. This has had pulled millions out of poverty and drastically improved living standards over the course of a single generation. As industry becomes more diversified, job requirements demand more complex and sophisticated skills. Strong vocational education programmes at the local level can play a significant role in helping national economies to adjust to changes in the labour market, advances in technology and challenges associated with globalisation.
This report on Building local responsiveness in employment and skills systems in Southeast Asia presents learnings from local case studies in Thailand, Viet Nam, Malaysia and the Philippines in an effort to showcase successful examples of partnerships between employers and the vocational education system. It draws from local experiences to provide policy makers with practical advice for the implementation of vocational education programmes.
During the COVID‑19 crisis, nuclear power has continued to generate electricity reliably and around the clock, ensuring the continuous resilient operation of critical services indispensable to cope with the global health crisis and maintain social stability. Nuclear power has been an important source of power system flexibility, helping to maintain electricity security by operating in a load‑following mode, complementing the supply of variable renewable generation. Electricity security is an essential public need, at the same level as food security and access to health care.
Nuclear energy is a key contributor to electricity security and already contributes positively to building a low‑carbon resilient infrastructure at the plant and system levels. Nuclear energy, both new nuclear projects and the long‑term operation of existing reactors, can play a key role in the post‑COVID‑19 economic recovery efforts by boosting economic growth in the short term, while supporting, in a cost‑effective manner, the development of a low‑carbon resilient electricity infrastructure in the long term.
Following the COVID-19 shock to economies and societies, many countries are renewing infrastructure investment as a stimulus measure. Such investments present an opportunity for governments to address short-term infrastructure challenges through maintenance spending while building resilient and sustainable infrastructure for the future. Infrastructure resilience and maintenance requires a multidimensional approach, considering a range of factors and stakeholders at the local, regional, national and global levels to identify trade-offs among objectives and enable more robust policy choices. Drawing on examples and case studies, this report provides a framework for optimising existing infrastructure assets and building new resilient infrastructure. It also includes strategies for ensuring quality and performance over an asset’s lifecycle.
Centres of government (CoGs) have played an important role in tackling the crisis caused by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. This paper discusses the high-level institutional arrangements put in place by governments to manage policy responses to the pandemic, with a special focus on CoG’s leading or supporting role in three main dimensions: co-ordination and strategic planning, the use of evidence to inform decision-making, and communicating decisions to the public. As governments face unprecedented governance challenges, the pandemic has uncovered gaps in both government co-ordination and the use of evidence for policy making, which directly affect the nature and quality of the measures adopted to tackle the crisis and its aftermath. These challenges have led to a number of quick fixes and agile responses, which will need to be assessed when the worst of the crisis is over.
Climate shocks such as extreme floods and storms, droughts and heatwaves have complex, inter-connected and far-reaching consequences across multiple policy sectors and systems. Shocks in other systems, such as financial or health crises, can, in turn, affect climate challenges. Applying a systems approach to climate change helps policymakers understand linkages between issues that are treated separately and propose cross-sectoral, multi-disciplinary solutions in cities. This paper proposes a four-pronged policy framework to disentangle the different elements of economic, social, environmental, and other systems operating in cities, maximise co-benefits and manage trade-offs across systems, and build systemic climate resilience in cities. It summarises the contribution of the Working Party on Urban Policy and the Regional Development Policy Committee to the 2021-2022 OECD Horizontal Project on “Building Climate and Economic Resilience in the Transition to a Low-Carbon Economy”.
As education systems face a post-COVID-19 world, we must not lose sight of the importance of teachers’ well-being. Already, prior to the pandemic, teachers were struggling to cope with workload and stress, as shown by the Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS), one of the first international efforts to capture the well-being of the teaching workforce. Nevertheless, schools and teachers have the tools to improve well-being and reduce stress at the work place.
The goal of this brief is to provide some glimpses into concrete actions that schools and education systems could take to improve teachers’ well-being and job satisfaction.
STRING is a political cross-border organisation spanning five cities (the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, Copenhagen, Malmö, Gothenburg and Oslo) and eight regions (Schleswig-Holstein, Region of Southern Denmark, Region Zealand, Capital Region of Denmark, Region Skåne, Region Halland, Västra Götalandsregionen and Viken County) across Germany, Denmark, Sweden and Norway. Home to around 14 million inhabitants, STRING has good potential to become a leading European megaregion and an internationally acknowledged Green Hub if governments “think big” and work together beyond their own boundaries. Building on its green expertise and high levels of innovation and quality of life, STRING could take advantage of current opportunities such as the construction of the Fehmarn Belt Fixed Link to reap the benefits of agglomeration economies and establish itself as a sustainable megaregion. However, time is of the essence. Seizing the political momentum of the coming decade, including the momentum to support a green recovery from COVID-19, will be critical to advance STRING’s green vision and shape a future-proof economic model.
Potential economic benefits of integrity and anti-corruption policies seem large. Nevertheless, much of the existing empirical evidence lacks precise and actionable policy indicators that could guide policy makers on tangible improvements of successful reforms. To move the policy analysis further, both policy and outcome indicators are needed. In this context, the paper reviews OECD’s involvement in integrity and anti-corruption agenda as well as available indicators of integrity and anti-corruption policies and outcomes. It outlines avenues for future analysis that include assessment of public procurement procedures and policy drivers explaining experience with corruption and public spending efficiency.
Increasingly frequent and severe droughts are threatening Italy’s agricultural sector. With climate change forecast to accelerate these trends, the sector must build long-term resilience. This will require better planning and preparing for, absorbing the impact of, and recovering from droughts, as well as more successfully adapting and transforming in response to these events. Recent positive developments include improved data collection on water supplies and agricultural damage and loss from natural hazards to better inform water management and investment decisions; strengthened commitment to ex ante risk management frameworks; and more participatory approaches for water management. Nevertheless, the agricultural policy portfolio currently underemphasises investments in on-farm preparedness and adaptation, in favour of coping tools such as insurance. Further efforts to build agricultural resilience could benefit from a holistic, long-term sectoral risk management strategy; an evaluation of the trade-offs between spending on risk coping tools versus investments in natural hazard preparedness and measures to mitigate their impacts; and more explicit consideration of farmer demographics and capacities in policy design.
Japan is highly exposed to natural hazards, and agricultural producers in Japan have significant experience in managing the risk of natural hazard-induced disasters (NHID). However, recent large-scale typhoons and heavy rain events have highlighted the importance of increasing the sector’s resilience to NHID. A number of current practices build resilience. Disaster risk governance and agricultural policy frameworks are flexible and responsive to evolving NHID risks. Non-structural measures such as hazard maps are increasingly seen as complementary to infrastructure in preventing and mitigating flood risks. Innovative on-farm solutions for mitigating flood risks, such as the paddy field dam, are also increasingly used. Disaster response is rapid, and disaster assistance prioritises helping producers to resume farming. However, agricultural disaster risk management (DRM) must reflect the challenge of more frequent and intense typhoons and heavy rains in the context of ageing and depopulation in rural areas. Public DRM measures should also be complemented by greater efforts from farmers and other stakeholders, such as agricultural co-operatives, to build agricultural resilience to NHID.
New Zealand’s agricultural sector faces the challenge of building long-term resilience to floods, which are projected to increase due to climate change. The New Zealand agricultural sector receives minimal government support and the policy environment focuses on providing an enabling environment for farmers to build their own resilience capacities, while the government has a more direct, but limited, role during disaster response and recovery. Key good practices include an ex ante framework to discipline ex post assistance to agriculture; incentives for industry groups to develop support resources for farmers; and an emphasis on mental wellbeing following a crisis. Nevertheless, further efforts to strengthen resilience could benefit from: (i) improved data collection to support targeted investments in risk prevention and mitigation; (ii) increased public-private collaboration to develop and diffuse effective solutions for adapting to and mitigating the risks of natural hazard-induced disasters on farms, including by leveraging the renewed engagement on extension services; and (iii) greater commitment to ensuring preparedness and response capacities in rural regions.
Turkey is exposed to multiple natural hazard-induced disasters (NHID) and has considerable experience in managing the associated risks. Drought, in particular, has had significant impacts on the country’s agricultural sector, and the frequency of droughts is expected to increase due to climate change. Existing governance and policy frameworks seek to ensure that the agricultural sector is prepared for, and able to respond to, adverse events as they occur. While these mechanisms contribute to improved resilience, further opportunities exist to strengthen policy processes, in particular by increasing farmer and private sector participation.
Agricultural producers in the United States have significant experience in managing the risk of natural hazard-induced disasters (NHID), but the 2019 Midwestern Floods and Hurricane Florence in 2018 highlighted the importance of increasing resilience to extreme floods. A number of current practices already build resilience. Producers can access science-based information on adaptation to climate and weather-related risks, preparedness and recovery, including through the USDA Climate Hubs. Formal networks build relationships and capabilities before a disaster, improving the effectiveness of disaster preparedness and response. USDA conservation programmes and various soil health initiatives help farmers to mitigate the impacts of floods on production. However, most farm support is directed to agricultural risk management policies and disaster assistance that help producers cope with the impacts of NHID. Integrating resilience objectives into these programmes would send a clearer signal to producers about the need to adapt and increase resilience. Policy makers should also engage with trusted stakeholders – including farm organisations and extension agents – to promote the benefits of practices that build resilience to NHID ID.