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The cardiovascular system is the first functional organ system to develop in the vertebrate embryo, reflecting its critical role during normal development and pregnancy. This Adverse Outcome Pathway focuses on the regulation and disruption of vasculogenesis-angiogenesis during embryonic development via disruption of the Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF) signaling pathway. This pathway is a critical regulatory system for assembly of embryonic blood vessels. Genetic studies have shown that perturbing the VEGF signaling system can invoke varying degrees of adverse consequences, ranging from congenital angiodysplasia to fetal malformations and embryolethality. This AOP is referred to as AOP 43 in the Collaborative Adverse Outcome Pathway Wiki (AOP-Wiki).
This statistical survey of a large sample of 1,660 bilateral investment treaties (BITs) identifies the main parameters of ISDS regulation in BITs; traces their emergence, frequency and dissemination over time; and highlights past and recent country-specific treaty practice. The survey finds among other things that many countries define the procedural framework thinly compared to advanced domestic procedural frameworks, despite a broad trend toward greater regulation in treaties of parameters of ISDS. Many treaties offer foreign investors a range of procedural choices, such as a choice between arbitration fora.
The survey also highlights the diversity that characterises the design of ISDS: over a thousand different combinations of rules regulating ISDS can be found in only 1,660 bilateral treaties –, with variation found both at editorial and substantial level. Differences in policy approaches between countries are the source of some of this variance, but it appears that much of it may not reflect differences in policy.
The study also found little evidence of general convergence of approaches towards regulating ISDS in BITs, or indeed much development in the BIT negotiating practice of a number of countries. A different approach, characterised by significantly more thorough ISDS regulation and pioneered by some countries, seems to spread increasingly in multilateral IIAs and more comprehensive treaties.
Triangular co-operation features in the 2030 Agenda and the Addis Ababa Action Agenda as an instrument to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. It combines the comparative advantages of the different partners involved, creates synergies, promotes learning among all partners and builds relationships based on trust. However, several myths have developed about triangular co-operation projects 1) being small in scale and scope, operating only in niche areas; 2) lacking systematic planning and implementation mechanisms; and 3) having no clear value added. This report addresses these three “myths” by analysing the results from a survey of triangular co-operation that the OECD conducted in 2015. It provides evidence on the “reality” from over 400 projects that were reported by the 60 respondents. The report concludes that triangular co-operation is a highly relevant and strategic mode of co-operation with increasing numbers of projects, budgets and durations, established planning mechanisms and a clear value added.
This paper provides an overview of how the Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine illustrates immediate threats posed by disinformation, as well as governance responses to countering it. It focuses on disinformation in relation to the Russian armed aggression of Ukraine, including actors, tools and narratives used to justify the invasion and maintain support for the war. The paper also identifies government efforts to counter the spread of disinformation, including efforts to ensure the spread of accurate content, promote international co-operation, and support civil society and media actors to build resilience to the spread of false and misleading content.
Strategies to fight hunger and early warning systems often focus on identifying food crises rather than longer-term trends, and concentrate on rural areas. Data on the food and nutrition security situation of West Africa’s growing urban population is scarce and fragmented. Using geo-referenced information available in the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS), this report estimates the total number and prevalence of under-nutrition and over-nutrition in West Africa for both urban and rural areas. The analysis reveals that almost 110 million people in West Africa are not receiving the correct nutrition for their needs. Over 58 million people in the region are underweight, 22 million of which live in cities. Another 52 million are either overweight or obese, the large majority of whom are adult urban dwellers. This situation reveals the severity of the “double burden” of under- and over-nutrition. It also calls for greater efforts to identify appropriate metrics to monitor food and nutrition security in urban areas.
While false rumours, inaccurate reporting, and conspiracy theories have existed for as long as there were people to create and spread them, the Internet has reshaped and amplified the ability to produce and perpetuate false and misleading content. Stopping the creators and spreaders of untruths online is essential to reducing political polarisation, building public trust in democratic institutions, improving public health, and more generally improving the wellbeing of people and society. This Going Digital Toolkit note discusses the importance of access to accurate information online and presents a novel typology of the different types of untruths that circulate on the Internet. It considers how untruths are spread online as well as the consequences, and it surveys the evidence base of false and misleading information online. The note concludes by identifying approaches to fighting untruths online and mitigating their negative effects.
An early criticism of the Stability and Growth Pact has pointed to its asymmetric nature and the weak mechanisms to prevent politically-motivated fiscal policies: its constraints would bite in downswings but not in upswings, especially if in the latter the electoral cycle increases the temptation to run expansionary policies. We find that the experience of the initial years of EMU lends support to this criticism. Overall, unlike the experience in the run-up to EMU, fiscal policies had an expansionary bias, and a “genuine” discretionary boost took place in correspondence to political elections. Both sign and composition of such discretionary changes are in line with the predictions of the recent literature on electoral budget cycles. Closer fiscal surveillance may help detect early such behaviour, but it is unlikely to curb the incentives to run politically-motivated fiscal policies when elections approach ...
Diplomats and other diplomatic actors serve as the primary political actors in fragile contexts, both for OECD Development Assistance Committee members and the broader international community. They directly contribute to immediate and long-term peace, and their broad political network and knowledge positions them as a nodal point for effective and inclusive humanitarian, development and peace action in fragile contexts. This paper examines three different functions diplomatic actors assume that contribute to peace in fragile contexts: diplomacy as global governance, diplomats as peacebuilders and diplomats as facilitators. This paper is one of ten working papers supporting States of Fragility 2020. It works together with Security actors in fragile contexts, Conflict prevention in fragile contexts, and Peacebuilding in fragile contexts to provide comprehensive background to Chapter 2 on peace in States of Fragility 2020.
This paper addresses the problem of involuntary social exclusion resulting from mobility constraints by proposing a conceptual model for the interaction between transport and wellbeing. Providing accessibility for all yields widely shared benefits that are largely overlooked by traditional appraisal methods. While some see the ultimate aim of transport policy as increasing wellbeing, an agreed model of how these two interact does not currently exist.
Prepared for a Strategic Education Governance learning seminar, this working paper analyses the ways in which the Dutch government tried to reach overarching goals in education, in a system characterised by a high degree of distributed autonomy of education institutions and the participation of multiple actors, and consequently a government highly dependent on the collaboration with stakeholders. The paper introduces four perspectives on governance: ‘traditional public administration’, ‘new public management’, ‘network governance’ and ‘societal resilience’. In practice, these perspectives do not exclude each other. Based on three cases the paper shows that the Dutch government used simultaneously different perspectives in each case and across the cases, in various combinations. Each combination proved to have its pros and cons. The paper argues for a deliberate consideration and choice of governance perspectives as an important element of policy preparation.
This paper discusses key priorities and policy recommendations to accelerate Slovenia’s digital transformation. The government’s ambitious digitalisation strategy (Digital Slovenia 2030 Strategy) aims at putting Slovenia among the five most digitalised countries in Europe. Achieving this objective would foster productivity growth and help offsetting the negative effects of a declining labour force. While Slovenia performs well in several areas of the digital transformation, further efforts are needed to achieve the government’s ambitious objective. These include reducing the urban-rural gap in high-speed broadband access, supporting the digital transformation of businesses, fostering digital innovation, improving digital government, upgrading ICT-related skills and attracting foreign ICT specialists.
Digital transformation is increasingly recognised as a means to help unlocking the benefits of more inclusive and sustainable growth and enhanced social well-being. In the environmental context, digitalisation can contribute to decoupling economic activity from natural resource use and their environmental impacts. This paper takes stock of the implications of digitalisation for the transition to a resource efficient and circular economy. Particularly, the paper provides insights into how digitalisation may fuel circular business models in the private sector, and discusses the role of digital technologies in addressing some important market failures that stand in the way to scaling up circular activities. It also offers a public sector perspective, by exploring how digital technologies support effective delivery of circular economy policies, enabling better policy design, reshaping government-citizen interaction and improving implementation of policies. Additionally, the paper maps potential unintended consequences of the digital circular transition, including general risks related to data, security, privacy and transparency, as well as rebound effects and unexpected regulatory interventions.
The Russian Federation’s large-scale war of aggression against Ukraine is causing severe disruptions to Internet connectivity, that has been increasing rapidly across the country over the last decade. The digital delivery of public services, with new “state-of-the-art” services launched just before the war, is proving resilient after the first disruptions. The digital economy in Ukraine was experiencing rapid growth before the war, and the Diia City tax Law introduced tailor-made fiscal measures for the IT sector. Now the Ukrainian Government faces multiple challenges, and OECD policy tools can help Ukraine realise its ambitious plans to strengthen and rebuild its digital space in the short term (i.e. access to the internet), medium term (i.e. access to talent and finance) and long term (i.e. a sound data infrastructure for the digital economy).
The world economy and societies are going through a digital transformation that goes well beyond computerisation and use of information and telecommunications technologies. This transformation is creating opportunities and challenges for all levels of government in the areas of tax and expenditure policy and administration, service delivery and fiscal-financial management, and regulatory practices and policies. However, governments (especially sub-national ones, SNGs) often also face shortages of skills, equipment and physical infrastructure, while having to address emerging challenges in cyber security risk management and data protection. The digital transformation calls for cooperation among the different layers of administration in support of effective and efficient digitalisation of SNGs. This paper reviews and discusses these opportunities and challenges.
This paper provides evidence on the effects of digitalisation on the labour market in Slovenia using a unique dataset of Slovenian workers and firms for the years 2016 to 2020. Results show that at the firm level, digitalisation – measured in terms of ICT investment, is associated with positive and statistically significant effects on employment. However, job growth is not evenly distributed: High-skilled workers and younger workers benefit the most from employment gains, whereas there is little to no employment increases for low- and medium-skilled workers and older workers aged 50 or more. Furthermore, employment effects from digitalisation are strongest for private manufacturing firms. In contrast, ICT investment by state-owned firms is not associated with employment gains.
This paper assesses how the adoption of a range of digital technologies affects firm productivity. It combines cross-country firm-level data on productivity and industry-level data on digital technology adoption in an empirical framework that accounts for firm heterogeneity. The results provide robust evidence that digital adoption in an industry is associated to productivity gains at the firm level. Effects are relatively stronger in manufacturing and routine-intensive activities. They also tend to be stronger for more productive firms and weaker in presence of skill shortages, which may relate to the complementarities between digital technologies and other forms of capital (e.g. skills, organisation, or intangibles). As a result, digital technologies may have contributed to the growing dispersion in productivity performance across firms. Hence, policies to support digital adoption should go hand in hand with creating the conditions to enable the catch-up of lagging firms, notably by easing access to skills.
This paper addresses the implications of digitalisation on corporate governance. It focuses in particular on the potential for digitalisation to improve market supervision and enforcement of corporate governance related requirements and the efficiency of disclosure; its use for remote and hybrid participation in general shareholder meetings; the implications of digital security risks and the role of the board in their management; and how digitalisation can encourage the development of primary public equity markets.