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This paper suggests that: (i) national communications be produced more frequently while their focus is streamlined; (ii) reporting guidelines be revised to improve transparency about mitigation commitments/actions/targets that countries have indicated to the international community as well as other obligations taken under the UNFCCC and subsequently; (iii) standard reporting formats be used for more of the information in national communications; (iv) a flexible reporting framework be established for non-Annex I countries, where the information in (and possibly timing of) national reports is “tiered” according to national circumstances; (v) an increased emphasis be placed on reporting of “key” issues; (vi) information routinely provided on adaptation measures and policies be formalised; (vii) reporting on “support” be increased and its structure improved; and (viii) in reports from non-Annex I countries, the provision of information that is already routinely provided be formalised.
The organisation and management of EC development co-operation is embedded within the broader, and more political, external relations framework. Current reforms include more strategic and streamlined approaches, reorganisation in headquarters, and "deconcentration" of implementation authority to the field. These reforms are more sharply defining the vision, responsibilities, and processes of European aid institutions. It will be a challenge to ensure that these organisational and management reforms are increasingly results-oriented. The transition to this new form of management culture has only begun and will require a longer-term political commitment from European leadership to be successful. To implement this more strategic and developmentally oriented mandate also requires more human resources.
Good governance of public agencies requires the application of a set of regulatory and managerial tools to find the right balance between autonomy of agencies and adequate oversight from portfolio ministries and other actors. This paper provides insights from EU and OECD good practices, with a detailed analysis of EU acquis requirements for national regulatory agencies. New empirical evidence shows that public administrations in the Western Balkans and European Neighbourhood area lack clear policies and regulations for agency governance and misinterpret the EU acquis. This leads to a proliferation of agencies, duplication of functions and waste of public resources, a lack of accountability to portfolio ministries and generally a governance vacuum. Implementation of government policy is blocked and democratic accountability generally undermined. Finally, recommendations for better organisation of public administration are provided, based on the empirical analysis and lessons learned from SIGMA's engagement in such reforms.
Sweden is undergoing a major reform of its public employment service (PES) Arbetsförmedlingen, shifting its main role from providing in-house services towards monitoring of providers and working with different stakeholders in guiding and implementing labour market policies. At the same time, the PES is undergoing a significant restructuring, resulting in a downscaling of physical presence across the country and an increased digitalisation of services. To support this reform and services to jobseekers across urban and rural settings, this report a describes the main features of the Swedish labour market and employment system and analyses the challenges of the reform from a local perspective. In light of international examples, it outlines policy options for contracting services to ensure coverage in all places and for all jobseekers, managing the balance between physical and digital services, and coordinating services at the local level.
Organisational change encompasses production processes (quality management, lean production, business re-engineering), management approaches (teamwork, training, flexible work and compensation) and external relations (outsourcing, customer relations, networking). Performance improvements from organisational investments are greatest when production, management and consumer approaches are combined, and when these bundled practices are implemented in conjunction with information and communications technologies (ICT). One explanation for the “productivity” may be that organizational change is key to realising benefits from ICT, while ICT is essential to implementing organisational change, necessitating combined investments to raise productivity growth. The proportion of OECD firms that introduced organisational changes rose significantly in the 1990s and the incidence of organizational change has been highest in service sectors. Larger firms, particularly those exposed to international ...
This paper investigates different varieties of so called organised decentralisation of collective bargaining in Germany, the Netherlands and Denmark. Organised decentralisation occurs within the framework of sector agreements, which explicitly allow determination of terms and conditions at company level, and often set certain (minimum) level standards as well as procedure that have to be respected. German decentralisation is based on its dual-channel system and extensive use of opening clauses, which make workplace derogation from sector-level agreements possible. Dutch decentralisation is based on the dual-channel system and on framework agreements that allow company level bargaining as long as minimum stipulations are observed. Finally, Denmark combines a single-channel system with framework agreements setting minimum levels. Germany stands out as the least organised of the three. Opening and derogation clauses mean that terms and conditions in multi-employer agreements can be undercut. Vertical control over these derogations has suffered from the dual-channel representation in which works councils have a new role. The Netherlands exhibit some, very limited, elements of disorganisation and stable bargaining coverage. Decentralisation has mainly happened through framework agreements setting minimum levels or through the organised transfer of competencies to works councils. The Danish system leaves a lot of scope for local bargaining, the minimum levels are generally observed and bargaining coverage has not suffered. Based on these findings, we draw the conclusion that organised decentralisation requires articulation that preserves a regulatory function of multi-employer agreements. Preservation of multi-employer agreements in turn requires high bargaining coverage.
This OECD work was prompted by the problems caused by the increasing administrative-functional deconcentration within its member countries. The main questions posed were along the lines of: Does departmentalisation (keeping the whole responsibility within a ministry) ensure better control and efficient management of administrative and other public services or, on the contrary, does agencification (in the sense of setting up separate bodies) result in better management and de-politicisation?
In this paper the forecasting performance of popular leading indicators for the German business cycle is investigated. Survey based indicators (ifo business climate, ZEW index of economic sentiment) and composite leading indicators (Handelsblatt, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Commerzbank) are considered. The analysis points to a significant relationship of the indicators to the business cycle within the sample period, as measured by the direction of causality. But, their out-of-sample forecasts do not improve the autoregressive benchmark. This result may be caused by structural breaks in the out-of-sample period. As combinations of forecasts tend to be more robust against such shifts, pooled forecasts are constructed using different methods of aggregation, including linear combinations of forecasts and common factor models. In contrast to the single indicator approach, the combined indicator forecasts are able to beat the benchmark at each forecasting horizon. Therefore, the analysis points to the usefulness of pooling information in order to get more reliable forecasts.
Over the last two decades, the focus of public sector budgeting and management in most OECD Member countries has changed from inputs towards outputs. While important elements of an input-based management approach remain, many managers are now more often judged by how their programmes perform rather than by how well they adhere to administrative controls and procedures, or how successful they are in obtaining resources for their programme. The jury is still out as to the details of actual gains and losses connected to this change, but generally it is the view of central budgeting and management institutions that this change in focus has enhanced the quality of management and increased programme effectiveness and efficiency.
This paper discusses the uses of outcomes in public sector management in New Zealand. It begins by describing the overall public management system within which government departments operate, and how outcomes are used within this system. It then outlines some work that is underway to improve the focus on outcomes, and the way that outcomes are used within the system. The remainder of the paper is a series of case studies of innovative uses of outcomes in the New Zealand state sector.
In 1998, the Government of the United Kingdom conducted a Comprehensive Spending Review which examined the resources allocated to each area of spending, and for the first time decided on and published the service improvements and reforms required in return for the resources allocated to departments’ expenditure programmes. These requirements were set out in Public Service Agreements (PSAs) for every central government department published in December 1998. Each PSA sets out the aim and objectives of each department as well as performance targets, including measures of operations and outcomes. The government’s second spending review in 2000 resulted in revised PSAs, and excluded those expenditure programmes for which the Scottish Parliament and the Welsh Assembly have executive responsibility following the devolved constitutional arrangements.