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Investment in human capital is to the fore of debate and analysis in OECD countries about how to promote economic prosperity, fuller employment, and social cohesion. Individuals, organisations and nations increasingly recognise that high levels of knowledge, skills and competencies are essential to their future security and success. Investment in skills and competencies takes place in a variety of settings ranging from early childhood education to informal learning in the workplace, and involves a wide range of actors from individuals to enterprises and governments.

This report aims to clarify what is now known about human capital and how it can be measured. It responds to a request by governments represented in the OECD Council "to develop an initial set of indicators of human capital investment based on existing data, analyse areas where significant gaps remain in internationally comparable data, identify the cost of development of data collection for new measures and performance indicators, and report to Ministers in 1998".

Globalisation has had positive effects on the development of tax systems and has encouraged countries to engage in base broadening and rate reducing tax reforms. However, it has also created an environment in which tax havens thrive and in which governments may be induced to adopt harmful preferential tax regimes to attract mobile activities. Tax competition in the form of harmful tax practices can distort trade and investment patterns, erode national tax bases and shift part of the tax burden onto less mobile tax bases, such as labor and consumption, thus adversely affecting employment and undermining the fairness of tax structures.

The Report emphasises that governments must intensify their cooperative actions to curb harmful tax practices. To achieve this, OECD Member governments have developed "Guidelines on Harmful Preferential Tax Regimes". These Guidelines will discourage the spread of harmful preferential tax regimes and encourage countries with such regimes to eliminate them. To counteract both tax havens and harmful preferential tax regimes, Member governments have also agreed to pursue vigorously the implementation of the other Recommendations in the Report, including entering into a dialogue with non-member countries.

Governments need to implement appropriate policies to ensure both the private and the public goods values of biological diversity are realised. Unless the users of biological resources are given incentives to sustainably use these resources, valuable biodiversity will continue to be lost. Because of the inherent complexity of biological systems, and the range of pressures that act on them, a "bundle" of carefully-designed and complementary incentive measures are often necessary to provide the appropriate signals to prevent biodiversity loss.

This unique Handbook draws on the experiences described in 22 case studies to develop a comprehensive step-by-step process for identifying and implementing appropriate incentive measures for biodiversity conservation, and the sustainable use of its components. It identifies the incentive measures that are most suitable for particular ecosystems, and for addressing the specific sectoral pressures in effect, describing both the advantages and the disadvantages of each incentive measure. A wide range of incentive measures are described, including both the more common economic and regulatory incentives, and also the necessary framework conditions, such as scientific and technical capacity building, education and awareness raising, and the involvement of local populations and other stakeholders.

These Guidelines provide ways for donor governments to honour their commitment to conflict prevention as an integral part of the quest to reduce poverty. They cover key issues such as: security, development and dealing with small arms; regional co-operation; peace processes, justice and reconciliation; engaging in partnerships for peace; working with business; and grappling with the political economy of war - situations where powerful groups acquire a vested interest in sparking or perpetuating violent conflict. They identify concrete opportunities for donor assistance in support of peace that include: democratisation; inter-community relations; education and cross-cultural training; human rights training; freedom and access to information; the reintegration of uprooted populations; the demobilisation of former combatants; landmine clearing; and the restoration of a capacity for economic management.

This full set of guidance on conflict prevention to date from the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) includes the 2001 Supplement and the ground-breaking 1997 Guidelines. This work marks a reaffirmation of the international community’s commitment to work together across government systems to improve their analyses of violent conflicts and establish more coherent policies.

“… We are promoting the consideration of conflict prevention in development assistance strategies with a view to achieving quicker and better co-ordinated assistance strategies – including the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HPIC) initiative – and ensuring a smooth transition from relief to post-conflict development. A significant example of such consideration is the April 2001 OECD/DAC Supplement to the 1997 Guidelines on Conflict, Peace and Development Co-operation.”

– Excerpt from the Conclusions of the G-8 Foreign Ministers’ meeting, July 2001.