Browse by: "2016"

Cette seconde édition de la publication phare du Programme LEED, Création d’emplois et développement économique local,  explore les moyens par lesquels les acteurs nationaux et locaux peuvent mieux travailler ensemble pour soutenir le développement économique et la création d’emplois au niveau local. Elle apporte un éclairage sur toute une série d’enjeux, allant de l’adaptation du développement des compétences aux besoins des territoires, à l’implication des employeurs dans les systèmes d’apprentissage et à la mise en œuvre efficace des politiques en faveur des PME et de l’entrepreneuriat. Cette publication présente des comparaisons internationales permettant aux territoires de mieux appréhender leur positionnement face aux défis liés à l’emploi et aux compétences. Dans cette version française abrégée, les profils de pays de la Belgique, du Canada, de la France, et de la Suisse sont présentés. Ces derniers comprennent, entre autre, des nouvelles données sur l'offre et la demande des compétences au niveau régional ou infrarégional.

This second edition of Job Creation and Local Economic Development examines how national and local actors can better work together to support economic development and job creation at the local level. It sheds light on a continuum of issues – from how skills policy can better meet the needs of local communities to how local actors can better engage employers in apprenticeships and improve the implementation of SME and entrepreneurship policy. It includes international comparisons that allow local areas to take stock of how they are performing in the marketplace for skills and jobs. It also includes a set of country profiles featuring, among other things, new data on skills supply and demand at the level of OECD sub-regions (TL3).

This report examines Israel’s performance in stimulating SMEs and entrepreneurship and makes recommendations for government policy. A dual economy has gradually emerged in Israel, in which high rates of successful technology-based entrepreneurship contrast with low average productivity and growth in traditional SMEs. Israel has excellent framework conditions and programmes for technology-based start-ups and SMEs in areas such as R&D, high-level skills generation and venture capital finance. These strengths need to be maintained. At the same time, more needs to be done to spread success to all types of SMEs and all groups of the Israeli population. This report recommends a range of new and expanded interventions for example in access to credit, broad innovation, workforce skills development, management support and entrepreneurship education. It recommends underpinning these actions with a national SME and entrepreneurship policy strategy and new arrangements for inter-ministerial co-ordination.

This report examines the green growth potential and identifies best practices for policy and governance as well as ways to strengthen current practices. As the third largest city in Vietnam, Hai Phong’s economy is growing remarkably at an average rate of 8.7% (2015) in tandem with the growth of the Hai Phong Port. Economic growth and urbanisation, however, have posed serious environmental challenges, including: increased greenhouse gas emissions from industry and transport; rapid depletion of underground water sources; pollution of water sources from untreated commercial, medical, domestic and agricultural waste water; and inefficient waste management, where less than 10% of domestic waste is composted and recyclable materials are mixed with other waste and landfilled. Furthermore, Hai Phong ranks among the 20 cities most vulnerable to costal flooding due to climate change. Nevertheless, there is much untapped potential for green growth in Viet Nam and Hai Phong city. The ultimate goal is to build a stronger, more resilient and greener city.

A major challenge facing the Republic of Buryatia, subject of the Russian Federation, is how to balance the task of protecting Lake Baikal – a unique water object and ecological system included in the UNESCO list of World Natural Heritage Areas – with the need for dynamic and sustainable socio-economic development of the republic.  This requires streamlining and improving water policy jointly with economic, administrative, information and other policy instruments. The recommendations in this report aim to help achieve this objective. They include the introduction of abstraction charges for irrigation water as a  natural resource; enhancement of state support to the water sector; and improvement of economic instruments for managing risks of water-related hazards (such as compulsory insurance and differentiated land tax rates in flood prone areas). A few innovative instruments are also recommended for pilot testing such as establishing limits for discharges of certain hazardous substances in a pilot area (e.g. Selenga river basin) and progressive development of market for tradable quotas for discharges of the “capped” pollutants; and introducing a charge (tax) on toxic agricultural chemicals (pesticides, herbicides, etc.) and synthetic detergents so that to create incentives for the reduction of diffuse water pollution.

The Urban Green Growth in Dynamic Asia project explores how to promote green growth in cities in Asia, examining policies and governance practices that encourage environmental sustainability and competitiveness in a rapidly expanding economy. This synthesis report presents the results of case studies along with practical policy recommendations, reflecting the local contexts of Southeast Asia. While Southeast Asian cities are affected by a range of economic, infrastructure, environmental and social challenges, ongoing rapid development offers opportunities to shift towards greener growth models. The concept of urban green growth can be a powerful vector of sustainable development, by emphasising the existence and potential of co-benefits between economic and environmental performance.

The report provides a comprehensive picture of well-being in the major Danish cities, by looking at a wide range of dimensions that shape people’s lives.  It contains both objective and subjective indicators meant to help policy makers, citizens and other stakeholders to better understand living conditions not only among cities but also among the different neighbourhoods within cities. This information can help policy makers build a development strategy based on well-being metrics, and choose the courses of action that will make the most difference in people’s lives.

The economic performance of Peru in recent times has been impressive. There is now a transition underway as commodity prices fall, and the key challenge for Peru is how to improve productivity and maintain this growth trajectory. Peru is a territorially diverse country and addressing these challenges will require policies that are designed for the specific needs of different cities and regions. The importance of regional policies is particularly important for the case of Peru. Within the OECD only four countries have a larger land mass. The physical geography of the country is shaped by a thin coastal region, the Andes and the Amazon forest in the interior. These different areas are not well connected and have vastly different levels of service provision and infrastructure. The report sets out how regional policies can be improved to address these challenges. This includes ensuring the preconditions (such as revenues, capabilities and coordinating mechanisms) are in place for decentralisation to work. Lifting national productivity will largely depend on well-functioning cities. The report also includes recommendations for how Peru can develop a comprehensive approach to urban policy, including enhancing linkages with rural areas.
 

Cities are places where opportunities for prosperity coexist with stark inequalities between the richest and the poorest. Cities produce and attract highly educated workers and innovative employers. It is usually easier in cities than in other parts of the country for individuals to climb up the income, education or jobs ladder. But cities, especially the largest ones, also concentrate inequalities, both in income and in other well-being aspects,  that remain remarkably high in many OECD economies. Access to opportunities seems stalled for many low-income urban residents, who often live in distressed neighbourhoods.  This report provides ground-breaking, internationally comparable data on economic growth, inequalities and well-being at the city level in OECD countries. It provides empirical evidence on how cities are diverging from, or converging with, other parts of the country, and of the extent of inequality within cities. Finally, it proposes a framework for action, to help national and local governments reorient policies towards more inclusive growth in cities – a new approach to growth that ensures that no part of society is left behind.

This study examines the multi-level governance framework for public investment in Colombia. It provides a diagnosis of the strengths and challenges of the Colombian system and includes comparative data and a set of benchmarks to promote exchange of good practices and promote learning. It makes recommendations for how to further improve the system, make more effective use of existing resources and catch up to OECD countries in terms of infrastructure development . The review also suggests a set of indicators against which Colombia can measure its progress.

Regions and cities are where the effects of policies to promote economic growth and social inclusion are felt in day-to-day life. The OECD Regional Outlook 2016 examines the widening productivity gap across regions within countries, and the implications of these trends for the well-being of people living in different places. It discusses how structural policies, public investment and multi-level governance reforms can help boost productivity and address inclusion. Drawing on a survey of OECD countries, the Outlook  highlights country practices in regional, urban, and rural development policy that guide public investment. The Special Focus Part II on rural areas looks at different types of rural area and their productivity performance trends, and suggests that countries move towards a “Rural Policy 3.0”. The Policy Forum on Regions and Cities: Implementing Global Agendas includes chapters by many leading global organisations on how regions and cities can be instrumental in achieving the targets of agreements such as the Paris Accord and the Sustainable Development Goals.  Individual country profiles provide an overview of regional, urban and rural development policies as well as performance in terms of productivity and well-being among different regions.

This report describes a paradigm shift in road safety policy, being led by a handful of countries, according to the principles of a Safe System. A Safe System is based on the premise that road crashes are both predictable and preventable, and that it is possible to move towards zero road deaths and serious injuries. This, however, requires a fundamental rethink of the governance and implementation of road safety policy.
To stem the road death epidemic, the United Nations have set the target of halving traffic fatalities by 2020. Every year, 1.25 million people are killed in road crashes and up to 50 million are seriously injured. Road crashes kill more people than malaria or tuberculosis and are among the ten leading causes of death. Their economic cost is estimated at 2-5% of GDP in many countries. Written by a group of international road safety experts, this report provides leaders in government, administrations, business and academia with emerging best practices and the starting point to chart their own journeys towards a Safe System.
 

This report looks at a range of local employment and economic development issues in Saskatchewan and the Yukon, Canada, with a focus on indigenous peoples. The report provides a comparative framework to understand the role of the local level in contributing to more and better quality jobs, and practical recommendations to help federal, provincial/territorial, and local policy makers in Canada build effective and sustainable partnerships that join-up efforts across employment, training, and economic development policies. Co-ordinated policies can help workers find suitable jobs, while also stimulating entrepreneurship and productivity, which increases the quality of life and prosperity within a community as well as throughout the country.

Lodz – the third largest city in Poland – is undertaking several major projects that have the potential to significantly reinvigorate the economy. Following the collapse of its traditional manufacturing industries in the late 1990s, Lodz went through a period of economic decline. A series of infrastructure investments and new developments are presently transforming its city centre and increasing its transportation connectivity. Coherent land-use practices across the areas where people live and work will be critical for the city and its surrounding communities to develop in a socially, environmentally, and fiscally sustainable way. This case study of the governance of land use in Lodz illustrates many promising practices and offers guidance on how to make the governance structure and planning system more coherent and robust both in Lodz, and in Poland more generally. This is the first in a series of five case studies on the governance of land use, which will culminate in a synthesis report to be published in 2017.

With the rising economic importance of human resources and skills, employment and training agencies are often expected to play a more important role in local strategies to support new job creation, facilitate restructuring and increase productivity. The OECD Local Economic and Employment Development (LEED) Programme has developed a series of reviews on Local Job Creation to examine the contribution of local labour market policy to boosting quality employment and enhancing productivity. For Poland, the review has looked at the range of institutions and bodies involved in employment and skills policies, focusing on local strategies in the city of Poznań and the Radomski sub-region.

This report responds to the request by G7 Leaders at the Schloss Elmau Summit in June 2015, for the OECD to develop policy guidance on resource efficiency. Establishing a resource efficient economy is a major environmental, development and macroeconomic challenge today. Improving resource efficiency by putting in place policies that implement the principles of reduce, reuse, recycle (the 3Rs) is crucial to improving resource use, security and competitiveness while diminishing the associated environmental impacts.

Food insecurity and malnutrition are major international concerns, especially in rural areas. At the global scale, they have received considerable attention and investment, but the results achieved so far have been mixed. Some countries have made progress at the national level, but still have many citizens who are food insecure, often concentrated in specific geographic areas. Food insecurity and poverty are highly interlinked and have a strong territorial dimension. To provide effective long-term solutions, policy responses must therefore be tailored to the specific challenges of each territory, taking into account a multidimensional response that includes food availability, access, utilisation and stability. This report highlights five case studies and the OECD New Rural Paradigm, presenting an effective framework for addressing food insecurity and malnutrition.

Transport infrastructure opens new routes and creates connections. It increases prosperity by generating economic opportunities, reducing transport costs and supporting agglomeration economies. However, the increased traffic flows also generate environmental and social costs. In Korea, the amount of paved roads increased dramatically between 1951 and 2014, from 580 kilometres to over 87 000 kilometres. This expansion of Korea’s expressway, highway and major road network has created benefits for cities and rural areas across the country, contributing to both economic growth and inclusiveness. This rapid development of road infrastructure and motorisation has also resulted in relatively high traffic fatality rates. This report combines empirical research on the relationship between road infrastructure, inclusive economic development and traffic safety with an assessment of policies and governance structures to help governments find ways to create effective, safe and inclusive transport infrastructures.