Browse by: "2020"

The interconnected challenges of our times call for a coherent and multidimensional approach to public governance. The OECD Policy Framework on Sound Public Governance provides governments at all levels with an integrated diagnostic, guidance and benchmarking tool that aims to improve the quality of public governance – an objective that takes on immediate strategic importance for governments as they strive to manage the COVID-19 crisis and plan for a sustainable and inclusive recovery. The Framework builds on OECD legal instruments in the area, on lessons learned over the past decade through the OECD’s Public Governance Reviews (PGRs) and other country and sector-specific assessments. The first part shows the importance of key governance values and provides an overview of enablers of sound public governance that governments can adopt to pursue successful reforms. The second part presents an overview of management tools and policy instruments that can enhance the quality and impact of policy-making at the different stages of the policy cycle. Each chapter poses a number of strategic questions that policy-makers can use to self-assess the institutional and decision-making capacity of their governments in key public governance areas.

Настоящий отчет представляет результаты сотрудничества в области повышения водной безопасности Республики Беларусь с ОЭСР и ее партнерами по реализации финансируемого Европейским союзом проекта Водная инициатива Европейского союза плюс для стран Восточного партнерства. Он содержит обзор наличия и распределения водных ресурсов в стране, а также связанных с ними особых вызовов, стоящих перед различными областями Беларуси, и рассматривает запланированные меры политики для достижения всеобъемлющих целей водной политики Беларуси по обеспечению водной безопасности в рамках будущей национальной "Водной Стратегии Республики Беларусь на период до 2030 года, в условиях изменения климата". Настоящий отчет также включает в себя оценку возможностей повышения водной безопасности Беларуси посредством оказания поддержки программе водохозяйственных реформ, осуществляемой в стране.

This report presents the results of collaboration on improving water security in Belarus, between the beneficiary country, the OECD and its partners implementing the EU-funded European Union Water Initiative Plus project. It provides an overview of the composition and distribution of the country’s water resources, including the particular challenges facing different regions (oblasts), and lays out the policy responses that Belarus has taken and planned to progress its overarching policy objective of ensuring water security within the framework of the future national Water Strategy in the Context of Climate Change for the Period until 2030. The report also provides an assessment of potential opportunities to boost water security in Belarus by supporting the country’s ongoing water policy reform agenda.

There are approximately 800,000 Indigenous Australians, which is 3.3% of Australia’s total population. Indigenous Australians are custodians of the world’s oldest living continuous culture and make a vital contribution to contemporary Australian society. Indigenous Australians are also important for the future of the national economy. For example, the amount of land with Indigenous ownership and interest has increased significantly in the last 50 years and now covers approximately half of Australia’s land mass. Indigenous Australians play an important role in the development of regional economies. Compared to the non-Indigenous population, Indigenous peoples are more likely to be located in predominantly rural regions. However, significant gaps in socio-economic outcomes with non-Indigenous Australians remain and these gaps are larger in rural regions. The report provides three key recommendations to improve economic outcomes for Indigenous Australians: improving the quality of the statistical framework and the inclusion of Indigenous peoples in the governance of data; promoting entrepreneurship to provide opportunities for Indigenous peoples to use assets and resources in ways that align with their objectives for development; and, implementing an approach to policies that is adapted to places, and empowers Indigenous institutions and communities.

Cities are places of opportunity. They provide not just jobs but a whole range of public, cultural, social and consumption amenities. Transport is what connects people to these opportunities and cities provide access with varying degrees of success – especially when it comes to modes of transport that favour a green transition. This report argues that building sustainable transport networks for accessible cities requires a holistic planning approach, a sound institutional framework, reliable sources of funding, strong governmental capacity, and should build on community engagement. Urban accessibility requires coherent allocation of responsibilities across levels of government to support strategic planning. The report proposes concrete actions that cities can take to adapt their institutional framework, to improve transport planning and ensure they have access to sustainable sources of funding to implement their plans.

Transport connects people, places and cities. Investment in transport infrastructure therefore helps bridging economic and social divides. It promotes economic growth and catching up of regions by providing access to jobs for workers and markets for firms. This report summarises evidence on the benefits of transport investment for economic growth and job creation and thereby for catching up in OECD regions. Beyond economic divides, the report consider inequality in access to opportunities using the EC-ITF-OECD Urban Access Framework. It considers how transport can bridge social divides by taking a closer look at accessibility within OECD cities (functional urban areas). Cities differ greatly in their ability to provide inclusive access to opportunities across more affluent and poorer neighbourhoods. To bridge divides, the report highlights the need to go beyond transport infrastructure investment and consider wider urban planning, as well as complementary measures in regions.

COVID-19 is testing the Basque Country’s (Spain) resilience. Before COVID-19, employment indicators were recovering from the 2008 crisis, while automation of production was underway. Job quality remained low despite rising educational attainment in the region. COVID-19 is likely to accelerate structural changes in the labour market, including automation and digitalisation. Firms may increasingly look to technology as a way to pandemic proof their operations, while individuals may develop preferences for automated services as opposed to face to face contact. This OECD report sheds light on the potential impacts of automation on the Basque labour market, including which types of jobs and groups of workers are most likely to be impacted, in light of COVID-19 and other labour market changes. The report also highlights the critical role to be played by employment services, training policies and social dialogue to help people and firms make labour market transitions while upholding social cohesion. The report delves into how the Basque Country’s employment and skills system can continue to be at the front line as the crisis evolves.

Políticas e serviços públicos, como educação, saúde, previdência, infraestrutura e saneamento, são cada vez mais formulados e prestados por meio de diferentes níveis de governo (nacional, regional e local), criando desafios de coordenação e governança. O presente relatório descreve como os 33 tribunais de contas brasileiros podem aplicar a função de controle – como auditorias – para contribuir para maior eficácia e coerência das políticas públicas descentralizadas. O relatório apresenta os resultados de um projeto de 3 anos que visou aprimorar a atuação conjunta dos tribunais de contas, focando no setor da educação como área piloto para o teste da aplicação de indicadores na seleção estratégica de auditorias. O relatório propõe um referencial para que as instituições de auditoria possam avaliar a governança multinível e explora modelos de governança que podem ser adotados para garantir a colaboração entre os tribunais. Tais abordagens podem inspirar e informar outras entidades fiscalizadoras superiores que também sejam responsáveis por auditar políticas públicas e programas descentralizados envolvendo governos central, regional e local.

Public policies and services, such as education, health, welfare, infrastructure and sanitation, are increasingly developed and provided via different levels of government (national, regional and local), creating co-ordination and governance challenges. This report describes how Brazil’s 33 courts of accounts can use their oversight function – including audits – to help make such decentralised policies more effective and coherent. It presents the results of a 3-year project to improve how the courts can work together, using the area of education as a pilot for testing the use of indicators in the strategic selection of audits. The report offers a model for audit institutions to assess multi-level governance, and explores governance models for stronger collaboration among the courts of accounts in Brazil. These approaches may inspire and inform other supreme audit institutions with responsibilities for auditing decentralised policies and programmes involving central, regional and local governments.

The impact of COVID-19 on local jobs and workers dwarfs those of the 2008 global financial crisis. The 2020 edition of Job Creation and Local Economic Development considers the short-term impacts on local labour markets as well as the longer-term implications for local development. Chapter 1 explores the immediate local employment impacts of the crisis, the divides within and across local labour markets even prior to the pandemic, and the likely diverging recovery patterns. Chapter 2 considers the underlying trends that COVID-19 will accelerate (digitalisation, the automation of jobs and polarisation of skill profiles; a transition to greener jobs) or slow down (reconfigured global supply chains, concentration of the high skilled in largest cities). Chapter 3 explores local action in the recovery. It highlights the strategies to strengthen local employment services and training providers to meet the increased demand for job placement and skills upgrading, particularly for the most disadvantaged workers (youth, low-skilled, women) or business development to serve the hardest hit firms and sectors (tourism, culture, hospitality). It also considers strategies and tools to “rebuild better” by rethinking local development futures, taking advantage of the changing geography of jobs due to remote working or other opportunities such as the social economy. Individual country profiles are available online.

This report offers guidance on how to prepare regions and cities for the transition towards a climate-neutral and circular economy by 2050 and is directed to all policymakers seeking to identify and implement concrete and ambitious transition pathways. It describes how cities, regions, and rural areas can manage the transition in a range of policy domains, including energy supply, conversion, and use, the transformation of mobility systems, and land use practices. It takes stock of discussions between academic and policy experts emanating from a series of high-level expert workshops organised in 2019 by the OECD and the European Commission. Bringing together frontier thinking and practical examples regarding the transition to a climate-neutral economy, the transition to a circular economy, the transition in cities, the transition in rural areas, and financing and scale-up of transition action, this report identifies cross-cutting lessons to support urban, regional, and rural decision makers in managing trade-offs and in promoting, facilitating and enabling environmental and energy transitions.

The Economic Outlook for Southeast Asia, China and India is a regular publication on regional economic growth, development and regional integration in Emerging Asia. It focuses on the economic conditions of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) member countries: Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Viet Nam. It also addresses relevant economic issues in China and India to fully reflect economic developments in the region. This November Update of the Outlook, following the Update 2020 released in July, presents a regional economic monitor, depicting the economic outlook and macroeconomic challenges in the region amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.

Cities and regions play a fundamental role in the transition from a linear to a circular economy, as they are responsible for key policies in local public services such as transport, solid waste, water and energy that affect citizens’ well-being, economic growth and environmental quality. This synthesis report builds on the findings from 51 cities and regions contributing to the OECD Survey on the Circular Economy in Cities and Regions and on lessons learnt from the OECD Policy Dialogues on the circular economy carried out in Groningen (Netherlands), Umeå (Sweden), Valladolid (Spain) and on-going in Glasgow (United Kingdom), Granada (Spain), and Ireland. The report provides a compendium of circular economy good practices, obstacles and opportunities, analysed through the lens of its 3Ps analytical framework (people, policies and places). It concludes with policy recommendations, a Checklist for Action and a Scoreboard to self-assess the existence and level of implementation of enabling governance conditions to foster the transition towards the circular economy in cities and regions.

Populations in OECD and emerging economies are ageing rapidly, which will have significant macroeconomic impacts, including on public expenditures and tax revenues. The rules and practices that govern fiscal relations among different levels of government, such as their responsibilities for taxation, spending and debt management, have a bearing on economic efficiency and ultimately growth. The consequences of population ageing at subnational government levels are especially intense. Many local governments are vulnerable to the ageing of their populations from a fiscal perspective. The economic and fiscal challenges of an ageing population go beyond intergovernmental boundaries, and they require complex intergovernmental policy responses. This volume brings together cross-country studies of fiscal policy, demographics and spatial productivity, as well as country studies of Brazil, Canada, China and Germany.

The Road Safety Annual Report 2020 provides an overview of road safety performance for the 42 countries participating in the International Transport Forum’s permanent working group on road safety, known as the IRTAD Group. Based on the latest data, the report describes recent road safety developments in these countries and compares their performance against the main road safety indicators.