Browse by: "2017"

Montreal has huge potential to become one of the most dynamic cities across OECD countries, thanks to its talented and creative population. Yet the city has not demonstrated outstanding results in terms of job creation and collective wealth generation in the past few years. This report examines this paradox and suggests new strategies to improve local outcomes in terms of employment, innovation and skills, and to boost inclusive economic growth and innovation across the Quebec metropolis.

Communication  has  a  specific  role  to  play  in  the  development  of  deep  geological  repositories.  Building trust  with  the  stakeholders  involved  in  this  process,  particularly  within  the  local  community,  is  key  for effective communication between the authorities and the public. There are also clear benefits to having technical experts hone their communication skills and having communication experts integrated into the development process. This report has compiled lessons from both failures and successes in communicating technical information to non-technical audiences. It addresses two key questions in particular: what is the experience base concerning the effectiveness or non-effectiveness of different tools for communicating safety case results to a non-technical audience and how can communication based on this experience be improved and included into a safety case development effort from the beginning?

This Compendium on good practices on the publication and re-use of Open Data for Anti-corruption across G20 countries serves to support the implementation of the 2015 G20 Open Data Principles for Anti-corruption. It seeks to contribute to the work of the G20 building on the achievements of previous G20 Presidencies, and the focus on digitalisation of the 2017 German Presidency. The Compendium aims to raise awareness among high-level policy makers and public officials from G20 countries on the benefits of the digital transformation of the public sector institutions (a process that includes open data initiatives) for good governance, national productivity, economic development and social innovation.

To examine structural banking reform measures taken since 2008, the OECD circulated a survey (Survey onthe Conditions for Establishment of Subsidiaries and Branches for the Provision of Banking Services by Non-Resident Institutions) to Delegates and Participants in the OECD Advisory Task Force on the Codes of Liberalisation and the OECD Committee on Financial Markets, which includes officials from central banks and finance ministries. This report describes the outcome of this survey, and was circulated to the FSB plenary in June 2016.

Giving people better opportunities to participate actively in the labour market improves well-being. It also helps countries to cope with rapid population ageing by mobilising more fully each country’s potential labour resources. Weak labour market attachment of some groups in society reflects a range of barriers to working or moving up the jobs ladder. This report on Australia is the third country study published in a series of reports looking into strategies to encourage greater labour market participation of all groups in society with a special focus on the most disadvantaged. Labour market and activation policies are well developed in Australia. However, the gap in employment rates is still considerable for some groups of the population, including women with young children, disadvantaged youth, people with disability, people with mental health problems and the indigenous population. This report discusses the size of the gap and the - often multiple - barriers underlying low labour market participation of these groups, and it provides a non-exhaustive number of good practice policies and measures from other OECD countries which could guide Australia's policy development in the coming years.

This review of Corporate Governance in Colombia was prepared as part of the process of Colombia's accession to OECD Membership. The report describes the corporate governance setting for both listed companies and the state-owned sector (SOEs). The review then examines the legal and regulatory framework and company practices to assess the degree to which the recommendations of the G20/OECD Principles of Corporate Governance and the OECD Guidelines on Corporate Governance of State-Owned Enterprises have been implemented. The review finds that Colombia's framework for the corporate governance of listed companies is largely consistent with the Principles, although some companies have been reluctant to implement some of the good practices recommended in Colombia's national corporate governance code. For SOEs, the report recognises substantial reforms undertaken during the review process to adopt an ambitious national ownership policy. Reforms have included establishing an ownership co-ordination unit and more transparent reporting on SOE performance, and removing ministers from SOE boards and establishing more transparent board nomination processes aimed at enhancing the qualifications of board members. The report seeks continuing efforts to consolidate these reforms and to implement plans announced in the national ownership policy.

The Review of Corporate Governance in Latvia was prepared as part of the process of Latvia’s accession to OECD Membership. The report describes the corporate governance setting for both listed companies and the state-owned sector (SOEs). The Review then examines the legal and regulatory framework and company practices to assess the degree to which the recommendations of the G20/OECD Principles of Corporate Governance and the OECD Guidelines on Corporate Governance of State-Owned Enterprises have been implemented. The report finds that Latvia's framework for the corporate governance of listed companies is largely consistent with the Principles. However, the report recommends a series of measures to further strengthen the corporate governance framework, which could help to deepen its currently small capital market and attract investment. For SOEs, the report recognises considerable reforms undertaken during the accession review process to establish an ownership co-ordination unit and to begin re-establishing boards of directors (which had been abolished in 2009). The report calls for consolidation of these reforms and also stresses the importance of clarifying SOE objectives and strategies, and enhancing disclosure.

The Guidance on Corporate Governance for Process Safety draws attention to those at the top of industry to the need for high standards of corporate governance in relation to the management of high hazard industries. The Guidance encourages every director, CEO and President of a major hazard company and to check themselves against a set of self-assessment questions and evaluate their awareness and knowledge in process safety.

The objectives of this report are: to raise awareness about corruption types and risks in the three sectors, and the importance of eliminating those risks through targeted polices and measures; share the experience of ACN countries in tackling corruption in these sectors through specific tools; identify good practices implemented to prevent corruption in these sectors, at the level of government, NGOs, the private sector as well as multi-stakeholder initiatives.

Regulators are the “referees” of markets that provide essential services to citizens; they guarantee that all actors respect the rules and work to achieve the best outcomes. This means that their behaviour must be objective, impartial, consistent and free from conflict of interest – in other words, independent. Yet, regulators need to engage with a number of stakeholders, who may also seek to apply pressure and exert undue influence on regulatory outcomes. The independence of regulators is thus constantly under stress. This report provides practical advice on how to address stress points and protect economic regulators from undue influence, drawing on the experience of over 80 regulators that participate in the OECD Network of Economic Regulators (NER). It presents a practical checklist to support behavioural and organisational change, and helps other stakeholders better understand and appreciate the role of regulators and how to interact with them.

This report looks at the state of health in Croatia.

This publication examines how policy actors involved in cross-border co-operation contribute to the regional integration process in West Africa. It uses a pioneering methodology, known as social network analysis, to visualise the formal and informal relationships between actors involved in cross-border policy networks, showing that borders have notable and diverse impacts on exchanges of information and the relative power of networks. The report then analyses a range of regional indicators of co-operation potential, visually demonstrating that borders can also affect the ability of sub-regions within West Africa to develop cross-border initiatives in a number of ways. Combining these two analyses with the perceptions of regional policy makers as to which border areas they consider as priorities for regional integration, the publication concludes with the analytical foundations for more effective place-based policies that can enhance cross-border co-operation in West Africa.

This report looks at the state of health in Cyprus.

This report looks at the state of health in Czech Republic.

This review introduces the background to and issues at stake in promoting equal partnerships in families in Germany.  It encourages German policy makers to build on the important reforms since the mid-2000s to enable both fathers and mothers to have careers and children, and urges families to “dare to share”. To those ends it places Germany’s experience in an international comparison, and draws from the experience in, for example, France and the Nordic countries which have longstanding policies to support work-life balance and strengthen gender equality. The review starts with an overview chapter also explaining why and how equal sharing pays for families, children, the economy and society as a whole. The book presents current outcomes, policy trends, as well as detailed analysis of the drivers of paid and unpaid work and how more equal partnerships in families may help sustain fertility rates.  The book examines policies to promote partnership, looking both at persistent shortcomings and progress achieved through reform since the mid-2000s. The book includes a set of policy recommendations designed to enable parents to share work and family responsibilities more equally.

The OECD’s New Approaches to Economic Challenges (NAEC) initiative invited experts from inside and outside the Organisation to discuss complexity theory as a means to better understand the interconnected nature of the trends and influences shaping our socio-economic environment. Their contributions, brought together here, examine the assumptions, strengths and shortcomings of traditional models, and propose a way to build new ones that would take into account factors such as psychology, history and culture neglected by these models. The authors concentrate on the discipline of economics as such; the financial system; and applications of complexity theory to policy making and governance. They argue that a new narrative is needed to integrate the hopes, values, attitudes and behaviours of people into economics along with the facts and data economists are more used to dealing with.

This review examines the reforms undertaken by the government of Kazakhstan in the area of public governance and evaluates their impact on the powers and responsibilities of subnational levels of government. It places particular emphasis on finding the right allocation of roles and responsibilities among different levels of government, and on using decentralisation as a means to increase self-reliance, civic participation, accountability, and enhanced capacity at the local level. The report also offers a number of recommendations for further strengthening the role of local executive bodies and democratising some aspects of local government.