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Despite years of growth in the number of women in paid work, gender roles in unpaid housework have remained remarkably rigid. Unpaid housework can be outsourced to non-care household service providers, such as cleaners or housekeepers, however, high prices, a substantial tax burden and a lack of easy access impose barriers to greater formalisation of the household service sector. With the aim of increasing work-life balance for households, in particular for women in employment, and reducing the wide-ranging practice of undeclared employment, a number of OECD countries have implemented policies to formalise and boost the provision of non-care household services. This report illustrates the importance of the non-care household service sector and reviews international approaches in formalising the non-care household service market, ranging from providing tax incentives or granting social vouchers, to identify good practice. To highlight the potential economic gains that could follow from easing the housework burden, the report also estimates the economic value of unpaid housework provided by men and women.
This report provides an assessment of public governance and territorial development in Polish local self-government units (LSGUs). It offers key recommendations to governments at the national, regional and local levels in Poland on how to enhance development, improve service delivery and strengthen management processes within LSGUs. It addresses eight key thematic areas, including strategic planning, co-ordination across administrative units and policy sectors, multi-level governance and investment capacity, the use of monitoring and evaluation evidence for decision-making, budgeting, strategic workforce management, open government, and regulatory policy to reduce administrative burden and simplify public procurement. The report proposes a classification of LSGUs in Poland based on OECD typology, in order to reflect the economic functionality of specific regions/territories as a means to help LSGUs design more effective local development policies. A self-assessment tool for LSGUs in Poland complements the report and provides key indicators that allow counties and municipalities to assess their main strengths and weaknesses on public governance and local development practices, plan how to better serve citizens, enhance local sustainable development and engage with stakeholders to build a collective vision and plan of action.
Natural hazard-induced disasters (NHID), such as floods, droughts, severe storms, and animal pests and diseases have significant, widespread and long-lasting impacts on agricultural sectors around the world. With climate change set to amplify many of these impacts, a “business-as-usual” approach to disaster risk management in agriculture cannot continue if we are to meet the challenges of agricultural productivity and sustainability growth, and sustainable development. Drawing from seven case studies – Chile, Italy, Japan, Namibia, New Zealand, Turkey and the United States – this joint OECD-FAO report argues for a new approach to building resilience to NHID in agriculture. It explores the policy measures, governance arrangements, on-farm strategies and other initiatives that countries are using to increase agricultural resilience to NHID, highlighting emerging good practices. It offers concrete recommendations on what more needs to be done to shift from coping with the impacts of disasters, to an ex ante approach that focuses on preventing and mitigating the impacts of disasters, helping the sector be better prepared to respond to disasters, and to adapt and transform in order to be better positioned for future disasters.
The report brings together evidence, international experience and policy insights for the design of housing policies. Emphasis is placed on three broad aspects: inclusiveness, efficiency and sustainability. Inclusive access to housing has become increasingly challenging in many OECD countries due to a large extent to rising housing costs, which reflects the failure of housing supply to meet demand, particularly in jobs-rich urban areas. Geographical constraints play a role, but in many cities regulations, including on land-use and zoning provisions, also constrain supply. At the same time, some regulations on tenant-landlord relations can discourage the development of rental markets, pushing up rents. Moreover, the transition to a low-carbon economy poses challenges for a sector that accounts for 17% of CO2 emissions and 37% of fine particulate matter emissions globally. Almost two-thirds of countries worldwide still lack mandatory building energy codes. Frontloading efforts is critical as dwellings have a very long lifespan. The report lays out evidence-based options for concerted policy action to address these challenges, while recognising complementarities and trade-offs amond the different objectives of housing policies. The report is part of the OECD Housing Tookit, which includes an interactive online dashboard of housing indicators and country snapshots.
This brochure is published within the framework of the Scheme for the Application of International Standards for Fruit and Vegetables established by OECD in 1962. It comprises explanatory notes and illustrations to facilitate the uniform interpretation of the current beans standard. It demonstrates the quality parameters on high quality photographs. Thus it is a valuable tool for the inspection authorities, professional bodies and traders interested in international trade in beans. This brochure is available in electronic format only.
The least developed countries (LDCs) are the furthest from achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). They are also likely to be hit the hardest by the COVID-19 crisis and badly need the additional private finance that blended finance can unlock. Yet evidence shows that too little private finance is mobilised for investment in LDCs. How can this be fixed?
The Blended Finance in the Least Developed Countries 2020 report is the third edition and second joint UNCDF-OECD report. It builds on UNCDF research and transactional experience, OECD data and analysis on private finance mobilized by official development finance, and a series consultations with and contributions by blended finance experts, LDC governments, UN missions, donors, civil society and research institutions. The report provides an update on the deployment of blended finance in LDCs. It also analyses its potential role in helping those countries recover from the COVID-19 crisis, and provides an Action Agenda for unlocking capital for the achievement of the SDGs in LDCs, as called for in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Addis Ababa Action Agenda.
The work of early childhood education and care (ECEC) professionals is the major driver of the quality of an ECEC system. As evidence accumulates on the strong benefits of investing in early education, countries need effective policies to attract, maintain and retain a highly skilled workforce in the sector. This report looks at the makeup of the early childhood education and care workforce across countries, assessing how initial preparation programmes compare across different systems, what types of in-service training and informal learning activities help staff to upgrade their skills, and what staff say about their working conditions, as well as identifying policies that can reduce staff stress levels and increase well-being at work. The report also looks at which leadership and managerial practices in ECEC centres contribute to improving the skills, working conditions and working methods of staff.
The OECD Starting Strong Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS Starting Strong) is the first international survey that focuses on the early childhood education and care workforce. It offers an opportunity to learn about the characteristics of ECEC staff and centre leaders, their practices at work, and their views on the profession and the sector. This second volume of findings, Building a High-Quality Early Childhood Education and Care Workforce, examines factors that influence the skills development of ECEC professionals, their working conditions and well-being at work, and leadership in ECEC centres.
This report provides an assessment of both the strengths and potential areas for improvement of the education system of the People’s Republic of China. It articulates the inputs and outputs of China’s education system, brings in up-to-date policies and practices implemented in China, and provides an in-depth analysis on how China’s education system is performing in four overarching dimensions: learning environment, curriculum and teaching practices, student outcomes and education governance. Additionally, this report compares China with other high performing education systems to show the common or divergent patterns between them, offering insights for education systems around the world.
This publication summarises the main findings of a series of high-level expert workshops, organised with support by the European Commission, to deepen the understanding how OECD countries can move towards a broad‑based form of innovation policy for regions and cities. Weaknesses in technology and knowledge diffusion are weighing on productivity growth and innovation in OECD countries, particularly in firms that are distant from the technological frontier (global or national). This in turn weakens their capacity to meet future challenges and undermines inclusive growth.
This report examines where current tools for innovation policy are too narrowly focused, targeting mainly research and development as well as science and technology-based interventions. It seeks to help empower firms to benefit from global trends and technological change, in order to better adapt to the different capacity and innovation eco‑systems across regions and cities.
Close your eyes for a second and think of something that happened over the last 20 years and you would have never expected to occur. Be it the pandemic, smart phones or something else, the truth is that the future likes to surprise us.
Our world is in a perpetual state of change. There are always multiple versions of the future—some are assumptions, others hopes and fears. To prepare, we have to consider not only the changes that appear most probable, but also the ones that we aren’t expecting.
Inspired by the ground-breaking 2001 Schooling for Tomorrow scenarios, this book provides a set of scenarios on the future of schooling, showing not a single path into the future, but many. Using these scenarios can help us identify the opportunities and challenges that these futures could hold for schooling and education more broadly. We can then use those ideas to help us better prepare and act now.
Whether parents or students, teachers or educational leaders, researchers or policy makers, this book has been written for all those who want to think about futures that haven’t occurred to play their part in shaping the future that will.
We are facing a series of converging planetary emergencies linked to the environment, the economy, and our social and political systems, but we will not meet these challenges using the tools of the last century. We need to rethink the role of the economy in improving the well-being of people and the planet. As the world’s leading intergovernmental forum on economic policy, the OECD has a central role to play in creating a new economic narrative. OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurría therefore invited a high-level group of experts to contribute their proposals on what needs to change in economic policy and policymaking. This report summarises their conclusions. The Advisory Group argues that we need to go beyond growth, to stop seeing growth as an end in itself, but rather as a means to achieving societal goals including environmental sustainability, reduced inequality, greater wellbeing and improved resilience. This requires updating the philosophy, tools and methods underpinning the analysis that influences economic decision-making. Drawing on developments across the modern field of economics and political economy, the report argues for a new approach which recognises the rootedness of economic systems and behaviour in the relationship between people, social institutions and the environment.
Bildung auf einen Blick – OECD-Indikatoren ist die maßgebliche Quelle für Informationen zum Stand der Bildung weltweit. Die Publikation bietet Daten zu den Strukturen, der Finanzierung und der Leistungsfähigkeit der Bildungssysteme der einzelnen OECD-Länder sowie einer Reihe von Partnerländern. Mehr als 100 Abbildungen und Tabellen in der Veröffentlichung selbst – sowie Links zu wesentlich mehr Daten in der OECD-Bildungsdatenbank – liefern zentrale Informationen zum Output der Bildungseinrichtungen, zu den Auswirkungen des Lernens in den einzelnen Ländern, zu Bildungszugang, Bildungsbeteiligung und Bildungsverlauf, zu den in Bildung investierten Finanzressourcen sowie zu den Lehrkräften, dem Lernumfeld und der Organisation der Schulen.
Bildung auf einen Blick 2020 hat u. a. einen Schwerpunkt auf der beruflichen Ausbildung. Untersucht warden die Teilnahme an beruflicher Bildung in den verschiedenen Bildungsbereichen, die Arbeitsmarktergebnisse und sozialen Auswirkungen für Absolventen beruflicher Ausbildungsgänge sowie die in berufsbildende Bildungseinrichtungen investierten Human- und Finanzressourcen. Zwei neue Indikatoren zu den unterschiedlichen Systemen der beruflichen Bildung weltweit und den Erfolgsraten im Sekundarbereich II runden die Analyse ab. Außerdem gibt es erneut ein separates Kapitel zu SDG 4, dem vierten Ziel für nachhaltige Entwicklung der Agenda 2030, in dem auch die Qualität und Teilnahme im Sekundarbereich II untersucht wird.
A growing number of governments seek to adopt an approach based on Best Available Techniques (BAT) as part of the regulatory framework to prevent and control industrial emissions. Providing guidance on BAT-based permitting is, in the short term, a means to strengthen policy in individual countries. In the long term, it might facilitate greater international harmonisation of procedures to establish BAT and BAT-AE(P)Ls. This would assist efforts to protect human health and the environment across countries, and expand the level playing field for industry. This document presents a high-level overview of each step of the process to determine BAT, BAT-AE(P)Ls and permit conditions, including information on the principles and factors that should be considered in this process, based on best practices from OECD member and partner countries. It provides references to more detailed information from countries where such approaches are employed, and includes a range of elaborate examples from national and supra-national jurisdictions as well as international conventions. The document promotes an integrated approach to BAT-based environmental permitting. This is the fourth in a series of documents developed as part of the OECD’s BAT project.
This report analyses the skills and capacities governments need to strengthen evidence-informed policy-making (EIPM) and identifies a range of possible interventions that are available to foster greater uptake of evidence. Increasing governments’ capacity for evidence-informed is a critical part of good public governance. However, an effective connection between the supply and the demand for evidence in the policy-making process remains elusive.
This report offers concrete tools and a set of good practices for how the public sector can support senior officials, experts and advisors working at the political/administrative interface. This support entails investing in capability, opportunity and motivation and through behavioral changes. The report identifies a core skillset for EIPM at the individual level, including the capacity for understanding, obtaining, assessing, using, engaging with stakeholders, and applying evidence, which wasdeveloped in collaboration with the European Commission Joint Research Centre.
It also identifies a set of capacities at the organisational level that can be put in place across the machinery of government, throughout the role of interventions, strategies and tools to strengthen these capacities. The report concludes with a set of recommendations to assist governments in building their capacities.
Behavioural insights (BI) has become widely used by public bodies around the world, mostly towards improving the way policies are implemented and influencing individual behaviour. As the field of BI evolves to tackle more complex policy issues, there is widespread perception that BI can and should go beyond the study of individual-level decision processes for higher impact. This report presents research on applying BI to changing the behaviour of organisations, with a focus on fostering elements of a safety culture in the energy sector. It presents comparative findings from experiments with energy regulators in Canada, Ireland, Mexico and Oman, as well as guidance for applying BI to safety culture going forward.
Collaboration between governments, civil society and corporations is acquiring increasing importance in the international agenda as a solution to the complex problems currently affecting our societies. It has become clear that issues such as climate change, persistent poverty, increasing inequality, social exclusion and other major current challenges cannot be tackled by a single sector alone. Given this reality, it is encouraging to see that more and more initiatives featuring various forms of collaboration are being enacted to tackle major social issues. However, despite progress, there is limited knowledge of these initiatives in different countries. This study aims at filling this gap by examining in Mexico how foundations and federal government (FG) departments and agencies have been engaging with each other.
In Kenya, collaboration across sectors to foster sustainable development has been recently gaining momentum. Development players have started to work together more closely due to the ambitious scope of Agenda 2030, the limited financial resources available and the need to achieve greater scale. Other factors influencing this trend include new development strategies and tools such as venture philanthropy and the use of basket funds to pursue more sustainable development. Governments, which are the primary drivers of development, have been keen to plug into these new vehicles. Some have provided non-state players, such as the private sector, social businesses, and philanthropists, with a strong policy and regulatory environment, while others have co-financed initiatives. However, the nature, scope and impact of these partnerships have not often been captured. This study provides an overview of the current state of collaboration between foundations and the government in Kenya and offers recommendations for enhancement. It is based on the three pillars of the Guidelines for Effective Philanthropic Engagement (“the Guidelines”): dialogue, data and knowledge sharing, and partnerships. The Guidelines were developed under the leadership of the OECD Network of Foundations Working for Development (netFWD), together with the Worldwide Initiatives for Grantmaker Support (WINGS), the European Foundation Centre (EFC), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the Stars Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation.
This report analyses the experiences of India, Kenya, Mexico and Myanmar in implementing the Guidelines for Effective Philanthropic Engagement, to bring foundations and governments closer together on a theme of common interest. This report compares the results of surveys led in the four countries between 2015 and 2016 to diagnose the level and nature of engagement between foundations and governments (see Box 2 for more information). The report starts by sketching the country contexts and highlighting their specificities. It then presents some key findings on aspects such as differences in the level of engagement between countries or the benefits of dialogue, as well as transversal challenges. It ends by suggesting drivers for engagement. The report will be updated as more countries commit to implement the Guidelines.
This document describes how the OECD DAC Network on Development Evaluation (EvalNet) revisited the definitions and use of the OECD DAC evaluation criteria in 2018-2019. The document lays out adapted definitions for relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, impact and sustainability, and for one new criterion, coherence. The document describes how the criteria should be used thoughtfully, and adjusted to the context of the intervention and the intended users’ needs. These revised definitions and principles for use are the result of a global consultation on the criteria and a review of how they are used in evaluation and beyond. Following the consultation, members of EvalNet and outside evaluation experts discussed the concepts in depth and reviewed several drafts. The adapted definitions are clearer and will support more rigorous, nuanced analysis, including of equity issues and synergies, in line with current policy priorities. This adaptation also addresses confusion, by adding an introduction on the intended purpose of the criteria and guiding principles for use. Detailed guidance on the application of the criteria is to be provided separately, after adoption.
The Convention on Biological Diversity’s 15th Conference of the Parties (CBD COP15) in 2020 marks a critical juncture for one of the defining global challenges of our time: the loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services, which underpin nearly all of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Transformative changes are needed to ensure biodiversity conservation and sustainable use and the delivery of the ecosystem services upon which all life depends. This report sets the economic and business case for urgent and ambitious action on biodiversity. It presents a preliminary assessment of current biodiversity-related finance flows, and discusses the key data and indicator gaps that need to be addressed to underpin effective monitoring of both the pressures on biodiversity and the actions (i.e. responses) being implemented. The report concludes with ten priority areas where G7 and other countries can prioritise their efforts.