Browse by: "I"
Index
Title Index
Year Index
Higher education helps learners acquire the knowledge and skills they need to lead productive working lives, and it sparks the innovation that fosters economic growth and social progress. However, creating higher education systems that operate at a high level of research and teaching quality, with responsiveness to social and labour market demands, requires effective public policies and institutional practices. This report, which focuses on funding and governance reforms to improve higher education in the Slovak Republic, is a collaboration between the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Structural Reform Support (DG REFORM), the Institute for Strategies and Analysis in the Office of the Government of the Slovak Republic and the OECD’s Directorate for Education and Skills. Building on stakeholder engagement and comparative analysis, the report offers an international perspective on the performance of the Slovak higher education system and provides an action plan focused on governance and funding reforms, placing special emphasis on implementation planning to support reform success.
OECD countries are increasingly attempting to achieve savings through their public procurement systems, in particular in healthcare. In 2012, the State’s Employees’ Social Security and Social Services Institute in Mexico (ISSSTE) asked the OECD to review the effectiveness and integrity of its procurement system and to address bid-rigging. Many of the OECD’s recommendations led to enduring reforms at ISSSTE. In 2015 the OECD conducted a new review focusing on planning and coordination of procurement activities, market research and improvement of medical services. This report presents the findings of the review and notes the ISSSTE’s recent achievements. It also makes recommendations to support the alignment of the ISSSTE’s procurement practices with the 2015 OECD Recommendation of the Council on Public Procurement and includes action plans for priority activities.
Under the Paris Declaration, donors and partner countries commit to “reform procedures and strengthen incentives - including for recruitment, appraisal and training - for management and staff to work towards harmonisation, alignment and results”. This commitment was based on the recognition that the needed changes to behaviour will not happen automatically as there are a number of up-front and long-term costs - institutional, financial and political. The importance of appropriate incentives in influencing managers and officials - and even more importantly political leaders - to bring about the necessary changes has been emphasised in a number of partner countries included in the Evaluation of the Paris Declaration.
If incentives are to shift across the board, determined leadership, reinforced by pressure from well-informed stakeholders in partner and donor countries, will be needed. This publication adddresses this need and aims to provide donor agencies with guidance on how to improve aid effectiveness, and to assist them in identifying their strengths, weaknesses and gaps in incentives for promoting aid effectiveness.
Peace processes hold the promise of re-starting non-violent efforts towards creating more equitable, resilient and developed societies. Yet, such processes are politically and psychologically complex, as well as high-risk. Many fail and such failure is harmful, as it reduces confidence and increases cynicism amongst parties to a conflict, citizens and international partners alike. International support can help a peace process to succeed but its nature and quality matter greatly.
“The Missing Piece” identifies seven recommendations to improve the quality of support that states and international organizations provide to peace processes. It does this through a thorough analysis of: the characteristics of today’s violent conflicts, the factors that influence the success and failure of a peace process and the current strengths & weaknesses of international support.
This report brings together the results of the OECD assessment of the current R&D system in place, with the purpose of mapping the different administrating schemes and its objectives, the target groups, the funding streams and the legal frameworks. The schemes/programmes identified by the Lithuanian authorities were: National R&D Programmes (former National Science Programmes); Scheme for Governmental procurement of R&D services; Pre-commercial Procurement scheme · Innovative Public Procurement scheme; Ministerial Orders for R&D services; and Urgent and “Required” Research and Technology Orders.
This report proposes a detailed outline of the certification framework and a professionalisation strategy, built upon a comprehensive assessment of the challenges with the key stakeholders and close discussion with the Ministry of the Economy and Innovation (MEI) and the Public Procurement Office (PPO) of Lithuania.
The demand for help with daily activities – so-called long-term care – is set to increase in Croatia. The population is ageing at a faster rate than the EU average, and by 2050, about one-third of the population is projected to be aged 65 years and over. In addition, with one of the highest poverty rates among older people in EU countries, at 30%, most older people cannot afford long-term care without public support. However, the long-term care system is both fragmented, with multiple benefits and services across different providers, and underfunded with public expenditure among the lowest across EU countries. As a result, long-term care remains unaffordable for most people even after receiving public support, leading to gaps in access, inequities, and a strong reliance on relatives to provide the bulk of long-term care. This report suggests avenues to improve access and equity of long-term care and proposes policy recommendations to enhance the support for family carers.
Plastics have become one of the most prolific materials on the planet: in 2015 we produced about 380 million tonnes of plastics globally, up from 2 million tonnes in the 1950s. Yet today only 15% of this plastic waste is collected and recycled into secondary plastics globally each year. This report looks at why this is the case and what we can do about it, as the pervasiveness of plastics is becoming an urgent public health and planetary problem. Not only is the diffusion of waste plastics into the wider environment creating hugely negative impacts, but plastics production emits approximately 400 million tonnes of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions annually as a result of the energy used in their production, transport, and final waste treatment. Improved plastics collection and recycling represents a promising solution to these concerns.
Markets for many classes of potentially recyclable materials are growing. However, market failures and barriers are constraining some markets. Factors such as information failures, technological externalities, and market power can affect the prices, quantity, and quality of materials traded. This report presents the case for the use of 'industrial' policies which address such market failures and barriers and these policies are seen as complements to more traditional environmental policies. Indeed, encouraging ever-higher recycling rates in the absence of such complementary measures may impose very high social welfare costs. This publication covers in particular the markets for waste oils, waste plastics, and used rubber tyres.
This report describes how regulators around the world adapted to the confusion brought by the COVID-19 crisis to ensure the supply of food while maintaining food safety and security. It brings together examples of regulatory responses at regional, national and international levels. The report also discusses how, despite all the challenges, the pandemic has helped uncover new regulatory tools and foster a culture of flexibility and agility in regulatory systems.
Regulations help governments support economic growth, social welfare and environmental protection. The challenge is to design clear, coherent, and efficient regulations and to effectively implement them. This report presents cutting-edge thinking in how to facilitate good regulatory design and implementation. Jointly developed by the OECD and the Korea Development Institute, the report builds on a series of expert papers that analyse the experience of Korea and other OECD members in designing and implementing regulatory oversight, stakeholder engagement, regulatory impact assessment and ex post evaluation. It identifies forthcoming challenges, possible solutions and areas for further analysis that can help governments in OECD member and partner countries improve their regulatory systems.
Passengers and freight shippers alike want reliable transport services. Surprisingly, little research has been undertaken in incorporating reliability into the assessment of transport projects despite the increasing importance of scheduling in economic activities.
This report provides policy makers with a framework to understand reliability issues, to incorporate reliability into project assessment and to design reliability management policies. It also explores a range of reliability performance measures. Case studies across OECD and ITF countries provide examples of several core policy tools that can be used to deliver more reliable networks in a cost-effective manner.
The report makes significant progress in identifying appropriate methodology for incorporating reliability into policy and project evaluation, as well as exploring the pitfalls that need to be avoided.
The global fleet of powered two-wheelers (PTWs) is constantly increasing. In many countries, motorcycles, scooters and mopeds play a significant role in mobility, particularly in many of the world’s large cities. As such, PTWs are becoming an important component of the transport system. However, they represent an important challenge for road safety. PTW riders are at far more risk than car drivers per kilometre ridden in terms of fatalities and severe injuries entailing long-term disability. Moreover, they have not benefited from safety improvements at the same pace as car occupants over recent decades. Addressing the issue of PTW safety is thus an essential contribution to the success of the United Nations’ Decade of Action for Road Safety, which aims at halving the expected number of road deaths worldwide by 2020.
This report reviews recent trends in powered two-wheeler crashes, the factors contributing to these crashes and their severity. It describes a set of countermeasures targeting user behaviours, the use of protective equipment, the vehicles and the infrastructure. Finally, it discusses motorcycle safety strategies in the context of a safe system.
This Toolkit is a professional development tool for individuals or groups. It is designed to help policy makers, practitioners and relevant stakeholders to analyse their current school leadership policies and practices and develop a common understanding of where and how to take action based on the OECD Improving School Leadership policy recommendations.
As countries strive to reform education systems and improve student results, school leadership is high on education policy agendas. But in many countries, the men and women who run schools are overburdened, underpaid and near retirement. And few people are lining up for their jobs. Based on an OECD study of school leadership practices and policies around the world, and offering a unique cross country perspective, this book identifies four policy levers and a range of policy options to help governments improve school leadership now and build sustainable leadership for the future.
This book explores what specialists are saying about system leadership for school improvement. Case studies examine innovative approaches to sharing leadership across schools in Belgium (Flanders), Finland and the United Kingdom (England) and leadership development programmes for system improvement in Australia and Austria. As these are emerging practices, the book provides a first international comparison and assessment of the state of the art of system leadership.
Norway is committed to a high quality and equitable education system, as demonstrated by its high level of public expenditure on education and the dynamic policy activity targeting education quality. Despite progress made in enhancing average student performance in recent years, there still are significant differences between schools in municipalities and between municipalities and regions. In response, Norway has started to implement the new competence development model that sets out to develop teacher professionalism with in-service professional development. With this new policy, the Government of Norway aims to provide municipalities and schools with greater freedom of action and empower them to carry out systematic school improvements at the local level. This decentralised approach would respond to local context and the diversity of needs between Norwegian schools.
This report aims to support Norway in this effort, analysing the features of the new model, the engagement of the different stakeholders and the policy context for its introduction. Building on the OECD implementation framework, the report proposes concrete actions to adapt the implementation strategy for impact.
The report will be valuable not only for Norway, but also to the many countries that are looking to promote school-based professional development and bridge the gap between policy design and effective implementation.
This report develops comparative knowledge for reforms in teacher and school management policies in the context of an OECD member country: Mexico. Mexico’s education outcomes can be improved by enhancing the effectiveness of its schools. The standards gap between the performance of students in Mexico and other OECD countries can only be reduced if schools become good at what they do. This report looks at key issues and challenges faced by the Mexican education system and provides policy recommendations on school management, leadership and teacher policies. These recommendations have been developed by considering the outcomes, quality and standards of education and schools in Mexico in terms of what is known internationally about effective schools, and by adapting this knowledge to the Mexican context.
The report has two audiences: It aims to support the Mexican government and key actors in the education system to develop long-term vision and policy in the areas of school management, school leadership, social participation, selection and recruitment of teachers, teacher education, professional development, and evaluation policies in Mexico. At the same time, it provides valuable knowledge in education policy development and implementation useful for other OECD member and partner countries that are in the process of reforming their education systems.
Quality and reliable statistics are pivotal for evidence-based policymaking. The COVID-19 crisis has shed light on the importance of high-quality statistics to measure the impact of government initiatives and to design policies to support an inclusive and sustainable recovery. Strengthening statistical capacities is therefore central to Ukraine’s successful sustainable growth agenda. With this in mind, the Government of Ukraine introduced the Programme for the Development of State Statistics until 2023, which aims to provide objective, reliable and unbiased statistical information according to international best practices, including those of the OECD. With the financial support of Israel and Poland, the OECD conducted the project Improving Statistics Development in Ukraine 2021 which contributed to building the capacity of the State Statistics Service of Ukraine (SSSU) to collect relevant data and producing high-quality statistical information that can serve as a key input for policymaking. In the framework of this project, the OECD organised three capacity-building webinars, tailored to the needs of the SSSU and relevant line Ministries, sharing OECD know-how and drawing on the expertise of Statistics Poland and the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics. This report synthetises the substance of these webinars and highlights key takeaways.
Much has been done to improve the accessibility of transport systems in recent years. The ECMT has prepared this Guide to Good Practice in order to facilitate such an exchange of experience. It addresses both countries where improvements to accessibility are under way, and those that are just now making that commitment.
With examples from recent experience in a wide range of countries, this Guide updates the ECMT’s 1999 Guide, pointing to areas where progress has been made as well as to those where challenges persist. In particular, it covers principles for provision of information generally, how to improve information regarding the road and pedestrian environment, how to improve information provided within transport infrastructure, how to improve information provided relative to transport vehicles, new and innovative transport services, and private cars, and the roles of government.