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Information communication technologies (ICTs) are crucial to reducing poverty, improving access to health and education services and creating new sources of income and employment for the poor. Being able to access and use ICTs has become a major factor in driving competitiveness, economic growth and social development. In the last decade, ICTs, particularly mobile phones, have also opened up new channels for the free flow of ideas and opinions, thereby promoting democracy and human rights.
The OECD and infoDev joined forces at a workshop on 10-11 September 2009 to examine some of the main challenges in reducing the discrepancies in access to ICTs and use of ICTs between developing countries. The workshop discussed best practices for more coherent and collaborative approaches in support of poverty reduction and meeting the Millennium Development Goals.
There is much work to be done on improving policy coherence and there is a need to engage more actively with partner countries. Making the most of ICTs requires that they are seen as part of innovation for development, rather than just another development tool.
This publication examines access to ICTs, as a precondition to their use; broadband Internet access and governments' role in making it available; developments in mobile payments; ICT security issues; ICTs for improving environmental performance; and the relative priority of ICTs in education.
For more information
infoDev: www.infoDev.org
This report represents the second outcome of the collaboration between the Asian Productivity Organization (APO) and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to improve the measurement and analysis of productivity developments across APO and OECD member economies. The report discusses the potential impact of COVID-19 on productivity and examines the role of Multifactor Productivity (MFP) as a major driver of economic growth and changes in living standards. It then identifies the most important factors influencing MFP growth and describes the most important challenges affecting the measurement of each of these factors as well as the estimation of their impact on MFP. The report provides key recommendations to improve the reliability and interpretation of the empirical evidence for economic analysis.
This report is a first step towards building a qualitative understanding of the way illicit or criminal activities interact with the economy, security and development of West African states. Going beyond a traditional analysis of illicit financial flows (IFFs), which typically emphasises the scale of monetary flows, the report examines the nature of thirteen overlapping, and oftentimes mutually reinforcing, criminal and illicit economies, with a view to identify their resulting financial flows and development linkages. In taking this approach, this report identifies the networks and drivers that allow these criminal economies to thrive, with a particular emphasis on the actors and incentives behind them. As a conclusion to this work, this report proposes a series of policy considerations to assist countries to prioritise and focus their responses to reduce the development impacts of IFFs. Resolving the problem of IFFs requires responding to underlying development challenges, and tackling all parts of the problem in source, transit and destination countries.
This publication identifies the main areas of weakness and potential areas for action to combat money-laundering, tax evasion, foreign bribery, and to identify, freeze and return stolen assets. It also looks at the role of development agencies and finds that the potential returns to developing countries from using ODA on issues like combating tax evasion or asset recovery are significant. Finally, it identifies some opportunities for a scaled-up role for development agencies.
El impacto económico de la pandemia del COVID-19 no tiene precedentes recientes, tanto por su naturaleza como por su magnitud. La incertidumbre sobre la intensidad y la duración de la crisis es aún alta, pero las proyecciones de los principales organismos internacionales ya prevén una contracción de la economía global de un 4.9%, o una reducción de alrededor de dos puntos porcentuales del crecimiento económico anual por cada mes de confinamiento en los países donde este se ha aplicado de manera más fuerte. En términos generales, se trata de una contracción de la economía de mayores dimensiones que la sufrida en la crisis financiera global iniciada en 2008. Desde el punto de vista de América Latina y el Caribe (ALC), las perspectivas también son altamente negativas, con proyecciones que estiman que el PIB regional podría reducirse en un 9.4% en 2020, y con temores de que el impacto pueda ser aún mayor si la pandemia se prolonga más de lo inicialmente esperado. En este contexto, Ecuador está sufriendo el impacto de la crisis de manera particularmente intensa, tanto por algunas debilidades estructurales del país, que lo dejan más expuesto y en situación de vulnerabilidad ante las turbulencias económicas actuales, como por circunstancias coyunturales que hacen aún más compleja la salida.
Global events like the Olympics or cultural festivals offer cities a chance to spur growth and capitalize on local assets. However, they also pose risks such as budget overruns and community displacement. The OECD's Global Events Toolkit translates policy advice into actionable steps for governments, organizers, and hosts, ensuring events deliver lasting benefits. In a post-COVID era, where recovery is paramount, maximizing the value of global events is crucial. This toolkit equips policymakers with strategies to create resilient, inclusive, and sustainable outcomes, aligning with OECD's commitment to supporting governments worldwide in realizing the full potential of global events for local development.
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.
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.
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.
This report brings together the recent work done by OECD on water management issues and identifies the main policy challenges for sustainable water management. Issues discussed are: performance of water management policies in OECD countries; water pricing; financing of water and wastewater infrastructure; water-related development co-operation; social aspects of water pricing; biochemical technologies for improving water quality; and aid to the water supply and sanitation sector. Co-published by IWA Publishing, London: www.iwapublishing.com
While Central Asia has proven relatively resilient to the shocks of COVID-19, China’s slowdown and Russia’s war in Ukraine, declining trend rates of growth across the region, lacklustre productivity performance and lingering global uncertainty underscore the need to address weaknesses in the business and investment climate. The implementation of predictable rules, the creation of a level-playing field between firms and greater competition in markets, in particular, could encourage both local entrepreneurs and foreign investors to invest and grow in the region. This report presents an assessment of progress since the 2019-2020 analysis of the legal environment for business and investment in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan against the backdrop of the changing international context brought about by COVID and the war.
Weaknesses in the framework conditions for private sector development and foreign direct investment have contributed to over-reliance of Central Asian economies on a narrow range of often volatile drivers for growth, principally the export of commodities and labour. Despite recent reforms by governments across the region – such as streamlining legislation or introducing new digitalisation programmes – the business environment in Central Asia remains challenging. Even where formal settings have improved considerably, uneven implementation and enforcement, as well as frequent policy changes, create a significant gap between de jure protections and the de facto operational environment for firms. The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated this problem and reinforced the need to address long-standing barriers to business development that could help the region transition to a more dynamic, private sector-driven growth model. This report, part of an ongoing project co-financed by the European Union, focusses on one set of such barriers: the legal and regulatory frameworks for business and investment in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. It presents the findings of an assessment of ten dimensions of the legal environment that are crucial for a healthy business climate: legal and regulatory frameworks for investment; tax regulations; land legislation; registration procedures; contract enforcement and dispute settlement; the operational environment for business; trade facilitation; expropriation regimes; exit mechanisms; and public-private dialogue. The report identifies priority areas for reform identified for each country from among the ten dimensions, most often pertaining to investment, trade and the local operational environment being recurrent themes. It offers specific policy recommendations on these priorities for each of the five countries.
This joint OECD and World Bank Group report, presented to G20 Trade Ministers in October 2015, focuses on the challenge of making GVCs more “inclusive” by overcoming participation constraints for SMEs and facilitating access for LIDCs. Results suggest that SME participation in GVCs is mostly taking place through indirect contribution to exports (rather than through direct exports), and that a holistic approach to trade, investment and national and multilateral policy action is needed to create more inclusive GVCs.
The report highlights the importance of ensuring access to ICT networks – in particular broadband – and stimulating innovation – in particular by enhancing the ability of SMEs to manage and protect their intellectual assets. At the same, the report underscores the importance of helping small firms scale up quickly, and to better integrate in GVCs by lowering barriers to the entry, growth and exit of firms. Countries should also avoid favouring incumbents over new firms.
China has experienced spectacular economic growth since 1978, averaging 8 to 9% per year. As a result, on average, people’s standard of living is far higher than ever before in China’s history. However, economic disparities have also widened very significantly during this period, raising questions about the appropriateness and sustainability of existing policies. This book includes the papers from a seminar held in Paris on 20-21 October 2003 to explore the causes of China's growing economic disparities. The seminar was organised by the OECD and the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) of China. The papers by Chinese and OECD experts look at the driving forces behind these trends and discuss possible policy responses. The collection presents many comparisons with income inequality trends in OECD countries, including geographic disparities, and looks at ways to improve Chinese data on income distribution.
Economic growth, domestic regulation on Corporate Social Responsibility and global interest in India’s development are transforming the role of domestic philanthropic giving. First, the rapid expansion of the economy over three decades of strong economic growth, with a concurrent increase in domestic wealth, bodes well for the potential for philanthropic giving. Second, the Indian Companies Act of 2013 regulates Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and mandates higher corporate spending towards specific sectors. Third, global interest in India’s social and economic development is high – reflected in important levels of external funding – and it has become the largest recipient of international philanthropic flows, while external financing from foreign direct investment (FDI) and personal remittances have increased as a percentage of GDP. Meanwhile, official development assistance (ODA) as a percentage of Gross National Income (GNI), has decreased. The OECD invited 178 of the largest CSR and philanthropic organisations in India to be part of a survey to map India’s domestic giving sector and compare it to other sources of funding, such as ODA, international philanthropic flows and public social expenditures. Family foundations and corporate foundations, however, were reluctant to share financial data, so domestic funding has been partially identified for only 50 large organisations by type of funder, target sector and the Indian States and Territories in which it is carried out.
This report reviews the Korean catching up and it analyzes the recent reforms which have been put in place to address the territorial dimension in the design and implementation of industrial policies, with a view to share knowledge and policy experience with emerging and developing economies. Korea is a well known success case, but less is known about the efforts and reforms introduced to factor in the territorial dimension in its national development strategy.
The report identifies the advances and challenges of the Korean approach to regional development. Results show that beside the specificities of the Korean experience it conveys several lessons for developing countries: i) Planning actions on a multi-annual basis is essential to achieve policy goals in fields such as industrial and regional development where policy outcomes depend on structural changes that will require long term horizons to be materialised and where coordination across several ministries (such as education, infrastructure and access to finance) is needed. ii) It is important to establish mechanisms that ensure a high level political support to regional development as well as to target resources to regions. iii) Supporting industrial development in regions requires designing specific programs beyond administrative boundaries. iv) The space for bottom up initiatives and regional empowerment has to be matched by a gradual approach to build the necessary capabilities at the regional level.
How can governments support the private sector’s contribution to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)? This book investigates the contribution of firms to the SDGs, particularly through their core business, taking into account inter-sectoral linkages and global value chains, using novel techniques and data sources. Despite the fact that the private sector has the potential to contribute to a wide range of SDGs, and that many firms find it economically viable to develop sustainable products and services, firms still face significant hurdles in their sustainability transition. Based on this new evidence, this book provides some recommendations on the design of industrial policies to enhance the contribution of businesses to the SDGs.
COVID-19 has triggered an economic and public health crisis that has had a particularly severe effect on informal businesses and workers in the Easter Partner countries and Central Asia, regions where they have historically represented a large share of economic activity. The informal sector has previously acted as a sort of social buffer in times of crisis and has been a source of resilience for many precarious workers in transition economies. For many in the region, informal economic activity has provided subsistence revenues, flexible arrangements and opportunities for vulnerable workers and businesses alike. COVID-19 is different. Many of the key arenas for informal work were among the first to be hit by the crisis: governments had to close market places and implement strict containment and social distancing measures. Many informal workers were left with nothing to fall back on. Migrants had to return home or remain without work in their countries of destination, often with a loss of income in both cases. This had a significant impact on those of the region’s economies that are heavily reliant on remittances. In addition, most government support programmes in the region focused on the formal sector, leaving the informal sector with little or no support. This Policy Note looks at the impact of the crisis on those who make their living in the informal economy in the region and discusses how governments can address the short-term effects of COVID-19 on the informal sector and build on this crisis response to advance business formalisation over the long term. This Note offers a comprehensive approach to firm formalisation and contributes to a long-standing conversation on the informal economy with Eurasia governments, the private sector and international partners that ultimately calls for careful and tailored policy design, experiments and implementation.