Browse by: "2024"

Relative to its population, Iceland experienced the largest inflow of immigrants over the past decade of any OECD country. Four out of five immigrants in Iceland have come from EU and EFTA countries, although there has been a recent increase in humanitarian arrivals. Employment rates are the highest in the OECD, for both men and women, reflecting the recent and labour market oriented nature of most immigration to Iceland. However, immigrants’ skills are often not well used, as witnessed by the high rate of formal overqualification. What is more, immigrants’ language skills are poor in international comparison and there is evidence of growing settlement of immigrants. Against this backdrop, Iceland is at a turning point in its integration framework, and seeks to develop a comprehensive integration policy for the first time. This review, the fifth in the series Working Together for Integration, provides an in depth analysis of the Icelandic integration system, highlighting its strengths, weaknesses, and potential areas for improvement. Earlier reviews in this series looked at integration in Sweden (2016), Finland (2018), Norway (2022) and Flanders (2023).

Des systèmes de santé résilients supposent des chaînes d’approvisionnement en produits médicaux sûres. Or ces chaînes sont complexes et internationalisées, et font souvent intervenir de nombreux fournisseurs. La pandémie de COVID-19, pendant laquelle ont coïncidé une hausse sans précédent de la demande et des interruptions dans l’offre et les flux commerciaux, a accentué les pénuries existantes et de plus en plus fréquentes de médicaments essentiels, comme les antibiotiques et les anesthésiques, et a provoqué des ruptures de stock concernant certains dispositifs médicaux, comme les masques et les respirateurs. Ce rapport offre un éclairage sur les risques et les vulnérabilités des chaînes d’approvisionnement en médicaments et dispositifs médicaux. Il analyse les mesures que peuvent prendre les pouvoirs publics pour anticiper et atténuer les risques de pénuries de médicaments et de dispositifs médicaux, tant en temps ‘normal’ que dans le contexte de crises graves. Le rapport montre surtout que pour renforcer la résilience à long terme des chaînes d’approvisionnement en produits médicaux, il est indispensable d’agir dans le cadre de démarches collaboratives conciliant les mesures prises par le secteur privé avec celles relevant des gouvernements ou d’instances supranationales.

Dans la dixième édition de son recueil d’indicateurs sociaux publié tous les deux ans, Panorama de la société 2024 : Les indicateurs sociaux de l’OCDE, l’OCDE répond à la demande croissante de données quantitatives sur le bien-être social et son évolution. Ce rapport propose un chapitre spécial consacré à l’évolution de la fécondité, qui examine les données issues des dernières analyses de l’OCDE quant à l’incidence des résultats sur le marché du travail, du coût du logement et de différents paramètres de la politique familiale (congé parental, accueil des jeunes enfants et aides financières par exemple) sur les tendances en matière de fécondité, et qui met en lumière les principaux enjeux de l’action publique. La présente édition du Panorama de la société comprend également une section spéciale fondée sur le cycle 2022 de l’enquête de l’OCDE Des risques qui comptent, qui examine les perceptions des individus quant aux risques sociaux et économiques, et leurs points de vue sur la façon dont les pouvoirs publics font face à ces risques. Le Panorama de la société contient 25 indicateurs sociaux, 5 par chapitre (Contexte général, Autonomie, Équité, Santé et Cohésion sociale). Ces indicateurs couvrent les 38 pays membres de l’OCDE et, selon la disponibilité des données, les pays en voie d’adhésion et les Partenaires clés (Afrique du Sud, Argentine, Bulgarie, Brésil, Croatie, Chine, Inde, Indonésie, Pérou et Roumanie), ainsi qu’un autre pays du G20 (Arabie saoudite).

Paraguay has faced multiple shocks in the past five years as the COVID-19 pandemic was bookended by severe droughts that affected two key sectors, electricity production and agricultural production. The economy has demonstrated remarkable resilience during this period, supported by policy measures commensurate with the magnitude of the challenge, like the USD 2 billion fiscal response to the pandemic. These shocks have also exposed key underlying vulnerabilities in the country’s economy and development model, including reliance on agricultural exports, informality, limited revenue-raising capacity, and exposure to the consequences of climate change. The response and stimulus recognised these issues and found new ways to address or circumvent them, albeit in many cases not efficiently or permanently. This report draws lessons from policy measures implemented during the pandemic and recovery phase and applies them to current strategic challenges. In doing so, it highlights policy priorities to make Paraguay’s development path more inclusive, stronger and more resilient.

What factors influence satisfaction with social protection? This report investigates differences in perceptions of social protection across countries, with a focus on France, using novel data from the OECD’s Risks that Matter Survey. Compared to respondents in Germany and the United Kingdom, French respondents are systematically the least satisfied with social protection in their country, even as France performs well on many social programme outcome indicators. This report explores a range of different factors influencing perceptions of social protection, including individual risk perceptions; the shape, size and cost of social programmes; frictions in application and service delivery in social programmes; and socio-economic and cultural factors.

El informe de la OCDE Igualdad de género en Costa Rica: Hacia una mejor distribución del trabajo remunerado y no remunerado es el cuarto informe de una colección de informes que tiene como foco los países de América Latina y el Caribe, y forma parte de la serie Igualdad de género en el trabajo. El informe compara las brechas de género de los resultados laborales y educativos en Costa Rica con otros países. El informe presta particular atención a la distribución desigual del trabajo no remunerado y la carga adicional que esto implica para las mujeres. Así mismo, investiga cómo las políticas públicas y programas de ayuda en Costa Rica pueden hacer que esta distribución sea más equitativa. La primera parte del informe examina la evidencia sobre las brechas de género y sus causas, incluyendo el papel que desempeñan las normas sociales. La segunda parte desarrolla un marco global para abordar estos retos, presentando una amplia gama de opciones para reducir la carga de trabajo no remunerado que recae sobre las mujeres y aumentar sus ingresos laborales. Estudios anteriores de la misma colección han analizado las políticas de igualdad de género en Chile (2021) Perú (2022) y Colombia (2023).

The OECD review of Gender Equality in Costa Rica: Towards a Better Sharing of Paid and Unpaid Work is the fourth in a collection of reports focusing on Latin American and the Caribbean countries, and part of the series Gender Equality at Work. The report compares gender gaps in labour and educational outcomes in Costa Rica with other countries. Particular attention is put on the uneven distribution of unpaid work, and the extra burden placed on women. It investigates how policies and programmes in Costa Rica can make this distribution more equitable. The first part of the report reviews the evidence on gender gaps and their causes, including the role played by social norms. The second part develops a comprehensive framework to address these challenges, presenting a broad range of options to reduce the unpaid work burden falling on women, and to increase women’s labour income. Earlier reviews in the same collection have looked at gender equality policies in Chile (2021), Peru (2022) and Colombia (2023).

The transition to net-zero emissions by 2050 will have profound impacts on the labour market and the jobs of millions of workers. Aggregate effects on employment are estimated to be limited. But many jobs will be lost in the shrinking high-emission industries, while many others will be created in the expanding low-emission activities. This edition of the OECD Employment Outlook examines the characteristics of the jobs that are likely to thrive because of the transition (“green-driven jobs”), including their attractiveness in terms of job quality, and compares them to jobs in high-emission industries that tend to shrink. The cost of job displacement in these latter industries is assessed along with the trajectories of workers out of them towards new opportunities, and the labour market policies that can facilitate job reallocation. Particular attention is devoted to upskilling and reskilling strategies to facilitate workers’ transition into fast-growing, green-driven occupations. The distributive impacts of climate-change mitigation policies are also examined, with a focus on carbon pricing and options to redistribute its tax revenue to those most impacted. As usual, the first chapter of the Outlook assesses recent labour market developments (including wage trends), but also provides an update of the OECD Job Quality indicators.

Les politiques efficaces en matière de protection sociale sont celles qui tiennent compte des liens d’interdépendance entre les retombées économiques, sociales et environnementales. Ce document, destiné à éclairer les discussions de la filière Finance au cours de la Présidence japonaise du G7 en 2023, décrit une série d’initiatives menées à l’échelle nationale et internationale pour améliorer la mesure du bien-être multidimensionnel « au-delà du PIB ». En particulier, le Système de comptabilité nationale (SCN) de 2025 rendra plus visibles l’économie numérique et les services numériques gratuits, ainsi que les activités non rémunérées des ménages et l’épuisement du capital naturel. Par ailleurs, plus de deux tiers des pays de l’OCDE ont mis au point, à l’échelle nationale, des cadres, des plans de développement ou des enquêtes axés sur le bien-être multidimensionnel, couvrant un large éventail de résultats et d’inégalités au niveau économique, social et environnemental qui ont une incidence sur le bien-être des populations et sa pérennité. Certaines économies du G7 et de l’OCDE ont commencé à utiliser ces éléments pour éclairer l’élaboration du budget, renforcer les outils d’évaluation de l’action publique (y compris l’analyse coûts-avantages) et étayer les cadres de gestion des performances de l’administration et les stratégies de croissance inclusive.

Ensuring equality for LGBTI+ individuals is a human rights imperative, but it also makes a lot of economic sense. Inclusion enables LGBTI+ individuals to achieve their full employment and labour productivity potential, benefitting not only their economic and social well-being, but also society as a whole. Yet, robust evidence supporting the economic case for greater LGBTI+ equality is still scarce due to challenges in accurately measuring the size and life situation of the LGBTI+ population. This report bridges this gap by using a unique set of microdata from the United States. The report begins with an overview of the share of US adults identifying as LGBTI+, their geographic distribution and key demographics. It then evaluates the extent to which LGBTI+ Americans face discrimination, assessing how this population fares, including in the labour market. Finally, utilising the OECD long-term model, the report quantifies the potential increase in GDP resulting from closing the unexplained LGBTI+ gaps in employment and labour productivity. The findings highlight significant economic gains, although they capture only a portion of the potential benefits. Notably, the broader societal impacts, such as the advancement of women's empowerment through the disruption of heteronormative standards, are not quantified.

Society at a Glance 2024: OECD Social Indicators, the tenth edition of the biennial OECD overview of social indicators, addresses the growing demand for quantitative evidence on social well-being and its trends. The report features a special chapter on fertility trends which discusses evidence from recent OECD analysis on the effect of labour market outcomes, housing costs and different aspects of the family policy framework (e.g. parental leave, childcare, and financial supports) on fertility trends and highlights key policy challenges. This edition of Society at a Glance also includes a special section based on the 2022 OECD Risks that Matter Survey on people’s perceptions of social and economic risks and the extent to which they think governments address those risks effectively. Society at a Glance presents 25 social indicators, 5 each in chapters on General context, Self-sufficiency, Equity, Health, and Social cohesion. These indicators include data for 38 OECD member countries and, where available, accession and key partners countries (Argentina, Bulgaria, Brazil, Croatia, China, India, Indonesia, Peru, Romania, and South Africa) and another other G20 country (Saudi Arabia).

Informality is not a new phenomenon but today, in face of the multiplication of domestic and global shocks, the vulnerabilities associated with informal work and businesses are an undisputable hurdle to economic resilience and more inclusive and equal societies. Yet, certain policy measures implemented with the intention of addressing the consequences of crises on vulnerable groups in the society – groups that include informal workers and businesses – can unintentionally induce more informality, in a vicious cycle that makes formalisation and resilience even more difficult to reach. The report Informality and Structural Transformation in the Middle East and North Africa outlines a framework for assessing the impact of economic and social policies on informality. The framework was developed jointly by the ILO, OECD and UNDP, and is thought as a hands-on instrument, allowing policy makers to foresee early on in the policymaking cycles the effects diverse economic and social policies could have on the informal economy. This tool adds to the vast literature on informality. Understanding the expected impact of different policies on informality can help governments to identify measures that support their key objectives, e.g. helping firms in financial distress or expanding social protection, without altering motivations and incentives to formalisation.

Despite having advanced social protection systems, OECD countries still face challenges in identifying, enrolling, and providing benefits and services to all those in need. Even when programmes are well-designed and adequately funded, cumbersome enrolment processes and challenges in service and benefit delivery can be an obstacle to the full take-up of social programmes. Advances in digital technologies and data can go a long way towards making social protection more accessible and effective. This report presents a stocktaking of OECD governments’ strategies to identify individuals and groups in need, collect and link (potential) beneficiary data across administrative and survey sources, and apply data analytics and new technologies to improve programme enrolment and the benefit/service delivery experience – all with the objective of reaching people in need of support in OECD countries.

The joint OECD-UNHCR publication series “Safe Pathways for Refugees” collects data from 37 OECD countries and Brazil on entry permits issued for work, study and family reunification to nationals of seven origin countries associated with high asylum needs. The latest, fourth edition maps the availability and use of such complementary pathways from 2010 to 2022, highlighting key trends and recommendations for the international community.

Childhood is changing in ways that we are still unpacking, affected by digitalization, globalization and climate change, as well as shocks such as the COVID-19 pandemic. In many OECD education systems, child empowerment is increasingly an explicit aim of policies and practices. But it is often poorly defined, which risks turning it into a mere slogan. With the advancement of children’s rights, children are increasingly being included as stakeholders in decision-making processes. This report gives examples of how children in OECD countries can and do participate in making decisions about issues that affect them. The report examines children's emotional well-being and physical activity, and the role of schools as a physical space to create and support relationships. It also underlines the untapped potential of media education when it comes to seizing opportunities in childhood. Empowering all children to make the most of digital opportunities starts with further narrowing the gap in terms of access to digital tools and the Internet, where inequalities are persistent and pervasive. So, what does child empowerment mean today? Empowered children have the opportunity and ability to act on issues important and relevant to them, can learn by making mistakes, and are key contributors to democracy.