Browse by: "2022"

This pilot monitoring report assesses Armenia's anti-corruption reforms and practices based on the criteria to test the new methodology for the 5th round of monitoring under the Istanbul Anti-Corruption Action Plan. The report analyses Armenia’s steps in building anti-corruption institutions and Armenia’s measures to detect, investigate and prosecute high-profile corruption cases. The report also identifies areas for improvement and provides recommendations.

This pilot report assesses Azerbaijan’s anti-corruption framework and practices based on the criteria to test the new methodology for the 5th round of monitoring under the Istanbul Anti-Corruption Action Plan. The report examines Azerbaijan's anti-corruption policy documents, the investigation and prosecution of corruption offences and the overall enforcement framework. The report also identifies areas for improvement and provides recommendations.

This pilot report analyses Georgia’s anti-corruption framework and practices based on the criteria to test the new methodology for the 5th round of monitoring under the Istanbul Anti-Corruption Action Plan. The report examines Georgia’s National Anti-Corruption Strategy, reforms of the judiciary and public prosecution system and public trust in the independence and integrity of these institutions. For each area of analysis, the report identifies areas for improvement and provides recommendations.

This pilot report, elaborated before Russia’s large-scale aggression against Ukraine, examines Ukraine’s anti-corruption framework and practices based on the criteria to test the new methodology for the 5th round of monitoring under the Istanbul Anti-Corruption Action Plan. The report analyses Ukraine’s anti-corruption institutions, investigation and prosecution of corruption offences and the overall enforcement framework. For each area of analysis, the report identifies areas for improvement and provides recommendations.

This report examined how Finland has been incorporating anticipatory functions within its governance system to deal with complex and future challenges in a systemic way. The report applies a new model of anticipatory innovation governance (AIG), developed by the OECD, addressing a considerable gap in prior knowledge and guidance on how governments prepare for unknowable futures. It consists of three parts: an overview of the anticipatory innovation governance model; the assessment of the anticipatory innovation capacity of the Finnish Government; and the pilot case studies, where the principles and functions of the model are explored in practice.

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 apples 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 apples. This brochure is available in electronic format only.

This report on Canada is the ninth country study published in a series of reports on policies to connect people with jobs. It provides an assessment of Employment and Social Development Canada’s system of impact evaluation of active labour market policies (ALMPs). It reviews the use of linked administrative data and quasi-experimental methods to conduct impact evaluations and cost-benefit analysis of ALMPs. The process of quality assurance and communication of the results of the evaluations are also assessed. The report highlights areas of good practice which could be useful for other countries and offers recommendations to build on the good work already carried out by Canada.

Illicit financial flows (IFFs) such as tax evasion are a major policy challenge for developing and emerging economies, in particular as the COVID-19 pandemic has drained domestic resources. This report presents results from a joint project between the OECD and the National Treasury of South Africa, which assesses tax compliance and IFFs in South Africa. The report provides an overview of macroeconomic, tax and fiscal developments in South Africa since the global financial crisis. It discusses the concepts of IFFs, how they relate to the South African context and provides an overview of South Africa’s participation in multilateral initiatives to combat tax evasion. It also provides a quantitative analysis of tax compliance and IFFs over time amid a variety of tax transparency initiatives implemented in South Africa. Finally, the report examines the effectiveness of tax transparency initiatives such as voluntary disclosure programmes, and looks into income and wealth characteristics of applicants to these programmes.

Young adults who have lived in out-of-home care at some point during their childhood often struggle to build stable lives. This is not surprising: typically young care leavers not only have to overcome a difficult childhood, but also tend to receive less support during the crucial years of early adulthood than youth living with their parents. In response to their poor socio-economic outcomes, many agencies responsible for improving outcomes for young people are experimenting with transition programmes for young adults leaving care. This policy report identifies the key challenges that care leavers face and provides a range of good practice examples in OECD countries to promote cross-country learning, help strengthen the international evidence base and support countries to improve their policies for young people leaving their care.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) regularly conducts in-depth peer reviews of the energy policies of its member countries. This process supports energy policy development and encourages the exchange of international best practices and experiences to help drive secure, affordable and clean energy transitions.Belgium’s energy and climate policies push for energy transition through expanding renewable electricity generation and electrifying energy demand, especially for transport. Policies focus on maintaining affordable access to energy with the double aim of protecting vulnerable consumers and ensuring industrial competitiveness. Belgium has made notable progress on deploying offshore wind and increasing the share of electric vehicles. However, fossil fuels still dominate the country’s energy mix, a dependence that is expected to increase. All sectors have considerable work ahead of them to meet Belgium’s targets for increasing the share of renewables, lowering energy demand and reducing emissions.The IEA provides a range of energy policy recommendations in this report to help Belgium smoothly manage the transition to an efficient and flexible carbon-neutral energy system.

In the transition towards a non-polluting, resource efficient industry, greater consideration of value chains shows potential to deliver greater overall environmental benefit than less integrated approaches that focus on individual stages, such as installation or sectoral emissions. Actions taken at the design and manufacturing, or other product life phases, can influence environmental impacts at other stages such as material processing, and waste recycling. The overall life-cycle impacts need to be accounted for at the outset. This report assesses how value chain approaches are/should be incorporated in BAT determinations and related environmental regulatory and policy concepts to accelerate progress toward identifying practices that more effectively consider an industry’s entire value chain to reduce overall environmental impacts as well as individual manufacturing sites within a given sector. This is the fifth in a series of reports developed as part of the OECD’s BAT project.

Industrial facilities play a major role in environmental consequences as their processes may use large amounts of raw materials and energy, and in return, may release significant amounts of pollutants into the air, water and soil. As part of their operational obligations, industrial facilities are required to meet various regulatory requirements in the form of emission limitations and/or standards of performance and environmental quality objectives at the local level. This report is a cross-country analysis of BREFs for three selected industrial sectors; thermal power plants (TPP), cement production and textile manufacturing. It examines seven BREFs for TPP, five BREFs for cement production, and six BREFs for textile manufacturing from countries/organisations, including China, India, Japan, South Korea, the US, the EU, Belgium (Flanders), and the World Bank. The information received from various jurisdictions may encourage and assist countries in their progress towards developing sector-specific BREFs. Beyond that, this comparative analysis may indicate the areas of possible harmonisation between countries, and also highlight the structures or parts of the BREFs that may need expanding or updating for better environmental impact considerations. This is the sixth in a series of reports developed as part of the OECD’s BAT project.

This Best Practice Guide (BPG) was developed to support the implementation of the OECD Recommendation of the Council Concerning Access and Protection of Proprietary Rights to Non-Clinical Health, Safety and Environmental Data and Information on Chemicals. This Recommendation aims to protect both the public and the data owners by keeping a balance between the access of the public to chemical safety data and the protection of the proprietary rights associated with these results. This BPG provides a collection of existing good approaches by governments and industry for disclosing health, safety and environmental data while protecting their proprietary rights.

Laws and regulations affect the daily lives of businesses and citizens. It is important that they are designed in a way that takes account of their social, environmental and business impacts and ensures they remain relevant in today’s fast-changing context. The second edition of the Better Regulation Practices across the European Union report analyses recent developments and current practices for improving the quality of laws and regulations across all 27 EU Member States and the European Union. Using the OECD Indicators of Regulatory Policy and Governance, the report systematically assesses the use of evidence-based tools and stakeholder participation in the design and review of both domestic and EU laws and regulations, and provides a detailed assessment of the application of the proportionality principle. The report presents good regulatory practices and highlights areas that should receive further attention and investment.

Dispute prevention is a fundamental tenet of tax certainty. Bilateral Advance Pricing Arrangements (“BAPAs”), in a growing number of cases, have successfully contributed to providing advance tax certainty to both taxpayers and tax administrations, ensuring predictability in the tax treatment of international transactions. However, stakeholders have identified obstacles that prevent an optimal use of BAPAs. In continuing with its commitment to advancing the tax certainty agenda, the FTA MAP Forum, in conjunction with the FTA Large Business International Programme, has developed the Bilateral Advance Pricing Arrangement Manual (“BAPAM’) which is intended as a guide for streamlining the BAPA process. The BAPAM provides tax administrations and taxpayers with information on the operation of BAPAs and identifies 29 best practices for BAPAs without imposing a set of binding rules. As part of the BAPAM’s development, tax administrations have committed to assessing whether implementation of these best practices is appropriate, considering the circumstances of their own BAPA programme and the unique features of each BAPA application, so that the best practices are applied appropriately and with enough flexibility to improve current BAPA processes. The BAPAM also highlights what tax administrations expect from taxpayers in the BAPA process to facilitate a cooperative and collaborative process.

Rural populations in South East Europe are a key socio-demographic group, with more than twice as many people (41%) living in rural areas compared to OECD countries (19%). This report discusses the importance of addressing the financial literacy needs of rural populations in the region and provides a comparative perspective of the financial literacy and inclusion levels of rural populations, good practice examples and potential relevant measures for consideration by domestic policy makers.