Browse by: "2021"

From “traditional” software to cloud services and Internet of Things (IoT) devices, our economies and societies are increasingly reliant upon “smart products” that contain code and can connect to each other, e.g. through the Internet. Such products are vulnerable to cyber security risk, and economic factors often play a major role in their relative ‘insecurity’. This report discusses how policy makers can address key challenges that prevent smart products from reaching an optimal level of digital security. Increasing transparency and information sharing, promoting co-operation (including at the international level), and ensuring the duty of care of supply-side actors (e.g. through the principles of security-by-design, security-by-default and responsible end-of-life) are important avenues for policy action. Policy makers can leverage many tools to achieve these objectives, from public procurement, certification and multi-stakeholder partnerships, to labels and ex ante legal requirements.

Economies and societies are increasingly reliant upon “smart products” that contain code and can connect to one another, e.g. through the Internet. Recent cyber-attacks such as Mirai, WannaCry, NotPetya and SolarWinds have underlined that the exploitation of vulnerabilities in smart products can have severe economic and social consequences. Such attacks increasingly threaten users’ safety and well-being, as well. This report shows that economic factors play an important role in the relative “insecurity” of smart products. It develops an analytical framework based on the value chain and lifecycle of smart products, and applies the framework to three case studies: computers and smartphones, consumer Internet of Things (IoT) devices and cloud services. It demonstrates that complex and opaque value chains lead to a misallocation of responsibility for digital security risk management, while significant information asymmetries and externalities often limit stakeholders’ ability to behave optimally.

With most students around the world having experienced remote learning over the past year because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the importance of teachers and schools has become all the more evident. Temporary school closures underline how richly students benefit from being in school with their teachers and classmates. Positive, High-achieving Students? What Schools and Teachers Can Do pinpoints some of the factors that make an effective teacher and school.

The International Early Learning and Child Well-being Study puts a spotlight on how children are faring at 5 years-of-age. Children’s early well-being and learning are primary determinants of their later outcomes in schooling and in adulthood. Yet children’s development during their early years remains one of the most neglected areas of international research in education. As a consequence, the international evidence countries can draw on to inform their policy approaches for children’s early learning is sparse. The International Early Learning and Child Well-being Study has been developed and designed to fill this gap. Education systems that prioritise evidence on children’s actual needs and who learn from other countries’ achievements and challenges will be more successful in giving every child a strong early start, thereby building more successful and equitable systems.

Health systems continue to adapt to cope with the COVID‑19 pandemic. Much focus has been placed on the scaling-up of hospital capacities. However, the pandemic is also deeply affecting the health of many people who are not infected by the virus. People living with chronic conditions are not only highly vulnerable to complications and death from COVID‑19, but they are also suffering from disruptions to their regular care routines. The COVID‑19 crisis demonstrates the importance of placing primary health care at the core of health systems, both to manage an unexpected surge of demand and to maintain continuity of care for all. Strong primary health care – organised in multi-disciplinary teams and with innovative roles for health professionals, integrated with community health services, equipped with digital technology, and working with well-designed incentives – helps deliver a successful health system response. The innovations introduced in response to the pandemic need to be maintained to make health systems more resilient against future public health emergencies, and able to meet the challenges of ageing societies and the growing burden of chronic conditions.

Most digital security incidents are caused by malicious actors (e.g. cybercriminals and state-sponsored groups) exploiting vulnerabilities in organisations’ digital ecosystems. Addressing vulnerabilities before attackers take advantage of them is an effective means of reducing the probability of cybersecurity incidents. This paper discusses vulnerabilities in products’ code such as software and firmware, and in how products are implemented in information systems. It shows that the technical community has progressed in developing good practice for treating vulnerabilities, including through co-ordinated vulnerability disclosure (CVD). However, significant economic and social challenges prevent stakeholders from adopting good practice, such as legal frameworks that do not sufficiently protect “ethical hackers” from legal proceedings. The paper stresses that public policies aimed at removing obstacles and encouraging vulnerability treatment could significantly reduce digital security risk for all. The findings from this paper will inform the development of a new OECD Recommendation in this area.

Todos los países necesitan vacunas, pero no todos pueden producirlas. La producción de vacunas es una actividad altamente especializada, sujeta a las ventajas comparativas, y concentrada en pocos países, por lo que el comercio es un medio indispensable para que las vacunas se distribuyan ampliamente. Para asegurar el acceso oportuno a las vacunas para todos será clave mantener los mercados abiertos reduciendo los aranceles, agilizar los procesos comerciales relacionados antes y después de frontera, al tiempo que se garantiza una mejor coordinación en los procesos logísticos. Este documento aborda el comercio y las consideraciones de política comercial que sostienen el acceso a los insumos finales e intermedios necesarios para producir, entregar y aplicar las vacunas contra la COVID-19. Asimismo, se enfoca en los aspectos internacionales de la cadena de suministro de la vacuna, analiza el suministro, producción, distribución y la necesidad de hacer expeditos el cruce de la frontera internacional y la transportación (en el contexto de suministro de la cadena de frío).

The policy debate on whether the gains from international specialisation in global value chains (GVCs) outweigh the associated risks of transmission of shocks has intensified in the aftermath of the COVID-19 outbreak and the resulting disruptions in supply chains of some manufacturing and medical products. Questions are even being asked whether governments should use policy tools to “re-localis” GVCs. This policy brief first identifies key potential sources of exposure to shocks in GVCs. Second, it uses the OECD’s global trade model to shed light on the consequences of a stylised re-localisation policy scenario, in terms of both economic efficiency and stability. In this scenario, countries are less exposed to foreign shocks, but they are also less efficient and less able to cushion shocks through trade. Quantitatively, the latter effect tends to dominate. The economic case for policy-induced reshoring of GVCs is therefore weak. There is nevertheless scope for international co-operation and governments to join efforts with businesses to improve risk preparedness.

All countries need vaccines but not all can produce them. Vaccine production is highly specialised, subject to comparative advantages, and concentrated in few countries, making trade a vital means to deploying vaccines broadly. Keeping markets open by reducing tariffs, streamlining trade-related processes at and behind the border while ensuring better co-ordination of logistical processes will be key to ensuring timely access to vaccines for all. This note discusses trade and trade policy considerations underpinning access to the final and intermediate goods needed to effectively produce, deliver and administer COVID-19 vaccines. It focuses on the international aspects of the vaccine supply chain, discussing the sourcing, production, distribution and need to expedite international border crossing and transportation (including in the context of the cold supply chain).

In a climate of heightened debt vulnerabilities, countries in sub-Saharan Africa struggle to fill the gap in infrastructure finance, which is paramount to achieving their sustainable development objectives. At the same time, the infrastructure financing landscape in the region has become increasingly diverse and challenging to navigate. This paper reviews the role of Development Assistance Committee (DAC) members in supporting countries to address mounting infrastructure needs while avoiding and mitigating potential debt crises.

The first part of the paper provides an overview of the infrastructure needs in sub-Saharan Africa. The second part presents the changes in infrastructure financing, highlighting the dominant roles of domestic government and non-DAC lenders. The third part explains how infrastructure finance can be a potential driver for the debt build-up in the region; but that the quality of spending and the diversity of financing providers can be mitigating factors. The fourth part includes policy recommendations for DAC members.

Questo documento esplora e classifica alcune delle politiche più comuni tra i responsabili politici nazionali, regionali e locali durante o prima della pandemia di COVID-19 per rendere praticabile, promuovere e sfruttare al meglio il telelavoro. Vengono inoltre analizzate alcune misure miranti ad attrarre e trattenere in determinati territori i lavoratori e gli imprenditori che operano a distanza. L’attuale crisi ha comportato, tra gli altri aspetti, una sperimentazione di massa del telelavoro, senza precedenti per dimensioni e portata. La transizione verso un modello di telelavoro diffuso su vasta scala e su base permanente avrebbe profonde implicazioni per la geografia del lavoro a livello locale. Le PMI potrebbero essere meno attrezzate delle grandi imprese per affrontare tale cambiamento. Le politiche pubbliche possono assumere un ruolo cruciale nel trasformare il telelavoro in un'opportunità per tutti, e ridurre il rischio di un potenziale ampliamento delle disparità preesistenti tra persone, territori e aziende.

The management of multilateral fish stocks is suffering from the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic has disrupted the operations of Regional Fisheries Management Organisations (RFMOs), which have jurisdiction over fish stocks that either straddle the exclusive economic zones of several countries or are predominantly in the high seas. This is largely because of reduced monitoring, control and surveillance capacity due to limitations imposed on the operations of observer and surveillance programmes and the challenges of decision making in virtual meetings. A survey undertaken in July 2020, to which 13 RFMOs and nine OECD members responded, reveals that: i) over two-thirds of RFMOs have reduced in-person and on-board observation of vessels, increasing the opportunity for unscrupulous operators to engage in illegal, unreported or unregulated (IUU) fishing; and ii) almost all (92.3%) RFMOs surveyed have experienced disruption to their regular scheduled meetings and 84.6% reported disturbance to regular decision making. Nonetheless, on a positive note, the COVID-19 pandemic may spur the uptake of new technologies for virtual meetings and the monitoring of fishing activities.

Concerns about market power and competition in the agri-food sector are widespread, with commentators regularly suggesting that farmers are in a structurally weaker position than other actors, who therefore benefit at their expense. The evidence reviewed in this paper indicates that downstream segments of agri-food chains are indeed typically more concentrated than farm-level production. Nevertheless, while competition problems were found in some instances, the current evidence does not support the claim that stronger actors in the chain systematically abuse their stronger position at the expense of farmers. An in-depth understanding of how value chains are organised is essential, as many widely used indicators provide little relevant information. In many areas, further research would be welcome, as current evidence does not cover all countries and sectors equally well.