Browse by: "2023"

As plastic use becomes more pervasive, the environmental repercussions of plastic pollution are expected to become increasingly unsustainable. The global community is far from achieving its long-term objective of ending plastic pollution unless countries implement significantly more stringent and coordinated policies. This paper addresses the costs associated with different policies aimed at ending plastic pollution, as well as paying particular attention to how the development cooperation and finance can support countries that have less financial resources to live up to the challenge of ending plastic pollution.

Less than two years after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Russia’s illegal, unprovoked and unjustifiable war of aggression against Ukraine has triggered the biggest military confrontation in Europe since World War II. Many OECD countries have reacted to Russia’s aggression by providing military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine and by imposing economic sanctions on Russia, which has accentuated supply chain disruptions, especially in the energy sector. A combination of these supply shocks with a demand shock caused by expansionary fiscal and monetary policies to tackle the pandemic has created inflationary pressures on a scale not seen in decades. Central banks around the world are acting to fulfil their price stability mandates by increasing interest rates and by engaging in quantitative tightening (primarily the selling of government bonds to reduce central bank balance sheets), all of which put pressure on borrowing costs at a time when governments are engaging in expansionary fiscal policy to alleviate the impact of inflation. The objective of this policy note is to examine the main consequences of this challenging environment for the fiscal stance of different levels of governments. These include the weakening outlook for government revenues in times of high expenditure pressures from a more rapid energy transition as well as high borrowing costs.

This background report aims to take stock of main developments in capital markets and corporate governance in the region, to help inform the discussions on the review of the ASEAN Corporate Governance Scorecard.

Even though much uncertainty remains regarding the length of stay of Ukrainian refugees in host countries, continued fighting has dimmed prospects of an early return and the issue of labour market integration is becoming increasingly pertinent. Finding gainful employment commensurate with refugees’ educational and professional qualifications supports new arrivals in becoming self-sufficient and boosts the local economy. It also enables them to use and possibly further enhance their skills, which is crucial for the future recovery of Ukraine. This policy response outlines the existing evidence on the socio-economic profiles and labour market integration of Ukrainian refugees in OECD countries as well as relevant policies to further support labour market integration. Findings suggest that the labour market inclusion of Ukrainian refugees has been faster compared to other refugee groups. That said, much of the early employment uptake by Ukrainian refugees has been concentrated in low-skilled jobs, thus skills mismatches are widespread.

Labour and skills shortages are a major concern in the agro-food sector across OECD countries. This challenge is compounded by the relatively small, and declining, contribution of agriculture to GDP, and the negative public perception of the sector with relatively low wages and limited career prospects. This paper reviews policies that have the potential to address labour and skills shortages in the agro-food sector including labour market, education and training, social protection policies, immigration, as well as agricultural specific policies. Many of the policy levers used to address the agro-food labour challenge lie outside the sector and involve finding the right policy mix that tends to be country specific. Furthermore, some issues can be addressed by closer public and private collaboration such as improving working conditions, increasing investment in agricultural education and training of young entrants to the sector. Greater attention also needs to be given to improving the image of agriculture as a career choice, promoting a more diverse workforce, improving the alignment of skills to the needs of the sector, promoting continuous learning, and strengthening national advisory services.

This report takes stock of progress made by development co-operation providers – both bilateral and multilateral – to mobilise private finance in support of sustainable development. It also highlights the contribution of mobilised private finance to narrowing the sustainable development goals (SDGs) and climate financing gaps. Finally, based on a survey conducted in 2022, the report presents qualitative insights on the providers’ portfolios, with a focus on their use of leveraging mechanisms, as well as on the main incentives and obstacles they encounter to scale up private finance for sustainable development and climate action.

Amidst the recovery from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine has resulted in new challenges to the global economy and to international trade. This report relies on detailed trade data to assess the impact of these two overlapping shocks on international trade and supply chains. In February 2022, global trade was approaching pre-Covid levels in absolute terms, but with a different product and geographical composition resulting in a continued sense of tension in the trading system. Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine has added a new dimension of challenges as it has led to deliberate radical interruptions of trade linkages between Russia, Ukraine and many industrialised economies, with significant repercussions on prices of key commodities in the energy and agricultural sectors.

La télémédecine, autrement dit les consultations cliniques à distance, n’était guère utilisée, dans la plupart des pays de l’OCDE, avant la pandémie de COVID-19, les contraintes réglementaires et la frilosité des patients et des prestataires de soins lui faisant frein. Au début de l’année 2020, alors que le COVID-19 bousculait totalement la prestation de soins en personne, les pouvoirs publics ont rapidement décidé de l’encourager. Le nombre de téléconsultations s’est alors envolé, ce qui a contribué de façon déterminante au maintien de l’accès aux soins, mais n’a qu’en partie compensé la contraction des soins en personne. Nous verrons dans la présente synthèse comment les pouvoirs publics ont amplifié les soins à distance durant la pandémie et quelles conséquences ce basculement de grande ampleur a eues sur le fonctionnement des systèmes de santé.

The use of telemedicine, or remote clinical consultations, was limited in most OECD countries before the COVID-19 pandemic, held back by regulatory barriers and hesitancy from patients and providers. In early 2020, as COVID-19 massively disrupted in-person care, governments moved quickly to promote the use of telemedicine. The number of teleconsultations skyrocketed, playing a vital role in maintaining access to care, but only partly offsetting reductions in in-person care. This brief describes how governments scaled up remote care during the pandemic and explores the impact that this massive shift to remote care has had on health care system performance.

This paper provides an overview of the work of the Expert Group on the Joint Distribution of Income, Consumption and Wealth at Micro Level (EG ICW) set up by Eurostat and the OECD. It discusses the challenges of producing joint income, consumption and wealth estimates, assesses their quality, and presents selected experimental results. Although the analysis reveals large differences between countries, a number of general patterns emerge. First, income, consumption and wealth are partially correlated, with the association being stronger in the tails of the joint distribution than around its middle. Second, risk of poverty goes beyond income, with asset and consumption risk of poverty being widespread, especially among some population groups. Third, a large share of households spend more than they earn. This is corroborated by negative median saving rates for households in the bottom income quintile. Fourth, inequalities are significantly higher when using a comprehensive measure of material living standards than a distributional analysis of disposable income would suggest. Looking ahead, this paper calls for further efforts to improve the robustness of the results.