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In answer to the call expressed within the Addis Ababa Action Agenda to mobilise all available resources – domestic and foreign, public and private – in support of the Sustainable Development Goals, the Development Co-operation Directorate develops a new work stream on transition finance to explore the evolution and interaction of public (official development assistance and other official flows) and private (foreign direct investments and remittances) sources of finance across the development continuum – studying multiple stages of development: low income countries, middle income countries, fragile contexts, and different regions of the world. Its ultimate objective is to advise the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) in preparing countries for transition (outlining the optimal financial mix and offering policy recommendations) and in building resilience.

This paper introduces the concept of transition finance and initiates research to advise the DAC on its role as a major provider of development assistance among other public and private providers of financing for the 2030 Agenda.

The Zambia country pilot study was conducted by the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) to explore the challenges of transition finance for a commodity-based Least Developed Country (LDC). In particular, debt sustainability concerns are viewed within the context of the shifting financing for sustainable development landscape of Zambia following its re-classification to Lower Middle Income Category (LMIC).

In line with the Addis Ababa Action Agenda (AAAA), the pilot study proposes a new “ABC” approach targeted to assess all available sources of financing (official development finance, private investment, domestic resources, and remittances), identify emerging SDG financing gaps and promote better alignment of resources with national financing for sustainable development strategies.

Building on the evidence collected through seven country pilots, this Transition Finance Compendium concludes that more could be done to build the resilience of ODA. The analyses carried out suggests that official development assistance (ODA) trends should not be observed in isolation of other sources of financing for sustainable development since transition finance is about the progressive substitution of external financing by domestic public resources and private investment mobilised. It finds that further planning and co-ordination of DAC members’ exit and phasing-out strategies or decisions could generate ODA efficiency gains and resilience; that the increasing complexity of the financing for sustainable development (FSD) landscape creates not only opportunities for access to additional sources of financing, but also risks; and concludes on emerging recommendations for the DAC to better prepare transition, e.g. good practices/relevant standards and tools for transition finance. It ends suggesting how the DAC can move from transition finance diagnostics to implementation.

This study investigates transition finance in Lebanon, an upper middle-income country in the MENA region transitioning from a significant adverse shock. Lebanon’s development path has been historically non-linear and, most recently, the Syrian conflict adversely affected the country’s development path. The Syrian conflict compounded pre-existing deficits and challenges in Lebanon, calling for increased international assistance.

DAC donors increased official development assistance (ODA) to Lebanon to preserve stability and promote refugee protection. Donors also created special financing instruments such as the Global Concessional Financing Facility (GCFF) to foster the provision of multilateral concessional financing to Lebanon. Official development finance in Lebanon is high in comparison to its peers, particularly on a per capita basis and for humanitarian assistance. The country also attracts high amounts of FDI and remittances. Overall, domestic credit dominates the financing landscape and public debt is high.

DAC members and other donors can strengthen the humanitarian-development-peace nexus, address long-standing country needs to promote self-sufficiency, and re-design partnerships driven by mutual accountability and appropriate incentive structures.

This report examines how cities can manage the transition to shared mobility services. It expands on two earlier studies that looked at the citywide impact of replacing private cars with shared services, but did not address the question of implementation. Based again on mobility data for the city of Lisbon, Portugal, this report assesses issues around the scaling up of shared mobility services to the whole of the Metropolitan area and of their stepwise introduction. It also analyses the impacts of these services on the use of existing high-capacity public transport and on access to jobs, schools or health facilities across the whole study area, and explores how shared mobility can improve accessibility for users with impairments.

The work for this report was carried out in the context of a project initiated and funded by the International Transport Forum's Corporate Partnership Board (CPB). CPB projects are designed to enrich policy discussion with a business perspective. Led by the ITF, work is carried out in a collaborative fashion in working groups consisting of CPB member companies, external experts and ITF staff.

Globalisation has brought benefits to the economies in the Black Sea Economic Co-operation (BSEC) and Central Asia (CA), but compounded volatility and uncertainty associated with the transition to market economy. Labour markets have been put under pressure, as BSEC-CA countries compete on the international arena. One important form of labour market adjustment has been a large amount of migration flows within the BSEC-CA region and to the neighbouring countries.

In recent years, considerable analytical work has been done on issues of economic reform in countries undertaking adjustment. Less attention has been devoted to the social costs of adjustment and the transitional problems during the period from reform to growth. The Egyptian economic adjustment since 1991 is a good case in point, as Egypt is facing difficult transitional problems, of both social and financial nature.

The first part of this paper discusses Egypt's newly established social fund (1991), notably the adequacy of its core programmes and targeting mechanism for providing an appropriate "social safety net" in the medium term. The second part of the paper deals with Egypt's financial intermediation system, which is unable to convert large amounts of liquid savings into long-term real capital, hence increasing the time-lag between reform and growth.

It is concluded that an efficient system of financial intermediation and a comprehensive social safety net are needed to ...

Young people have been hit hard by unemployment during the Irish recession. While much research has been undertaken to study the effects of the recession on overall labour market dynamics, little is known about the specific effects on youth unemployment and the associated challenges. This paper attempts to fill this gap by comparing the profile of transitions to work before the recession (2006) and as the economy emerged from the recession (2011). The results indicate that the rate of transition of the youth from unemployment to employment fell dramatically. The fall is not due to changes in the composition or the characteristics of the unemployed group but to changes in the external environment, which implied that the impact of certain individual characteristics changed over the course of the recession. In particular, for youth, education and nationality have become more important for finding a job in Ireland.

This paper explores modalities, enablers, and political moments that could help to translate the outputs of the global stocktake (GST) into an outcome that informs and enhances national and international actions as intended in the Paris Agreement. How to move from the collective outputs of the GST to desired outcomes is critical but not straightforward. Drawing on lessons learnt from previous international assessment and review processes under the UNFCCC and beyond, this paper sets out insights on modalities, outputs and enabling factors that could help ensure the GST leads to action on the ground. The paper concludes that achieving the outcomes of the GST requires a well-designed process that effectively engages Parties and non-Party stakeholders in separate but sequenced technical and political discussion tracks. The paper also finds that specific, actionable outputs that target different actors can facilitate subsequent follow-up. The paper identifies different enabling factors that could support the translation of GST outputs formulated at the collective level into national processes to update and enhance actions and support. It also highlights the importance of leveraging different political moments and building linkages with parallel processes, both within and outside the UNFCCC context, to maintain momentum on the GST and ensure operational action follows over time so that collective efforts are in line with the long-term goals of the Paris Agreement.

The international instruments of the Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) require national adaptations and translation before data collection processes begin. This paper provides an assessment of the processes used in TALIS 2018, based on an analysis of the documentation available, as well as countries’ descriptions of the processes and challenges undergone during that cycle. The author starts by identifying several positive aspects, highlighting the work of the international contractor, the national centres and national project managers but also suggests areas for improvement. Finally, the paper looks at the new translatability assessment in the current cycle (TALIS 2024) and how it could be even more effective, as well as recommending a series of proposals that could support adaptation and translation processes in future cycles.

Transnational organised crime (TOC) refers to a fluid and diversified industry that engages in illicit activities ranging from drug and human trafficking to drug smuggling, piracy and money laundering. Although it may affect strong states, conflict-affected and fragile states are especially vulnerable to the dynamics of TOC and may provide more favourable conditions for its development. The implications for those states are many and serious. This paper outlines the ways in which TOC has evolved in recent years and how policy might be adapted to take account of this evolution. It emphasises that TOC today is less a matter of organised cartels established in producer or end-user states, but increasingly characterised by fluid, opportunistic networks that may for example specialise in transport and logistics. The paper recommends tackling the problem through a comprehensive approach that considers TOC as but one element within a greater complex of cause and effect. This would entail a re-evaluation of many current assumptions about TOC and a reformulation of current policies.

Lack of regulatory transparency is a major and recurrent obstacle for businesses seeking to trade internationally. This study finds that transparency mechanisms applied at different stages of the design, finalisation and implementation of domestic regulation have allowed countries to reduce administrative burdens, generate savings both for the administration and for the private sector and maintain a relation of confidence conducive to a smoother enforcement of related policies. They have also helped them enhance the readability of laws and regulations and the predictability of their enforcement (thus further reducing indirect business costs), and prevent potential frictions with trading partners. The resulting improvements in terms of potential business costs can strongly influence the attractiveness of the country for foreign investors.