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Is ageing a threat to our societies' prosperity? How should resources be shared between the working generation and its dependent older citizens? How should pension, health and long-term care best be reformed? How can older people's contribution to society and economic prosperity be enhanced? Within the next decade, the numbers of retired people in OECD countries will start to grow much faster than those of working age. In the absence of major changes to pension systems and to the way people allocate their time between education, work and leisure, it is likely that fiscal and social strains will start to emerge. Some groups may be unfairly burdened through high taxation and others would face unexpected reductions in their material living standards. The appropriate policy response is multi-faceted, covering fiscal, social, labour market, financial market, health and education policies. An important part of the strategy for maintaining prosperity in an ageing society will involve encouraging people to work longer by making it financially more attractive for them to do so. In turn, this could entail reforms to traditional public pension systems and other social policies, as well as fostering the development of alternatives to public systems that give individuals more flexibility in deciding when to retire. Consequently, financial market infrastructures will need to be strengthened to cope with large increases in private pension fund assets. Through this multi-disciplinary study, the OECD points to the need to take action now by implementing a comprehensive and consistent set of policies.

This Multi-level Governance Series study focuses on Ukraine’s advances in regional development, territorial reform and decentralisation since 2014. The Government launched a reform to merge local governments and strengthen the decentralisation process, giving additional power and resources to sub-national authorities. In a short period, successful steps have been taken toward achieving municipal mergers and greater fiscal, administrative and political decentralisation, complemented by the State Strategy for Regional Development 2015-2020. The first local elections have been held and more public services are being delivered by certain local authorities. Yet, important challenges remain, ranging from a need to address rising disparities and adjusting multi-level governance practices and territorial structures, to better structuring fiscal decentralisation. This report addresses regional performance and disparities in Ukraine, provides insight into Ukraine’s current territorial reform and approach to decentralisation, explores the impact of fiscal decentralisation measures, and includes a case study of the transport sector. It also provides a set of recommendations for action to support Ukraine in meeting the conditions for successful decentralisation.

Agri-environmental payment schemes which operate as voluntary programmes that pay farmers to achieve certain environmental criteria have gained increasing interest and popularity amongst policy makers and farmers. There is growing evidence, however, that the majority of such schemes that have been implemented have had little environmental effectiveness. Building on past OECD work, this report identifies and discusses “best practice” design principles for cost-effective agri-environmental payment schemes. To this end, the report reviews the literature, develops a Policy Spectrum Framework that classifies payment types based on key design features for achieving cost-effective outcomes, and presents policy simulations undertaken to assess the cost-effectiveness of different payment designs and a multi-country choice experiment conducted with farmers to explore their preferences for different types of payments, ranging from practice-based to results-based payments.

Food systems around the world face a triple challenge: providing food security and nutrition for a growing global population; supporting livelihoods for those working along the food supply chain; and contributing to environmental sustainability. Better policies hold tremendous promise for making progress in these domains. This report focuses on three questions. What has been the performance of food systems to date, and what role did policies play? How can policy makers design coherent policies across the triple challenge? And how can policy makers deal with frictions related to facts, interests, and values, which often complicate the task of achieving better policies? Better policies will require breaking down silos between agriculture, health, and environmental policies, and overcoming knowledge gaps, resistance from interest groups, and differing values. Robust, inclusive, evidence-based processes are thus essential to making better policies for food systems.

Investments in water and sanitation are a prerequisite to deliver on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), in particular on SDG 6 ensuring availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all. Blended finance can play an important role in strategically investing development finance to mobilise additional commercial finance needed to fill the current investment gaps. Thus far, however, blended finance has not reached scale in the water and sanitation sector. A greater evidence base is needed to better understand the current applications as well as the potential of blended models in the water and sanitation sector. This publication takes a commercial investment perspective and provides insights into three subsectors: (1) water and sanitation utilities, (2) small-scale off-grid sanitation and (3) multi-purpose water infrastructure and landscape-based approaches. The publication draws out recommendations for policy makers and practitioners to apply and scale innovative blended finance approaches where most appropriate.

Studies show that cars use significantly more fuel per kilometre than suggested by official test ratings. This publication presents an analysis of the fuel efficiency gap and examines technologies available that could reduce that gap and improve fuel economy. It examines such areas as engine and transmission technologies, hybrid technologies, tyre inflation and technology, lubricants, and fuel-saving driver support devices.  Together, these technologies could improve average on-road fuel economy by 10% or more at low or modest cost.  Policies that could be used to encourage uptake of these technologies are also identified.

Cities are places where opportunities for prosperity coexist with stark inequalities between the richest and the poorest. Cities produce and attract highly educated workers and innovative employers. It is usually easier in cities than in other parts of the country for individuals to climb up the income, education or jobs ladder. But cities, especially the largest ones, also concentrate inequalities, both in income and in other well-being aspects,  that remain remarkably high in many OECD economies. Access to opportunities seems stalled for many low-income urban residents, who often live in distressed neighbourhoods.  This report provides ground-breaking, internationally comparable data on economic growth, inequalities and well-being at the city level in OECD countries. It provides empirical evidence on how cities are diverging from, or converging with, other parts of the country, and of the extent of inequality within cities. Finally, it proposes a framework for action, to help national and local governments reorient policies towards more inclusive growth in cities – a new approach to growth that ensures that no part of society is left behind.

This report offers a comprehensive overview of decentralisation policies and reforms in OECD countries and beyond. Sometimes called a “silent” or “quiet” revolution, decentralisation is among the most important reforms of the past 50 years. The report argues that decentralisation outcomes – in terms of democracy, efficiency, accountability, regional and local development – depend greatly on the way it is designed and implemented. Making the most of decentralisation systems is particularly crucial in the context of a “geography of discontent” and growing divides between places that feel left behind by globalisation and technological change and those that may benefit from the opportunities offered by megatrends. The report identifies 10 guidelines for making decentralisation work and allowing it to be conducive to regional development. Beyond the guidelines, the report proposes concrete tools for policy-makers, including detailed sets of recommendations, checklists, pitfalls to avoid and examples of good practices, both in unitary and federal countries.

Small Island Developing States (SIDS) stand at a critical juncture on their paths to sustainable development. Economic growth, human development and vulnerability indicators point to specific challenges facing SIDS, and suggest that new development solutions and approaches are needed to chart the course to prosperity for their people and their environments. Building on a number of innovative sources of data, such as the OECD Surveys on Private Finance Mobilised and on Philanthropy, in addition to OECD DAC statistics and other sources, this report examines the financing for development resources – domestic and external – available to SIDS. It provides new evidence on sources, destination, and objectives of development finance in SIDS. It highlights innovative approaches and good practices that the international community could replicate, further develop, and scale up in order to make development co-operation work for SIDS, helping them set on a path of sustainable development.

Members of the OECD/G20 Inclusive Framework on BEPS have published more information concerning the Mutual Agreement Procedure (MAP) than ever before, including MAP guidance, MAP Statistics, MAP profiles and Peer Review reports, all pursuant to the BEPS Action 14 Minimum Standard. However, this information is available in different places, so taxpayers and other competent authorities must seek out this information for each jurisdiction separately. Accordingly, the FTA MAP Forum has decided to summarise and consolidate published information concerning MAP for all member jurisdictions of the Inclusive Framework on BEPS in a single publication containing Consolidated Information on Mutual Agreement Procedures for 2023. This report provides stakeholders with an overview of each jurisdiction’s MAP policy and practices in a clear and simple manner. For each jurisdiction, the Consolidated Information on Mutual Agreement Procedures contains: recent developments relevant to MAP, a brief overview of the MAP provisions contained in its tax treaties, the contact details and organisation of the competent authority, links to published information on MAP, and an overview of the jurisdiction’s MAP statistics for the previous year.

Improving dispute resolution mechanisms is an integral component of the work on BEPS. The measures developed under Action 14 of the BEPS Project and contained in this report aim to minimize the risks of uncertainty and unintended double taxation. They do so by ensuring the consistent and proper implementation of tax treaties, including the effective and timely resolution of disputes regarding their interpretation or application through the mutual agreement procedure. Countries have agreed to important changes in their approach to dispute resolution, such as a minimum standard with respect to the resolution of treaty-related disputes. They have committed to its rapid implementation and agreed to ensure its effective implementation through the establishment of a robust peer-based monitoring mechanism.  A large group of countries has also committed to provide for mandatory binding arbitration in their bilateral tax treaties as a mechanism to guarantee that treaty-related disputes will be resolved within a specified timeframe.