Browse by: "R"

This report presents progress made by OECD countries and other economies on their adherence to the 2015 Recommendation of the Council on Public Procurement. The Recommendation provides strategic guidance in addressing challenges encountered in public procurement and identifies good procurement practices in order to ensure a strategic and holistic use of public procurement. This report discusses the Recommendation's continued relevance, how widely it has been disseminated, and whether it requires updating or revision.

This report examines the difference in which public transport planning is undertaken and services are delivered. The report focuses primarily on urban public transport markets, with some consideration given to intercity markets. Case studies and examples address bus, tram, metro and urban or regional rail. It discusses how well different models of transport organisation deliver value for money, encourage and harness innovation, and help systems prepare for the challenges and opportunities on the horizon. Recommendations highlight the key main factors for successful reform of public transport systems.

Infrastructure sectors -- particularly railroads, telecommunications, electricity and natural gas -- are vital in providing necessities of life to the Russian Federation’s citizens and key inputs into the rest of the economy. A top priority of the current government in Russia is to reform the infrastructure sectors, specifically in such sectors as rail transport and electric power, to create an efficient and effective regulatory regime that supports the creation of competition where possible and provides more effective protection to consumers in those spheres where competition is not possible. This book compiles the proceedings of four meetings held at the request of the Minister for Antimonopoly Policy of the Russian Federation, on the reform of railroads, telecommunications, electricity and natural gas, during December 2000-September 2001. This review is part of the OECD's ongoing co-operation with non-Member economies around the world.

This report assesses the state of Armenia’s sanitation services, which are in poor shape, and proposes ways forward for reforming the sector by: ensuring equitable access by all and identifying solutions that work for the poorest and most remote communities; generating economies of scale and scope, and reducing both investment and operational costs for the efficient delivery of sanitation services; and moving towards sustainable cost recovery for the sanitation sector, by identifying how much funding can be mobilised from within the sector and how much external transfers are required. The state of Armenia’s sanitation services are inadequate, with 51% of the population in rural areas using unimproved facilities, causing direct damage to the environment and exposing inhabitants to health risks, and better access but degraded sewerage-system infrastructure in urban areas, posing health hazards due to potential cross-contamination between sewage and drinking water. According to preliminary estimates, EUR 2.6 billion of investments will be required to meet Armenia’s sanitation needs, with approximately EUR 1 billion needing to be spent in the next 7 to 10 years. Given the country’s current economic situation, this investment will have to be spread over time and targeted to avoid further deterioration of infrastructure and increase of the financing gap.

This report examines the economic principles for efficient systems of taxation and provides a framework for international comparisons of transport taxes and charges. It investigates the price and tax changes likely to result from the reform of transport charges to maximise efficiency, and their impact on motorists, hauliers and users of other transport services. The report also assesses the impact of national differences in taxation on the competitiveness of hauliers internationally.

This book reviews recent trends, reforms and lessons learned in the 29 OECD countries as they relate to ageing. Recent reforms have been driven mainly by fiscal factors - to adjust systems such as pensions and long-term care to the ageing of the baby boom generation. This remains a main concern in many countries. A new reform agenda is emerging, however, that marries fiscal objectives with broader social and economic policy goals. It focuses on active ageing, providing opportunities and incentives for people to contribute more actively in the labour market and society as they grow older. This involves slowing, or reversing, trends towards ever-longer periods of time spent in retirement. This agenda is associated with likely trends towards a more diversified system of retirement income in most OECD countries - with more reliance on private pensions and a likely increase of earnings as a source of income among older people. Familiar policy debates -- such as the balance between public and private pensions -- may need to be recast to take account of the likely future growth in the role of earnings in the retirement income system. Interesting new questions arise. In the longer-term future, what should be the role of government policy in influencing the balance between work and leisure in older years? What priority should be attached to policies that support very long periods of passivity in the last third of life?

Recent global changes have placed regional integration at the centre of Africa’s political and economic agenda. This Atlas is both a driver and the result of strategic thinking on regional integration in West Africa. Containing maps, statistics and analyses, it describes the West African region, its population, settlement, territories, its economy and its vulnerabilities. It analyses the developments and the ways in which West Africa is conforming to a constantly changing global environment. The Atlas also identifies the medium- and long-term trends and provides elements for strategic thinking on the future.

This publication presents contributions by international experts on various aspects of West African migration. It provides a contrasting perspective to current debates which essentially focus on security issues. This rather non-institutional approach promotes a constant dialogue based on analyses of the actual situation: the authors encourage "win-win" mobility for all parties involved (Europe, North Africa and West Africa), whether it be a host, transit or departure country.

Human resources, training, qualifications and skills play an essential part in the development of regional economies. The notion of "learning" regions which has now become self-evident has yet to be translated into practice: but under which conditions and what are the priorities? This publication gives a comprehensive picture of current practices and future issues. Regional policies are increasingly focusing on human resources and their orientation towards market demand and improvement of partnerships. The great diversity of regional approaches to human resource development in industrialised countries shows that an efficient regional governance, coupled with concern for equity, can reinforce and consolidate national policies. This volume casts a new light on these issues, providing a useful source of information and inspiration for regional actors and their national partners.

Mexico is a multi-faceted country. Given the geographical and ethnic diversity of Mexico's regions, as well as their particular cultural and historical traditions, each of the regions making up the Federation calls for a specific development policy. At the same time, economic, political and social equilibria are going to be affected by the trend towards a greater decentralisation of political structures. Mexico is faced with two major challenges. How can consistency of government action be maintained in conjunction with a firm resolve to decentralise? How is it possible to reconcile regional and national development while striving to achieve the country's integration within the world economy? This study, which includes many tables, maps and figures as background material, makes it possible to define these challenges more clearly and therefore to clarify regional policy options for the coming decade.

Despite its rapid economic growth over the past decades, Poland’s economic inactivity rate remains above the OECD average and regional differences in labour force participation persist. This report sheds light on the drivers of economic inactivity across Polish regions and analyses them in light of both individual and structural factors associated with labour force participation. It highlights the need for more inclusive active labour market policies to help integrate the economically inactive into labour markets across Poland. A better integration of services provided by national and local institutions, as well as a strengthened role of the social economy, is needed to address the complex needs of economically inactive persons.

The Welsh Government is refining its approach to regional development, adopting a regional lens directed to four regions to better allocate resources and address local needs. This OECD Multi-level Governance Study – a follow up to the 2020 OECD report The Future of Regional Development and Public Investment in Wales, United Kingdom – summarises the progress Wales has made to advance this regional lens, and identifies key areas of attention going forward. It synthesises the results of a vision-setting exercise, capacity-building workshops with the national government and regional bodies, and a multi-stakeholder workshop on collaborative working among Welsh regional development actors. This report identifies enablers for the effective use of a regional lens in Wales, including robust regional data, long-term and future-oriented objectives, effective co-ordination across Welsh Government policy areas related to regional development, capacitated regional structures, and trust and collaborative working among levels of government. The report's insights on establishing strategic direction and fostering collaboration among national, regional, and local levels could be valuable for countries exploring ways to optimise regional development policy, including in the face of resource constraints.

In recent decades, federal and unitary countries have increasingly adopted or deepened regional governance reforms, especially in the OECD and Europe, but also in Asia, America and to a lesser extent Africa. Approximately two-thirds of countries around the world have increased the power of regions over the last 50 years. This trend has happened in parallel with countries increasingly embedding a territorial approach into policy-making at the national and subnational levels. This process, however, does not follow a linear path. The rationale behind regional governance reforms differs from country to country, and over time, leading to a broad spectrum of governance models with varying institutional and financing arrangements. Taking stock of these trends, this report provides key data on regional governance reforms and their drivers, with a focus on the role of regions in the COVID-19 crisis response. The report also presents an innovative typology of regional governance models across OECD countries and the multi-level governance instruments that enable sound regional governance and help ensure these arrangements effectively serve their purpose.

Some manufacturing activities are among the most difficult human activities to make climate neutral and they are typically regionally concentrated. Across Europe these regions are often socioeconomically relatively weak. Yet these sectors provide relatively well-paid jobs in many of these regions. Some of these regions may also have more difficult access to infrastructure to provide the hydrogen, carbon capture and storage and zero-emission freight, which can be important to some of these activities. Industrial transitions to climate neutrality therefore have regional development implications. Since regions differ in their socio-economic conditions, understanding these regional development implications will help policy makers prepare a just transition. This publication identifies manufacturing activities that are particularly difficult to decarbonise and the transformations they require. It shows how these activities are distributed across European regions, focusing on employment at emission-intensive production locations. It identifies conditions for getting access to needed infrastructure and how access conditions differ across regions. It investigates the socio-economic vulnerabilities of affected regions, their manufacturing businesses and workers. In some regions, workers and firms may be particularly vulnerable, for example, because of low-skill jobs, type of employment contract or low productivity.

To make the most of its longstanding tradition of manufacturing and innovation, Piedmont, Italy, is undertaking a process of industrial transition, the success of which may be linked to an updated approach to its regional innovation policy. This should include promoting technology and non-technology driven innovation, building the innovation competences of micro- and small enterprises in addition to medium and large ones, better connecting regional innovation actors, and ensuring that innovation contributes to the region’s broader development goals such as sustainable regional development. It also requires diversifying the role of Piedmont’s innovation clusters and reinforcing the multi-level governance system for innovation policy. This report features a comparative perspective of the trends, challenges and opportunities for innovation-led growth in Piedmont, and highlights how Piedmont could build a dynamic innovation ecosystem based on its smart specialisation strategy, a fresh perspective on innovation, and future-oriented innovation cluster organisations. The report provides actionable recommendations and offers insights into making the most of innovation policy as a lever for place-based regional development.