Browse by: "2020"

This report sets out a vision for the digital transformation of tax administration, under which taxation becomes more of a seamless and frictionless process over time. The intention of this discussion paper, requested by Commissioners at the 2019 OECD Forum on Tax Administration Plenary in Santiago, is to stimulate debate and conversation, both on the vision and its component building blocks.

Violence against women remains a global crisis. Worldwide, more than one in three women have experienced physical and/or sexual intimate partner violence or non-partner sexual violence in their lifetime. OECD’s inaugural conference on violence against women, entitled “Taking Public Action to End Violence at Home,” facilitated a survivor-centred exchange of ideas and experiences. Held on 5-6 February 2020, attendees convened to share experiences, practices and ideas on how to prevent, address, and eradicate intimate partner violence (IPV), a particularly insidious form of violence against women. Just a few weeks after this OECD conference concluded, the regional health crisis of COVID-19 in Asia had turned into a global pandemic. In less than a month, the entire world was grappling with the massive health, social, and economic effects of the crisis – including the consequences of millions of women becoming trapped at home with their abusers, as governments implemented containment measures to stop the spread of the virus. The issues, challenges, and solutions to intimate partner violence that were debated at OECD conference have taken on a new and even more pressing urgency in the face of the global crisis.

This study reveals the essential ingredients for a successful High-Level Reporting Mechanism (HLRM). It analyses existing HLRMs to identify good practices, with a view to providing insights useful to countries that are considering developing their own version of this mechanism or, more generally, developing Collective Action to fight corruption. This study forms part of a three-part project on corporate anti-corruption measures to support sustainable business, prepared with the support of the Government of Sweden.

We live in a period of profound systemic change, and as in similar periods in the past, there is bound to be considerable instability and uncertainty before the new society and economy take shape. We have to identify actions that will shape change for the better, and help to build resilience to the inevitable shocks inherent in, and generated by, the complex system of systems constituted by the economy, society and the environment. These challenges require updating the way policies are devised and implemented, and developing more realistic tools and techniques to design those policies on the basis of appropriate data. In Systemic Thinking for Policy Making world experts from the OECD and International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) pool their expertise and experience to propose new approaches to analysing the interconnected trends and issues shaping today’s and tomorrow’s world. The authors argue that to tackle planetary emergencies linked to the environment, the economy and socio-political systems, we have to understand their systemic properties, such as tipping points, interconnectedness and resilience. They give the reader a precise introduction to the tools and techniques needed to do so, and offer hope that we can overcome the challenges the world is facing.

This report uses systems thinking tools to address pervasive problems in Slovenia's procurement system that the government has struggled to remedy through traditional regulatory means. The report outlines how room for innovation can be created within highly regulated policy domains and how governments can systematically benefit from it. Systems thinking allows for a new understanding of the role of procurement. The report explores potential reforms that could be designed from the bottom-up, to address specific behavioural and structural barriers – such as public perception, risk aversion, accountability and control functions – that cannot be addressed using only a legalistic approach.

The governance of skills systems has always raised a number of challenges for governments. Being at the intersection of education, labour market, industrial and other policy domains, managing skills policies is inherently complex. Addressing these challenges is more than ever crucial as globalisation, technological progress and demographic change are putting daunting pressures on skills systems to ensure that all members of society are equipped with the skills necessary to thrive in a rapidly changing world. Strengthening the Governance of Skills Systems: Lessons from Six OECD Countries provides advice on how to make the governance of skills systems effective. Building on the OECD Skills Strategy 2019, which identified four main challenges of skills systems governance, the report presents examples of how six different countries (Estonia, Germany, Korea, Norway, Portugal and the United States) have responded to one or several of these challenges. It also outlines concrete policy recommendations together with a self-assessment tool which provides guidance to policy makers and stakeholders for designing better skills systems that deliver better skills outcomes.

Successfully managing and administering European Structural Investment Funds (ESIF) rests on the effective governance of the investment process, on the administrative capacity of Managing Authorities, and on the engagement of a diverse range of stakeholders, including beneficiaries. The OECD has developed an analytical framework with four dimensions – people management, organisational management, strategic planning, and framework conditions – to analyse the challenges and capacity gaps confronting Managing Authorities in the administration and management of these funds. Based on a pilot project with three national- and two regional-level Managing Authorities, the study identified a series of common challenges. These include being more strategic and innovative in how staff, processes and programmes are managed; managing the impact of framework conditions on stability and certainty in administrative and investment processes; and needing to ensure that capacity building among Managing Authorities and/or beneficiaries is undertaken at the appropriate scale. Capacity-building Roadmaps were built with each participant. This report recommends concrete actions for actors in the ESIF governance system to build and reinforce the administrative and investment management capacity of Managing Authorities throughout the EU. The findings can also benefit non-EU public actors in managing public investment.

This report explores how countries can strengthen the resilience of their agricultural sectors to multiple risks. A shifting risk landscape in agriculture – due to increasing weather variability, natural hazards, pests and diseases, and market shocks – will require public and private actors to consider the risk landscape over the long term, place a greater emphasis on what can be done ex ante to reduce risk exposure and increase preparedness, and prioritise investments that build resilience capacities both on-farm and for the sector as a whole. This report offers a framework for applying resilience thinking to risk management in agriculture, and explores how four OECD countries – Australia, Canada, Italy and the Netherlands – are mainstreaming resilience into their agricultural risk management policy frameworks.

States of Fragility 2020 sets a policy agenda for fragility at a critical turning point: the final countdown on Agenda 2030 is at hand, and the pandemic has reversed hard-fought gains. This report examines fragility as a story in two parts: the global state of fragility that existed before COVID-19, and the dramatic impact the pandemic is having on that landscape. It acknowledges the severe reality of fragility in its multidimensionality and complexity. It explores thinking and practice on fragility to propose new ideas on human capital analysis and conflict prevention in order to adapt policy for more resilient outcomes. With a thematic emphasis on peace in fragile contexts, it highlights the important role of peacebuilders, diplomats, and security actors for peace, and builds the case for enhanced complementarity and coherence across the Humanitarian-Development-Peace nexus. It concludes by reconciling theory with practice to explore what it means to work effectively in fragile contexts. Focusing on fragility will be imperative to build peaceful, just and inclusive societies that leave no one behind.

This report analyses the recent reform of SOEs in Ukraine’s electricity sector with a focus on the energy company Ukrenergo as a case study. The review commends the reforms implemented in Ukraine’s SOE sector since 2014. These include the gradual corporatisation of SOEs, the establishment of independent boards for its ten most important SOEs, new transparency and disclosure requirements and the introduction of mandatory independent external audits for economically important SOEs. The review also recognises Ukraine’s broader reform in its energy sector with a view to liberalising energy markets and ensuring European integration.

The pace and scope of emerging technologies are creating a sea change for governments and for regulators. They challenge economic regulation by blurring the traditional definition of markets, for example, and by transcending administrative boundaries domestically and internationally. At the same time, the digital transformation is an excellent opportunity for regulators themselves to harness the power of data and digital tools to improve regulation and its delivery. Seizing this opportunity will require fit-for-purpose regulatory frameworks and governance arrangements. This report brings together case studies submitted by members of the OECD Network of Economic Regulators that highlight how regulators have analysed and tackled these issues. The case studies span nine countries and a wide range of sectors (communication, transport, energy, environmental protection) and provide concrete examples of how regulators are responding to innovation in the sectors that they oversee.

The global power sector will change significantly in the coming years, as variable renewable resources are deployed on a large scale and new flexibility options appear, such as energy storage devices. In this context, thermal plants that use fossil fuels will experience a reduction in their share of power sector output, particularly in advanced economies, as efforts to achieve climate goals are increased. In developing economies, overall electricity demand will increase as power demand is pushed up by economic growth, urbanisation and increasing energy access. This report clarifies the role that thermal plants will play in the power systems of emerging economies in different IEA scenarios, including the Stated Policies Scenario and Sustainable Development Scenario of the 2019 World Energy Outlook. International co-operation and knowledge sharing can play significant roles in helping emerging economies carry out an affordable energy transition.