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Glasgow City Region - composed of eight Local Authorities - is Scotland’s largest integrated economic area, accounting for a third of Scotland's jobs and economic output. Over the last two decades, the unemployment rate has decreased to a record low, and the share of degree holders has increased significantly. Despite its overall economic success and high growth potential, Glasgow City Region faces several challenges. The region’s productivity levels compare poorly with other UK cities and major OECD metropolitan regions, and income deprivation and economic inactivity are high. As the economy has recovered from the COVID-19 pandemic, the pressure on the labour market has increased, resulting in labour shortages. The challenges for Glasgow City Region’s labour market call for greater efforts to enhance and future-proof the skills and employability systems in the region. This OECD report reviews and offers recommendations on three of the most pressing challenges facing the Glasgow City Region: i) reinforcing re- and upskilling opportunities for individuals in work and aligning skills supply with demand, ii) enhancing labour market inclusion of the economically inactive, and iii) strengthening school-to-work transitions of young people.
Cities are not only home to around half of the global population but are also at the forefront of the transformation of jobs, skills and labour markets. Furthermore, cities play a leading role in the COVID-19 response, as the pandemic is not only accelerating megatrends such as digitalisation and automation that change the world of work, but is also challenging city economies. In London, COVID-19 has caused an unprecedented labour market shock, with several service sectors having been devastated. The crisis and its impact on employment and firms make skills development and adult learning more important than ever. London is the first major city within the OECD to introduce a comprehensive skills strategy. The report Future-Proofing Adult Learning in London, UK analyses London’s capacity to design effective adult learning programmes, which are critical for a strong and sustainable economic recovery and for preparing for the future of work. The report sheds light on major challenges facing London, especially in light of COVID-19, while also pointing to opportunities for London to design a future-ready adult learning system that responds to the impacts of the pandemic and aligns training to rapidly evolving labour market demands.
After a long period of employment growth that led to the lowest unemployment rate since the German reunification, Berlin’s labour market is now tightening. Accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, global labour market megatrends such as the automation of production processes and the increasingly advanced digital skills required to perform many jobs pose new challenges to Berlin’s policymakers. Preparing and improving its adult learning system to adapt to the rapidly changing demand for skills will be vital for the future competitiveness of Berlin’s economy and socio-economic mobility. The report Future-Proofing Adult Learning in Berlin, Germany analyses strengths and bottlenecks in Berlin’s adult learning programmes. It stresses the importance of developing a long-term vision for continuing education and training in Berlin that brings together different actors from an adult learning landscape that offers a wide range of diverse services. It further highlights the need to expand local adult learning programmes that account for the city’s highly dynamic population and labour market.
The field of industrial biotechnology has moved rapidly in recent years as a combined result of international political desire, especially in the case of biofuels, and unprecedented progress in molecular biology research that has supplied the enabling technologies. Different geographical regions have different priorities, but common drivers are climate change mitigation and the desire for energy independence. Now, industrial biotechnology has reached the centre of scientific and political attention. At no time in the past has there been a more pressing need for coherent, evidence-based, proportionate regulations and policy measures; they are at the heart of responsible development of industrial biotechnology.
This publication examines the international drivers, the enabling technologies that are fast-tracking Industrial Biotechnology, industry trends, some of the products that are appearing on the market, industry structure and finance, and finally policy measures and trends. It examines separately biofuels, biobased chemicals and bioplastics. It is quite clear that a supportive policy framework for the development of biofuels exists in many countries, but that no such framework is in place for biobased chemicals and bioplastics. This seems at odds with the apparent need for the integrated biorefinery, where chemicals and plastics production will significantly improve profitability when produced alongside transportation fuels.
Major nuclear regulatory challenges will arise from government policies to liberalise energy sectors. In a context of growing competition and market deregulation, it is becoming increasingly important to reconcile commercial interests with safety requirements. For nuclear regulatory bodies, the first challenge will be to ensure that economic pressures do not erode nuclear safety. In their strive to maintain nuclear safety culture, regulatory bodies will also need to adapt to an increasingly market-oriented environment and new working relationships with operators. This report identifies the challenges that regulators are likely to be confronted with over the next ten years.
This report reviews possible determinants of global maritime goods transport over the coming decades. It addresses the uncertainties that surround the future of maritime trade flows such as the development of demand, the costs of environmental regulation, maritime business strategies, the Belt and Road Initiative, and Arctic shipping. The report summarises discussions of an ITF Roundtable held in Paris, France in April 2019.
Recent global shocks, such as the 2008 financial crisis, have driven policy makers and industry strategists to re-examine how to prepare for and respond to events that can begin locally and propagate around the world with devastating effects on society and the economy. This report considers how the growing interconnectedness in the global economy could create the conditions and vectors for rapid and widespread disruptions. It looks at examples of hazards and threats that emerge from the financial world, cyberspace, biological systems and even the solar system, to reflect on what strategic capacities are called for to improve assessment, mapping, modelling, response and resilience to such large scale risks.
This toolkit offers practical guidance to adherents to the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) Recommendation on Enabling Civil Society in Development Co-operation and Humanitarian Assistance. It helps them implement the Recommendation’s provisions pertaining to strengthening local ownership and partner-country civil society as independent development and humanitarian actors.
The principal systems of taxes on personal capital income and wage income - comprehensive, dual and flat – are thoroughly examined and evaluated in the OECD countries that have adopted these different systems or a mix thereof. They are each assessed in terms of the fundamental principles of sound tax policy: simplification, efficiency, equity, tax compliance and tax revenue, and their main advantages and disadvantages are discussed.
Policy makers in OECD countries are concerned about whether they can maintain their current levels of corporate income tax revenues and how they can create an attractive investment climate for domestic and foreign investors. This report presents the recent trends in the taxation of corporate income in OECD countries and discusses the main drivers of corporate income tax reform and evaluates the gains of fundamental corporate tax reform. The corporate tax-induced distortions are discussed from a domestic and international tax point of view. This study also considers tax revenue and tax complexity issues. The book also explains a series of alternative systems that might be implemented.
In this document the importance of mechanistic consideration in quantitative structure-activity relationship ((Q)SAR) analysis, the critical role of mechanistic consideration in improving various (Q)SAR approaches and possible integrative approaches of combining chemoinformatics and bioinformatics are discussed, mainly using carcinogenicity as an illustrative toxicity endpoint. The principles and issues described in this document are general and may also be used for various types of chemical assessment. The intended target of readership is for global chemical hazard/risk assessors in regulatory agencies, industries, non-governmental organization and academia who require reliable and scientifically supportable (Q)SAR information and predictions in their assessments as well as for developers/researchers who endeavour to produce scientifically reliable (Q)SAR predictive models and tools.
To ensure that the tests used to address the safety of Manufactured Nanomaterials are consistent and defensible; the OECD launched the Sponsorship Programme for the Testing of Manufactured Nanomaterials (Testing Programme) in November 2007. This Testing Programme verifies the testing methods used on Manufactured Nanomaterials by pooling the expertise of OECD member countries, some non-member countries and other stakeholders to fund the safety testing of specific Manufactured Nanomaterials. This document is the summary of the dossier on Fullerenes (C60). The Summary includes information on physical and chemical properties; general information on exposure; hazards to the environment; and toxicological information.
Much has been learnt in the ten years since the Great Eastern Japan Earthquake and the subsequent accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, but significant challenges still remain.
This report presents the current situation at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant and the responses by Japanese authorities and the international community since the accident. It will assist both policymakers and the general public to understand the multi-dimensional issues stemming from the accident. These include disaster recovery, compensation for damages, nuclear safety, nuclear regulation, radiation protection, plant decommissioning, radioactive waste management, psycho-social issues in the community and societal resilience.
Building on two previous reports released by the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) in 2013 and 2016, the report examines the plant’s future, that of the affected region and population, as well as outlining areas for further improvement and how the international community can help.
This roadmap explores the potential improvement of existing technologies to enhance the average fuel economy of motorised vehicles; the roadmap’s vision is to achieve a 30% to 50% reduction in fuel use per kilometre from new road vehicles including 2-wheelers, LDV s and HDV s) around the world in 2030, and from the stock of all vehicles on the road by 2050. This achievement would contribute to significant reductions in GHG emissions and oil use, compared to a baseline projection. Different motorised modes are treated separately, with a focus on LDV s, HDV s and powered two-wheelers. A section on in-use fuel economy also addresses technical and nontechnical parameters that could allow fuel economy to drastically improve over the next decades. Technology cost analysis and payback time show that significant progress can be made with low or negative cost for fuel-efficient vehicles over their lifetime use. Even though the latest data analysed by the IEA for fuel economy between 2005 and 2008 showed that a gap exists in achieving the roadmap’s vision, cutting the average fuel economy of road motorised vehicles by 30% to 50% by 2030 is achievable, and the policies and technologies that could help meet this challenge are already deployed in many places around the world.
This lavishly illustrated book tells the story of the development of the OECD from the founding of its predecessor organisation, the OEEC after World War II, to the transformation into the OECD in 1960, and its evolution since that time. Covering the stewardship of 6 Secretaries-General over a period of 50 years, the book describes what OECD does and how it does it. An interesting chapter on a Day in the Life of a Chateau, tracks a typical day for a variety of OECD staffers, illustrating the breadth and variety of what people do at the OECD.
“Too much red tape” is a common complaint from businesses and citizens in OECD countries. This report analyses proven approaches commonly adopted by governments to reduce and streamline administrative procedures like one-stop shops (physical and electronic), simplification of permits and licence procedures, time limits for decision-making, methods to measure administrative burdens, regulatory-compliance assistance for small and medium-size companies, and increasing reliance on IT-based solutions.
Commissioned by the International Network on Conflict and Fragility (INCAF) of the OECD Development Assistance Committee, this publication provides an overview of key definitions, components and concepts of political settlements, based on existing literature. It also examines the potential impact of donor activities on political settlements and highlights possible implications for donor engagement and support.
Conducted jointly with UNESCO, UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS), UNICEF and the World Bank, the fourth round of the Survey on National Education Responses to COVID-19 School Closures took place in April–July 2022. With responses from Ministries of Education in 93 countries, findings show education systems’ concerted effort to reach out to students and bring them back to school; the reinforcing of digitalised modes of learning; dialogue with families on the quality and cost-benefits of education; and long-term investments in the resilience of education systems.
How did the transition from compulsory education to work change during the 1990s and which types of transition policies worked best? The experiences of 14 OECD countries are examined in this volume to address these two key questions, for as requirements for knowledge and qualifications and skills rise and populations age, few countries can afford to have their young people enter the labour force unequipped for longer term participation in changing career patterns.
Taking a broader view of transition outcomes than many previous comparative studies, this study reveals the complex and many-faceted national institutional arrangements that can result in successful transitions to working life. It argues not for single solutions or models, such as the adoption of apprenticeship, but for coherent national policy packages that draw from a limited number of key success ingredients: a healthy economy and labour market, well organised pathways from initial education to work and further study, opportunities to combine study and workplace experience, safety nets for those at risk, effective information and guidance systems, and policy processes involving both governments and other stakeholders.
It also looks at the ways that countries are trying to lay solid foundations for lifelong learning during the transition phase through changes to educational pathways and institutions and through adopting more learner-centred approaches to teaching and learning.
For the potential advantages of migration to be harnessed, it is crucial that immigration be accompanied by integration, or effective mechanisms for ensuring that immigrants are incorporated into labour markets, the economy and society. While immigration policy is often determined, designed and funded at the national level, its impact on migrants and society is more strongly felt at the local level where other policies interact. This publication highlights principles and factors which are important in supporting integration locally. A comparison of local initiatives implemented in five OECD countries - Canada, UK (London), Spain, Italy, and Switzerland - answers key questions facing all policy makers and stakeholders working in this field. This book provides a set of concrete policy recommendations for implementation at both local and national levels.