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Inclusive and sustainable economic growth in the six Western Balkan (WB6) economies depends on greater economic competitiveness. Although the gap is closing gradually, the standards of living in WB6 are well below those of the OECD and EU. Accelerating the rate of socio-economic convergence will require a holistic and growth oriented approach to policy making.
This is the fourth study of the region (formerly under the title 'Competitiveness in South East Europe') and it comprehensively assesses policy reforms in the WB6 economies across 15 policy areas key to strengthening their competitiveness. It enables WB6 economies to compare economic performance against regional peers, as well as EU-OECD good practices and standards, and to design future policies based on rich evidence and actionable policy recommendations.
The regional profile presents assessment findings across five policy clusters crucial to accelerating socio-economic convergence of the WB6 by fostering regional co-operation: business environment, skills, infrastructure and connectivity, digital transformation and greening. Economy-specific profiles complement the regional assessment, offering each WB6 economy an in-depth analysis of their policies supporting competitiveness. They also track the implementation of the previous 2021 study's recommendations and provide additional ones tailored to the economies’ evolving challenges. These recommendations aim to inform structural economic reforms and facilitate the region’s socio-economic convergence towards the standards of the EU and OECD.
Inclusive and sustainable economic growth in the six Western Balkan (WB6) economies depends on greater economic competitiveness. Although the gap is closing gradually, the standards of living in WB6 are well below those of the OECD and EU. Accelerating the rate of socio-economic convergence will require a holistic and growth oriented approach to policy making.
This is the fourth study of the region (formerly under the title 'Competitiveness in South East Europe') and it comprehensively assesses policy reforms in the WB6 economies across 15 policy areas key to strengthening their competitiveness. It enables WB6 economies to compare economic performance against regional peers, as well as EU-OECD good practices and standards, and to design future policies based on rich evidence and actionable policy recommendations.
The regional profile presents assessment findings across five policy clusters crucial to accelerating socio-economic convergence of the WB6 by fostering regional co-operation: business environment, skills, infrastructure and connectivity, digital transformation and greening. Economy-specific profiles complement the regional assessment, offering each WB6 economy an in-depth analysis of their policies supporting competitiveness. They also track the implementation of the previous 2021 study's recommendations and provide additional ones tailored to the economies’ evolving challenges. These recommendations aim to inform structural economic reforms and facilitate the region’s socio-economic convergence towards the standards of the EU and OECD.
Inclusive and sustainable economic growth in the six Western Balkan (WB6) economies depends on greater economic competitiveness. Although the gap is closing gradually, the standards of living in WB6 are well below those of the OECD and EU. Accelerating the rate of socio-economic convergence will require a holistic and growth oriented approach to policy making.
This is the fourth study of the region (formerly under the title 'Competitiveness in South East Europe') and it comprehensively assesses policy reforms in the WB6 economies across 15 policy areas key to strengthening their competitiveness. It enables WB6 economies to compare economic performance against regional peers, as well as EU-OECD good practices and standards, and to design future policies based on rich evidence and actionable policy recommendations.
The regional profile presents assessment findings across five policy clusters crucial to accelerating socio-economic convergence of the WB6 by fostering regional co-operation: business environment, skills, infrastructure and connectivity, digital transformation and greening. Economy-specific profiles complement the regional assessment, offering each WB6 economy an in-depth analysis of their policies supporting competitiveness. They also track the implementation of the previous 2021 study's recommendations and provide additional ones tailored to the economies’ evolving challenges. These recommendations aim to inform structural economic reforms and facilitate the region’s socio-economic convergence towards the standards of the EU and OECD.
This paper outlines how these different challenges can limit, and sometimes prohibit, donors from working to strengthen the resilience of people, communities, and states and their institutions. The paper also proposes a menu of incentives that could be useful in different contexts to ensure political buy-in for resilience, to drive behaviour change by all actors, and to ensure that the risk analysis actually leads to the prioritization of resilience programming.
Childhood is changing in ways that we are still unpacking, affected by digitalization, globalization and climate change, as well as shocks such as the COVID-19 pandemic. In many OECD education systems, child empowerment is increasingly an explicit aim of policies and practices. But it is often poorly defined, which risks turning it into a mere slogan. With the advancement of children’s rights, children are increasingly being included as stakeholders in decision-making processes. This report gives examples of how children in OECD countries can and do participate in making decisions about issues that affect them. The report examines children's emotional well-being and physical activity, and the role of schools as a physical space to create and support relationships. It also underlines the untapped potential of media education when it comes to seizing opportunities in childhood. Empowering all children to make the most of digital opportunities starts with further narrowing the gap in terms of access to digital tools and the Internet, where inequalities are persistent and pervasive. So, what does child empowerment mean today? Empowered children have the opportunity and ability to act on issues important and relevant to them, can learn by making mistakes, and are key contributors to democracy.
On 23 July 2001, negotiators from 178 nations reached an unexpected political agreement on how to proceed with the international struggle against unwanted climate change.Specifically,they set out detailed rules for implementing the 1997 Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climat Change.Participants and observers in Bonn, Germany quickly dubbed the accord a turning-point in the fight against global warming. But the document enshrining the agreement was so technical and allusive as to be incomprehensible to all but experts.This pamphlet, prepared by analysts in the International Energy Agency ’s Energy and Environment Division, sets out the terms of the Bonn agreement in layman ’s language. As in several earlier publications of this kind, the IEA seeks to inform the public debate and place it in context in a thoroughly dispassionate and objective way.
The report links the results from the OECD PISA 2000 survey to qualitative evidence on important public policy measures in six countries that performed well in PISA. These measures included strategies for educational reform and innovation; issues of governance and resource allocation; national approaches to standard-setting, assessment and system monitoring; the organisation of support systems; the professional development of teachers; and approaches to addressing socio-economic differences in students’ backgrounds. Countries covered: Canada, England, Finland, France, the Netherlands and Sweden.
Despite the fact that the freight transport market in Europe almost doubled in volume over the period 1970 to 1995, growth in the inland waterway sector has remained stagnant. Until now the waterways have primarily been used to transport goods produced by sectors that have been hard hit by industrial restructuring. However, the past does not necessarily hold the key to the future. Waterways can be readily incorporated into logistics chains in which regular supply streams and low transport costs are more important than speed. The transportation of hazardous materials and container transport also offer promising markets.
The Round Table identified a number of policy measures which could help to promote development in the inland waterways sector (discontinuation of scrapping policies, support for the grouping of enterprises and the creation of co-operatives, incentives for private-sector investment). Reading the proceedings of this Round Table offers an opportunity to look at the inland waterways in a wholly new light which shows that there is a genuine future for this mode provided that operators are prepared to become entrepreneurs.
Facing the collapse of their business and stiff competition from road transport, Eastern European railways are in a critical financial situation. Railway restructuring is a must, but where circumstances in each country are so different there can be no “one size fits all” solution. Nevertheless, some guidelines for restructuring are emerging. The strategies to be implemented will involve both governments and the railway companies themselves.
Separating infrastructure from operations, for instance, could be a good model provided infrastructure usage is priced efficiently. Concessions should be granted for local and regional passenger services. Freight transport issues have to be addressed at a European level - and open access should be the fundamental rule along with encouraging new market entrants.
Privatising the railways is probably not a prerequisite; their independence, however, is essential. Their management should be exactly the same as that of any other commercial company on the market and they should have appropriate management tools. Railways should focus their investment on new technologies and automation, difficult problems with reducing overstaffing can be resolved only with government co-operation.
Based on a review of the strengths and weaknesses of the railways in the Countries of Central and Eastern Europe and in the Commonwealth of Independent States, this Round Table comes to a series of inescapable conclusions for anyone wishing to address these issues.
These ambitious questions are addressed in What Schools for the Future?, a publication produced by the OECD's Centre for Educational Research and Innovation (CERI). Drawing on an extensive international body of statistical and research evidence, the book analyses the social, economic, and educational trends of the 21st century. It also presents six possible scenarios for school systems over the next 10-20 years. The analysis is completed by contributions from eight international experts, looking with different perspectives at the challenges facing schools today and tomorrow.
For the first time, the OECD Future of Education and Skills 2030 project conducted comprehensive curriculum analyses through the co-creation of new knowledge with a wide range of stakeholders including policy makers, academic experts, school leaders, teachers, NGOs, other social partners and, most importantly, students. This report is one of six in a series presenting the first-ever comparative data on curriculum at the content level summarising existing literature, examining trends in curriculum change with challenges and strategies, and suggesting lessons learned from unintended consequences countries experienced with their curriculum reforms.
This report highlights that economic, societal and environmental changes are happening rapidly and technologies are developing at an unprecedented pace, but education systems are relatively slow to adapt. Time lag in curriculum redesign refers to the discrepancies between the content of today’s curriculum and the diverse needs of preparing students for the future. The OECD Learning Compass can serve as a guide for adjusting to the new demands of education systems with regards to curriculum, pedagogies, assessments, governance structure, educational management, and the role of students. Innovative approaches to curriculum design that may minimise time lags include: digital curriculum; personalised curriculum; cross-curricular content and competency-based curriculum; and flexible curriculum.
This report revisits the rationale and methods for estimating the value of reductions in travel time. In doing so, it considers changes in the way people use time and specifically explores whether the value of time will fall towards zero as connected technologies allow a wide range of activities while travelling. The report also reviews evidence and methodologies to account for the utility derived from such activities, as well as implications for modelling, appraisal and policy planning. It summarises the findings of an ITF Roundtable held with 30 experts from 14 countries in September 2018 in Paris.
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the World Bank and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) have collaborated in the third round of the Survey on National Education Responses to COVID-19 School Closures, administered by the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) and OECD to Ministry of Education officials. The questions covered four levels of education: preprimary, primary, lower secondary and upper secondary. While the first two rounds of the survey were implemented during the periods May–June and July–October 2020, respectively, the third round was implemented during the period February–June 2021. In total, 143 countries responded to the questionnaire. Thirty-one countries submitted responses to the OECD (“OECD survey”) and 112 countries responded to the UIS (“UIS survey”). Seven countries responded to both surveys. In these instances, the more complete set responses were used in analysis.
Drawing on data from the OECD’s Programme for International Students Assessment (PISA), this report examines the performance of students with immigrant backgrounds and compares it to that of their native counterparts. As well as providing information on countries’ approaches to the integration of immigrants, it looks at other factors that could influence immigrant students’ performance – such as their attitudes to school, their motivation and learning strategies as well as their social background and the language spoken at home – giving valuable implications for educational policy.
There is broad political support for lifelong learning because it is so vital to sustained economic progress and social cohesion in the "new economy". But its implementation is potentially costly and depends on making the learning process more cost-effective and on securing financial and in-kind resources from the private sector.
What can be done to keep lifelong learning from becoming prohibitively expensive, and to ensure that there are strong and transparent incentives to invest in it ? This book looks at recent experience of selected OECD countries as they have articulated their goals and strategies for lifelong learning. It examines policies and practices that influence the rates of return to lifelong learning, and mechanisms that are being put in place to channel financial resources to lifelong learning. It identifies resource issues that need to be addressed if lifelong learning is to be an affordable and workable guide to public policy.
Across the OECD, enormous effort and investment has been made to reinforce the quality, production and use of education research in policy and practice. Despite this, using research in education remains a challenge for many countries and systems. The OECD launched the Strengthening the Impact of Education Research project to respond to this challenge.
This publication reports on the first phase of the project. It maps the various structures, processes, actors and relationships that reinforce the quality, production and use of education research in policy and practice. The publication brings together leading experts who provide insights into recent research and international experience gathered from both policy and practice, including from other sectors such as health, agriculture and environment.
The publication provides a first set of analyses of data collected from over 30 systems through an OECD survey. It describes the mechanisms used to facilitate research use in education policy and practice, and the levels of engagement of various actors in these processes. By mapping the drivers of, and barriers to, using research systematically and at scale, the publication sets out an agenda for future inquiry. It can be a resource for policy makers, educational leaders, teachers and the research community.
This report presents the most up-to-date and comprehensive cross-country assessment of long-term care (LTC) workers, the tasks they perform and the policies to address shortages in OECD countries. It highlights the importance of improving working conditions in the sector and making care work more attractive and shows that there is space to increase productivity by enhancing the use of technology, providing a better use of skills and investing in prevention.
Population ageing has outpaced the growth of workers in the long-term care (LTC) sector and the sector struggles with attracting and retaining enough workers to care for those dependent on others for care. Non-standard work is widespread, pay levels tend to be lower than similar-qualification jobs in other health sectors, and LTC workers experience more health problems than other health workers. Further, educational requirements tend to be insufficient to perform more demanding and growing tasks of LTC. With growing demand for care at home, better co-ordination between the health and long-term care sectors and between formal and informal careers is needed.
In today's dynamic and rapidly evolving world, evidence-informed decision-making has emerged as a cornerstone in guiding effective education policy and practice. In particular, creating a culture of research engagement is often highlighted as a key ingredient to strengthening the impact of research. However, it is not always clear how that works in practice.
The publication provides analyses of data collected from more than 30 education systems. It delves into how systemic and organisational capacity for thoughtful engagement with research can be built into policy and practice. It also contains concrete examples of building a culture of research engagement by presenting diverse case studies, analyses, tools and processes. It is intended as a practical resource for policy makers, educational leaders, teachers and the research community to stimulate reflection and guide their efforts to developing a culture of research engagement in education.
This report provides an explanation of DeFi and its applications and then describes the evolution of DeFi markets to date. It explores the benefits and risks of DeFi and the DeFi/CeFi intersection and puts forward policy considerations.
This study provides an in-depth exploration of a series of factors that can explain a country’s propensity to export fake goods. The analysis explores the role and interplay of macroeconomic factors, governance variables, and the presence of Free Trade Zones, logistics facilities and trade facilitation. In addition, it analyses the role corrruption and enforcement of IP play in facilitating trade in counterfeit products, and provides data on these links.