Browse by: "2021"

Gender-based violence affects many aspects of survivors' and victims' lives, including access to education, employment, housing, health care, legal support, and physical and mental health services. While many governments have enacted policies and programmes to eradicate gender-based violence and address its intersectional impacts, strategic planning, policy co-ordination, and long-term investment in services has often been uneven. This publication explores how countries can strengthen public governance systems, respond to the needs and experiences of survivors/victims, and improve access to justice and accountability to effectively address gender-based violence.

Despite progress, open government reforms remain uneven across the Arab region and are hampered by the ongoing effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. This report assesses the economic and social impact of open government based on experiences and good practices in OECD and Arab countries. It builds on the OECD’s extensive work in this field and provides a robust set of examples of legal and policy frameworks, governance arrangements, and successful initiatives on the ground. Based on this analysis, the report provides a series of policy recommendations for governments in the Arab region to promote open government.

Data on government sector receipts, and on taxes in particular, are basic inputs to most structural economic descriptions and economic analyses and are increasingly used in economic comparisons. This annual publication gives a conceptual framework to define which government receipts should be regarded as taxes. It presents a unique set of detailed and internationally comparable tax data in a common format for all OECD countries from 1965 onwards.

Les données sur les recettes des administrations publiques, et sur le produit de la fiscalité en particulier, constituent la base de la plupart des travaux de description des structures économiques et d’analyse économique, et sont de plus en plus utilisées pour comparaisons internationales. Cette publication annuelle présente un cadre conceptuel dont le but est de définir les recettes publiques devant être assimilées à des impôts et de classifier les différentes catégories d’impôts. Elle constitue également un ensemble unique de statistiques fiscales détaillées et comparables au niveau international, utilisant une présentation identique pour tous les pays de l’OCDE depuis 1965.

The report on Resourcing Higher Education in the Flemish Community of Belgium is the first in a series of publications produced by the OECD's Resourcing Higher Education Project. This project aims to develop a shared knowledge base for OECD member and partner countries on effective policies for higher education resourcing through system-specific and comparative policy analysis. The review of resourcing in the Flemish Community of Belgium has a strong focus on the funding of operating costs, teaching and research in Flemish higher education institutions. It also analyses financial support for students, system-level frameworks governing human resources policy in higher education and key trends in higher education that will impact future higher education resourcing policy. Alongside analysis and comparison of Flemish resourcing policy approaches, it provides recommendations to support future refinement of policies.

Global events like the Olympics or cultural festivals offer cities a chance to spur growth and capitalize on local assets. However, they also pose risks such as budget overruns and community displacement. The OECD's Global Events Toolkit translates policy advice into actionable steps for governments, organizers, and hosts, ensuring events deliver lasting benefits. In a post-COVID era, where recovery is paramount, maximizing the value of global events is crucial. This toolkit equips policymakers with strategies to create resilient, inclusive, and sustainable outcomes, aligning with OECD's commitment to supporting governments worldwide in realizing the full potential of global events for local development.

Public communication is an essential part of government policy and an important contributor to transparency, integrity, accountability and stakeholder participation. This Citizens’ Voice in Jordan Report provides an analysis of internal and external communications processes, examining progress achieved to date and remaining challenges. It provides recommendations for the Government of Jordan for making a strategic use of public communication and strengthening the media ecosystem in the interest of promoting a more open government.

The SIGI 2021 Regional Report for Africa provides regional analysis on how discriminatory social institutions, such as formal and informal laws, social norms and practices, continue to constrain women’s empowerment and restrict their access to opportunities and rights. It gives new evidence on the impact of these discriminatory social institutions on three key dimensions of women’s empowerment across the region: their physical integrity, their economic situation and their political voice, leadership and agency. The report provides regional as well as thematic policy recommendations that aim to transform gender norms, promote women’s empowerment and build a truly inclusive society, especially in the current context of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

Supreme audit institutions can contribute to promoting substantial improvements in public management. In Colombia, the Office of the Comptroller General of the Republic (CGR) has implemented a new preventive and concomitant control function that identifies risks while projects and budgets are being executed. This report reviews the reform so far and highlights its potential for strengthening the public administration and thus enhancing the impact and relevance of CGR’s work. It addresses strategic considerations and provides recommendations on issues such as how to improve internal co-ordination within the CGR, promote behavioural changes, improve co-ordination with internal control units, and use data and innovative technologies for auditing. The report also points to the need for a sound and long-term fiscal management policy in Colombia.

Today, the global youth population is at its highest ever and still growing, with the highest proportion of youth living in Africa and Asia, and a majority of them in rural areas. Young people in rural areas face the double challenge of age-specific vulnerabilities and underdevelopment of rural areas. While agriculture absorbs the majority of rural workers in developing countries, low pay and poor working conditions make it difficult to sustain rural livelihoods. Potential job opportunities for rural youth exist in agriculture and along the agri-food value chain, however. Growing populations, urbanisation and rising incomes of the working class are increasing demand for more diverse and higher value added agricultural and food products in Africa and developing Asia. This demand will create a need for off-farm labour, especially in agribusinesses, which tends to be better paid and located in rural areas and secondary towns. It could boost job creation in the food economy provided that local food systems were mobilised to take up the challenge of higher and changing domestic demand for food.

Las entidades fiscalizadoras superiores pueden contribuir a lograr mejoras sustanciales en la gestión pública. En Colombia, la Contraloría General de la República (CGR) ha implementado una nueva función de control preventivo y concomitante que identifica riesgos durante la ejecución de proyectos y presupuestos. Este informe revisa el estado de la reforma hasta este momento y destaca su potencial para fortalecer la administración pública y así mejorar el impacto y la relevancia del trabajo de la CGR. Aborda también consideraciones estratégicas y proporciona recomendaciones sobre cuestiones tales como mejorar la coordinación interna dentro de la CGR, promover cambios comportamentales, mejorar la coordinación con las unidades de control interno y utilizar datos y tecnologías innovadoras para la auditoría. El informe también señala la necesidad de una política de gestión fiscal sólida y de largo plazo en Colombia.

Thriving middle classes are the backbone of democratic societies and strong economies, but in many countries, they face mounting pressure as their economic strength is eroding relative to higher-income households. Real wages and incomes for most middle-class households have grown only very slowly, and rising expenditures have been putting further pressure on living standards. Meanwhile, globalisation, digitalisation, and demographic change are eroding job opportunities for middle-skilled workers, who risk sliding into lower-paid employment. The COVID-19 crisis has accentuated socio-economic divides and may end up accelerating some of the above trends. This publication builds upon the OECD’s publications on the middle class (Under Pressure: The Squeezed Middle Class) and social mobility (A Broken Social Elevator? How to Promote Social Mobility). It demonstrates that the German middle class is similar in size as in peer countries, but substantially smaller than it was in the mid-1990s. Lower middle‑class households face an increased risk of slipping out of the middle; meanwhile, upward mobility into the middle has declined, particularly for workers in “typical” middle-class occupations. Employment growth forecasts point to further occupational polarisation. The review proposes policy options for strengthening the employability of middle-class workers, creating good-quality, future-oriented jobs, and boosting middle‑class disposable incomes.