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The Testing Programme for the Testing of Manufactured Nanomaterials tested 11 manufactured nanomaterials (MNMs) to generate information including their physico-chemical properties, environmental fate, and environmental and mammalian toxicity. The aims of the project were to (1) review which OECD Test Guidelines (hereafter TGs) and non-TG in vitro assays were applied in the OECD Testing Programme; (2) verify, where possible, to what extent these assays were applicable for MNMs testing; (3) recognise limitations of each assay when used for MNM testing; and (4) identify issues that might need to be further addressed (e.g. by proposing modifications to existing TGs). The present report summarises the information extracted from dossiers, presents the evaluation of the information extracted from the dossiers, and identifies potential next steps (e.g. where modification of existing TGs, or proposals of new TGs or Guidance Documents (GDs) could be appropriate). The recommendations and observations presented in this report are only based on the information extracted from the dossiers and recent publications on specific TGs

As countries seek to learn from the COVID-19 crisis and increase their resilience for the future, evaluations are important tools to understand what worked or not, why and for whom. This report is the first of its kind. It evaluates Luxembourg’s responses to the COVID-19 crisis in terms of risk preparedness, crisis management, as well as public health, education, economic and fiscal, and social and labour market policies. While Luxembourg’s response to the pandemic has been particularly agile, preserving the country’s resilience will require maintaining high levels of trust in government, reducing inequalities, and laying the foundations for inclusive growth. The findings and recommendations of this report will provide guidance to public authorities in these efforts.

This Evaluation of National Strategies for Financial Literacy summarises and draws lessons from the evaluation approaches and activities of 29 countries and economies that are part of the OECD International Network for Financial Education (OECD/INFE). It provides implementation guidance on the evaluation of their national strategies for financial literacy, accompanied by concrete examples gathered through a series of interviews and a survey conducted in 2019 and 2020. The report also discusses the reasons for evaluating national strategies, good practice approaches and methodologies, associated challenges and benefits, funding the cost of evaluation, as well as post-evaluation communication plans.

It has been widely recognised among researchers that speciation data are essential for proper and reliable modelling of radionuclide behaviour, which is studied inter alia in the context of radioactive waste management. Participants at the OECD/NEA workshop on "Evaluation of Speciation Technology" reviewed the various techniques used to identify different species of actinide and fission product elements present in nuclear waste and nuclear reprocessing streams. The review takes into account the advantages, disadvantages and limitations of the various methods in relation to their field of application. Recommendations for future R&D are also provided. These proceedings will primarily be of interest to chemists specialised in separation techniques and radioactive waste management experts.

The objective of this report is to compile available tools and models for the assessment of environmental exposure to manufactured nanomaterials, and to conduct an analysis of their applicability for use in regulatory exposure assessment. The report assesses the compiled models by providing a functional assessment, statistical analysis, and performance evaluation of each model. The functional assessment assesses the scope (underlying assumptions and foundational algorithms) and use of the tools; the statistical analysis quantifies parametric sensitivity and output uncertainty in models from those tools; the performance evaluation weighs the models against real scenarios (where applicable). Finally, the recommendations provide guidance on the applicability of the tools and models in regulatory assessments.

This document provides a compilation of 32 models/tools, 9 of which were assessed under the occupational project, 9 under the consumer project, and the remaining 14 under both projects. The compilation of the models/tools was created by consultation within the OECD and by searching in several OECD, EU and US EPA projects, as well as peer-reviewed scientific articles, books, thesis and technical reports. A summary of the 32 compiled tools is provided in the report in table format. From the 32 compiled tools, 27 were assessed by scope analysis, and accessibility and support. The remaining 5 tools, which are part of the consumer project, were not further considered, as they are not nanospecific (the consumer project focuses only on nanospecific models/tools). In the scope analysis, tool description, mapping of input and output parameters, domain and assumptions are detailed. In addition, the tools were assessed according to their accessibility and support, which addresses the user interface of the models/tools and availability of guidance documents and input parameters.

This report contains the performance testing results of the selected tools after assessment of scope, accessibility and support, and sensitivity analysis. From the first initial list, which included 23 occupational exposure assessment tools (13 nanospecific and 10 conventional chemical tools), 15 were assessed for performance testing (10 nanospecific and 5 conventional tools for chemicals). This report includes 1) results from the performance testing, 2) scenario-specific measurement data inventory and 3) original reports containing exposure assessment results for each of the assessed tools. The tools assessed are categorised as control banding, risk management, risk-benefit, risk assessment, risk categorisation and quantitative exposure assessment.

The project “Compilation of Available Tools and Models Used for Assessing Consumer Exposure to Manufactured Nanomaterials and Evaluation of their Applicability in Exposure Assessments” aimed to (1) compile the available tools and models for assessing consumer exposure to Manufactured Nanomaterials (MNMs), and (2) evaluate their applicability to MNM exposure assessment. This document presents the outcomes of the performance testing for 7 models/tools under the second objective of the project. The tested models/tools were selected out of 15 nano-specific models/tools compiled through an extensive literature review of peer-reviewed publications, the outcomes from recent international projects and inventories, and consultation with OECD under the first objective. The performance testing assessed the predictive capability of models/tools by comparing the output of models/tools with measurement data. Due to low availability of measurement data suitable for the performance testing for consumer exposure scenarios, the performance testing was limited to a few case studies in this work. Case studies were selected for the performance testing for each model/tool based on data availability for input and output of model/tool, and scope of model/tool.

Education policies and systems in all OECD countries are coming under increasing pressure to show greater accountability and effectiveness and it is crucial that educational policy decisions are made based on the best evidence possible. This book brings together international experts on evidence-informed policy in education from a wide range of OECD countries. The report looks at the issues facing educational policy makers, researchers, and stakeholders – teachers, media, parents – in using evidence to best effect. It focuses on the challenge of effective brokering between policy makers and researchers, offers specific examples of major policy-related research, and presents perspectives from several senior politicians. This book provides a fresh outlook on key issues facing policy makers, researchers and school leaders today

With 1.2 billion people, today’s youth population aged 15-24 represents the largest cohort ever to enter the transition to adulthood. Close to 90% of these young people live in developing countries, and the numbers will practically double in the least developed countries. These young people are the world’s next generation and a unique asset. If properly nurtured, they can act as engines for economic and social progress. Hence, the political will has grown among many national governments to develop comprehensive policy frameworks that better respond to young peoples’ needs and aspirations through national youth policies.
 
This toolkit provides analytical tools and policy guidance, based on rigorous empirical evidence and international good practices, to countries that are developing, implementing or updating their youth policies. The toolkit includes step-by-step modules to carry out a youth well-being diagnosis and includes practical examples of common youth policies and programmes in the areas of employment, education and skills, health and civic participation.
 

The OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) has actively participated in discussions with the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) regarding the development of new recommendations that will replace those in ICRP Publication 60, which has long served as the international standard in this field. Part of this development process has involved the organisation of seven international workshops, including the First and Second Asian Regional Conferences on the Evolution of the System of Radiological Protection which took place in Tokyo, Japan in October 2002 and July 2004. The Third Asian Regional Conference was held on 5-6 July 2006, also in Tokyo. These proceedings summarise the results and key discussions of the Third Asian Regional Conference.

This report focuses on the significant developments in world agricultural markets and in the policies of major agricultural producing regions since the latest round of WTO negotiations began in 2001. In the past decade, production, prices and trade flows have been transformed and countries have substantially altered their agricultural trade and domestic support policies. The impacts of these policies on global production, trade and welfare (proxied by private household consumption) are assessed along with the effects of possible multilateral trade reform scenarios. The assessments are made through an application of the OECD’s computable general equilibrium model, METRO, in conjunction with the AGLINK-COSIMO outlook model.

Energy service companies (ESCOs) deliver energy efficiency projects that are financed through the resulting energy cost savings. ESCOs can thus unlock energy efficiency action by addressing barriers related to funding and technical expertise. Despite their potential, many governments still struggle to stimulate development of a market for ESCOs. Evolving Energy Service Companies in People’s Republic of China, (“China” hereafter) provides an overview of how China has built the world’s largest and fastest growing ESCO market over the past decades. This report highlights how the government’s strategic measures to set up key agencies for ESCOs, engage the State-Owned Enterprises, and encourage market play by bringing in commercial players, in line with China’s socio-economic transition, have been critical to making the Chinese ESCO model a success. Looking ahead, ESCOs in China continue to evolve, for example by using digital technologies to make their businesses more sustainable and lucrative. Based on the insights gained from a survey of major ESCOs in China, the report highlights the challenges and opportunities of digitalisation and provides some policy insights.

Spanish society values families and family life highly, but the way that families look and live has been changing drastically over the past decades. From being one of the countries with the highest fertility rates in Europe, Spain now has the lowest rate in the region and the legalisation of divorce and social acceptance of co-habitation has led to a decline in the traditional nuclear family model. At the same time, the share of mothers who are employed increased by more than 50% over the past two decades, though it remains below the OECD average. While family law has evolved quite strongly alongside these societal changes, family policy – i.e. the combination of benefits, services, tax breaks and leave arrangements that support family members in raising and providing care to minor children and other dependent persons – has undergone some changes but few major reforms. This report suggests ways to adapt Spain’s family policy to incorporate family diversity into the national policy framework, improve family well-being, reduce child poverty and make family life easier for all.

Ex-post evaluation is important to improving the delivery of transport policy objectives. It can be used for multiple purposes at the core of which is the improvement of ex-ante assessment. A small number of jurisdictions employ ex-post evaluation systematically and leading experience is reviewed in this report.
One reason ex-post analysis is not more widely employed is a number of methodological and data challenges. Several approaches have been developed to tackle these, including advanced statistical approaches, establishment of transport observatories to retain data that would otherwise be lost and a case study approach to compare similar locations subject to different investment and policy treatments.
This report examines examples of best practice, discussing the potential of different approaches and how they can be used to complement each other.

The fact that market experience improves performance and reduces prices is well known and widely exploited in technology-intensive industries, but sparsely used in analysis for energy technology policy. Knowledge of the “experience effect” can help in the design of efficient programmes for deploying of environment-friendly technologies. The effect must be taken into account when estimating the future costs of achieving targets, including targets for carbon dioxide reduction. This book discusses issues raised by the “experience effect”, such as price-cost cycles, competition for learning opportunities in the market, risk of “technology lockout” and the effects of research, development and deployment policies on technology learning. Case studies illustrate how experience curves can be used to set policy targets and to design policy measures that will encourage both investment in and use of environment-friendly energy technologies. Low-cost paths to stabilising CO2 emissions are explored.

The NEA has a long tradition of expertise in the area of nuclear emergency policy, planning, preparedness and management. Through its activities in this field, it offers member countries unbiased assistance on nuclear preparedness matters, with a view to facilitating improvements in nuclear emergency preparedness strategies and response at the international level. A central approach to this has been the preparation and conduct of the International Nuclear Emergency Exercise (INEX) series.
The Fifth International Nuclear Emergency Exercise (INEX-5) was developed specifically in response to member countries’ desire to test and demonstrate the value of changes put in place following the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant accident. Exercise objectives focused on notification, communication and interfaces related to catastrophic events involving ionising radiation and/or radioactive material. The exercise was held during 2015 and 2016, with 22 countries participating in the exercise.
This report summarises the major evaluation outcomes of the national and regional exercises, policy level outcomes, recommendations and follow-up activities emerging from INEX-5 and the discussions at the INEX-5 International Workshop. A set of key needs were identified in areas such as real-time communication and information sharing among countries and international partners, improving crossborder and international co-ordination of protective measures and considering the mental health impacts on populations when implementing protective measures.