Reports

Since the launch of the Ðổi Mới economic reforms in 1986, Viet Nam has achieved tremendous economic and social progress. Today, it is well integrated on global markets, has enjoyed robust growth, and has seen remarkable poverty reduction. With its recent successful fiscal consolidation, its attractiveness as a trading destination and rapidly growing domestic middle class, Viet Nam faces a window of opportunity for its transition to an inclusive market economy. Three guiderails should form the basis of this strategy: integration, transparency and sustainability. Better integration between state-owned enterprises, foreign investors and domestic private companies in open markets will be key to future performance gains. Partnerships between universities and enterprises would also help upgrade skills and create innovation, thereby making the integration durable. Transparency and performance of government are prerequisites for trust and a key lever to enhance efficiency and productivity in most areas of the state and the economy. A more sustainable development path will need better management of water, air and energy to address climate change. Reforms of the social security system can also ensure that no one is left behind, especially in the face of a fast ageing population.

Sovereign wealth funds manage a large share of the world’s invested capital. The action or inaction of these funds on climate finance is of crucial importance to the world’s ability to reach the goals of the Paris Agreement, and restrain global warming to below 2 degrees Celsius. However, sovereign wealth funds have so far played a very limited role in climate finance. This report provides guidance on how governments can support their sovereign wealth funds in becoming climate-aligned commercial investors. The establishment of synergies between sovereign wealth funds and strategic investment funds can help scale up investments in clean-energy infrastructure.

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.

Addressing rural development is key for Ethiopia’s growth process. A series of government-led structural reforms have contributed to sustained growth in the country over the last two decades as well as to considerable poverty reduction in rural areas. However, Ethiopia faces critical challenges it will need to overcome to meet the needs of a growing rural population. In practice, this will require updating the existing rural development strategy in order to better integrate the interaction of rural and urban areas. Policy approaches that account for the fast urbanisation process experienced in the country will therefore be key to improving the well-being of rural populations and promoting national growth. This report takes a spatial approach to study Ethiopia’s rural development strategies. It highlights the need to develop stronger and more functional linkages between rural and urban areas. As such, the development of intermediary cities and small urban centres provides large scope for inclusive rural transformation. The report is the result of rigorous analysis, and extensive consultations with national and international stakeholders. It identifies some of the key challenges faced by rural areas and provides a series of recommendations to enhance Ethiopia’s rural development strategies.

Transforming natural finite assets into human, social and physical capital is a key challenge for natural resource-rich countries. This report distils related lessons from the OECD Policy Dialogue on Natural Resource-based Development on natural resource revenue management and spending for sustainable development. This includes a guide on how natural resource-rich countries can ensure budget sustainability to support consistent spending over time. Further analysis focuses on the management of spending versus saving and the effectiveness of different spending mechanisms for sustainable development, making recommendations to address current challenges.

What are the major economic and social trends in Africa? What is Africa’s role in globalisation? This annual report presents an Africa open to the world and towards the future. Africa’s Development Dynamics uses the lessons learned in the five African regions – Central, East, North, Southern and West Africa – to develop recommendations and share good practices. The report identifies innovative policies and offers practical policy recommendations, adapted to the specificities of African economies. Drawing on the most recent available statistics, this analysis of development dynamics aims to help African leaders reach the targets of the African Union’s Agenda 2063 at all levels: continental, regional, national, and local. Every year this report will focus on one strategic theme. This 2019 edition explores policies for productive transformation. It proposes three main policy focus for transforming firms: providing business services to clusters of firms; developing regional production networks; and improving exporting firms’ ability to thrive in fast-changing markets. This volume feeds into a policy debate between African Union’s nations, citizens, entrepreneurs and researchers. It aims to be part of a new co-operation between countries and regions focused on mutual learning and the preservation of common goods. This report is the result of a partnership between the African Union Commission and the OECD Development Centre.

Paraguay has set itself ambitious development goals for 2030. To achieve them, it will have to tackle two major challenges: buttressing sources of sustainable economic prosperity and putting the country on a more inclusive development path. Progressing towards a more inclusive society will require a broad and vigorous reform agenda. First, the country’s healthcare system requires systemic reform to widen its coverage, reduce Paraguayans’ vulnerability in the face of health risks and increase the efficiency of health service provision. Second, the social protection system needs to overcome its fragmentation and become more effective in delivering the right services and risk management tools to citizens according to their needs. In particular, the pension system requires reforms to increase its coverage and become more equitable and more sustainable. Third, the quality and the inclusiveness of its education and training system need to be strengthened to generate the skills the economy needs, and provide opportunities to all. Based on the analysis and recommendations undertaken in Volumes 1 and 2 of this Multi-dimensional country review, this report identifies key areas for action and presents targeted action plans to kick-start reform. The report also provides a dashboard of monitoring indicators to support the reform agenda in the country.

Unlocking what drives tax morale – the intrinsic willingness to pay tax – can greatly assist governments in the design of tax policies and their administration, particularly in developing countries where compliance rates are low. This report builds on previous OECD research to identify some of the key socio-economic and institutional drivers of tax morale across developing countries, and seeks to test for evidence of the social contract by examining the impact of public services on tax morale. It also uses new data on tax certainty as an entry point to explore tax morale in businesses, where existing research is very limited. Finally, the report identifies a range of factors related to the tax system that may affect business decision making, how they vary across regions, and suggests some areas for future research. Overall, the report provides a range of suggestions for further work, and how tax morale considerations can be integrated into holistic tax compliance strategies.

Peru has experienced remarkable socio-economic progress over the last two decades, enabling it to join the group of upper middle-income countries around 2010. However, challenges are ahead if the country is not to be caught in various development traps. Overcoming these challenges in the near future to take the economy to the next level and become a country with higher productivity, inclusive development and well-being for all will require sound policy reforms. Further efforts are needed on three main fronts: economic diversification, connectivity and formalisation of jobs. This report analyses the main challenges in these three priority areas and sets up a policy action plan. It also proposes a scorecard including a series of indicators for monitoring progress derived from the implementation of the reforms proposed in these three areas and presents the objectives for each indicator that Peru should aim to achieve by 2025 and 2030.