Publications

From steering decision-making in times of complexity to stewarding cross-cutting policies and guiding good practices across the public administration, centres of government (CoGs) play an important role in achieving government ambitions. CoGs have recently found themselves under pressure to help navigate increasingly complex policy challenges in an environment characterised by multiple crises, polarisation and declining trust in public institutions. This compendium gathers and shares practices and experiences of CoGs in undertaking their various roles and functions. It describes the mechanisms CoGs use in roles such as bridging the political-administrative interface, stewarding cross-cutting policies, guiding public administration reform, and engaging with citizens and other stakeholders. Finally, it discusses the lessons learnt and key enablers that emerge from the experiences. This compendium serves CoG leaders and government officials who seek to better understand the role of the centre in contributing to better outcomes for citizens and society.

Le Rapport sur la dette mondiale examine les marchés de la dette souveraine et de la dette d'entreprise, apporte un éclairage sur les conditions actuelles du marché et formule des considérations pour l’action publique, y compris sur les risques éventuels pour la stabilité financière. Cette première édition intègre les Perspectives sur les emprunts souverains, qui étaient auparavant une publication distincte de l'OCDE, et comporte de nouveaux chapitres portant sur les marchés des obligations d'entreprises et les obligations durables. Le chapitre 1 donne une vue d’ensemble des emprunts souverains dans le monde et un aperçu des pays de l’OCDE, en mettant l’accent sur l’impact des évolutions récentes des conditions de financement et des changements intervenus dans la base d’investisseurs. Le chapitre 2 analyse la dynamique du marché des obligations d’entreprise à l’échelle mondiale, l’accumulation des risques et des vulnérabilités et les répercussions de la transformation du paysage macrofinancier. Le chapitre 3 passe en revue les tendances qui se font jour sur les marchés mondiaux des obligations durables et examine les facteurs intéressant l’action publique, tels que la prime de durabilité, le rôle des prestataires de services et la liquidité du marché.

The Slovak Republic has reduced some environmental pressures over the past decade. However, it needs to do more to reduce air pollution, improve waste and wastewater treatment and move towards carbon neutrality. Since 2011, the country has taken important steps to improve its biodiversity policy. Slovakia needs to now align its strategy with the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework and the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030. Most species and habitats are in an unfavourable state and biodiversity considerations are not sufficiently integrated into sectoral policies. This is the third Environmental Performance Review of the Slovak Republic. It provides an evidence-based assessment of the country's progress towards its environmental goals over the past decade. The 29 recommendations aim to help Slovakia improve its environmental performance, giving special focus to biodiversity and forests in the context of climate change.

Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) is a policy approach that makes producers responsible for their products along the entire lifecycle, including at the post-consumer stage. This policy paper summarises the current consensus on the EPR policy approach. By taking stock of what's known and well established in the literature, it aims to foster a common understanding of the EPR approach and to provide guiding principles for its successful implementation. This paper makes a valuable contribution to an increasing number of policy debates and processes that are ongoing, both at national and international levels, in areas such as plastics, electric and electronic waste and textiles.

This paper gives an overview of all development finance sources available to countries of the Organisation of Eastern-Caribbean States (OECS) for enhancing their economic and climate resilience, and progress towards their Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). After reviewing political and macroeconomic contexts, it examines some of the specific challenges and opportunities they meet in financing their development, including the mobilisation of private finance and domestic resources; public debt sustainability; and the alignment of official development finance (ODF) with their evolving needs. It stresses the risks of inadequately preparing for the end of eligibility to official development assistance (ODA), when countries reach high-income status while remaining highly vulnerable. Finally, it presents recommendations for the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) members to better support and accompany OECS countries as they transition to higher-income status.

This report examines the work of the business ombudsman institutions of Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan in order to identify their successful practices, as well as gaps that can be addressed through mutual learning and knowledge sharing. It reviews key aspects of the work of these institutions, including the legal framework for their operations, independence and accountability safeguards, funding mechanisms and operational procedures. Based on the analysis, the report offers a number of recommendations that can help improve existing institutions and also be useful to countries that are considering establishing them.

This paper explores the economics of Artificial Intelligence (AI), focusing on its potential as a new General-Purpose Technology that can significantly influence economic productivity and societal wellbeing. It examines AI's unique capacity for autonomy and self-improvement, which could accelerate innovation and potentially revive sluggish productivity growth across various industries, while also acknowledging the uncertainties surrounding AI's long-term productivity impacts. The paper discusses the concentration of AI development in big tech firms, uneven adoption rates, and broader societal challenges such as inequality, discrimination, and security risks. It calls for a comprehensive policy approach to ensure AI's beneficial development and diffusion, including measures to promote competition, enhance accessibility, and address job displacement and inequality.

The Autonomous Province of Trento (Trentino) is among the most productive regions in Europe, but over the past two decades its productivity growth has stagnated. As a result, the productivity gap of Trentino widened by over 20% compared to regions with the same productivity level in 2000. The benchmarking of productivity drivers in Trentino with those of 'peer' regions points to several policy priorities, including: reviving productivity in tradeable sectors, also through increased internationalisation; increasing the share of the labour force with a tertiary education; and getting more out of public R&D while boosting private sector R&D.

The Welsh Government is refining its approach to regional development, adopting a regional lens directed to four regions to better allocate resources and address local needs. This OECD Multi-level Governance Study – a follow up to the 2020 OECD report The Future of Regional Development and Public Investment in Wales, United Kingdom – summarises the progress Wales has made to advance this regional lens, and identifies key areas of attention going forward. It synthesises the results of a vision-setting exercise, capacity-building workshops with the national government and regional bodies, and a multi-stakeholder workshop on collaborative working among Welsh regional development actors. This report identifies enablers for the effective use of a regional lens in Wales, including robust regional data, long-term and future-oriented objectives, effective co-ordination across Welsh Government policy areas related to regional development, capacitated regional structures, and trust and collaborative working among levels of government. The report's insights on establishing strategic direction and fostering collaboration among national, regional, and local levels could be valuable for countries exploring ways to optimise regional development policy, including in the face of resource constraints.

Social impact measurement and management is a particularly helpful practice for social economy entities to understand their contribution to society and potentially improve the achievement of their mission. Impact areas that are particularly important for the social economy, such as economic prosperity and employment, social inclusion and well-being and community, are often the hardest to translate into quantitative metrics. Current social impact measurement and management practices are largely shaped by funders and for-profits with limited focus on the social economy. This guide offers a simple, straightforward approach for social economy entities to measure, manage and ultimately maximise their impact, and to prioritise the use of findings for strategic organisational learning and improvement.