Publications

De nombreux pays en sont venus à reconnaître qu'un plus grand recours à l'energie nucléaire pourrait contribuer utilement à réduire les émissions de dioxyde de carbone. Cependant, compte tenu des coûts élevés d’investissement et de la complexité des centrales nucléaires, le financement de leur construction reste souvent un défi de taille. Cela est particulièrement vrai lorsque ces financements sont laissés au secteur privé dans un contexte de concurrence des marchés de l’électricité. Cette étude examine les risques financiers qu'implique l'investissement dans une nouvelle centrale nucléaire, les moyens de les atténuer et les façons de structurer les projets de telle sorte que les risques résiduels soient pris par ceux qui sont les plus à même de les gérer. Compte tenu du fait que l'expansion des programmes nucléaires exigera des aides substantielles et durables des pouvoirs publics, l'étude met en avant le rôle que peuvent jouer les États pour faciliter et encourager les investissements dans de nouvelles capacités de production.

Information communication technologies (ICTs) are crucial to reducing poverty, improving access to health and education services and creating new sources of income and employment for the poor. Being able to access and use ICTs has become a major factor in driving competitiveness, economic growth and social development. In the last decade, ICTs, particularly mobile phones, have also opened up new channels for the free flow of ideas and opinions, thereby promoting democracy and human rights.The OECD and infoDev joined forces at a workshop on 10-11 September 2009 to examine some of the main challenges in reducing the discrepancies in access to ICTs and use of ICTs between developing countries. The workshop discussed best practices for more coherent and collaborative approaches in support of poverty reduction and meeting the Millennium Development Goals.There is much work to be done on improving policy coherence and there is a need to engage more actively with partner countries. Making the most of ICTs requires that they are seen as part of innovation for development, rather than just another development tool.This publication examines access to ICTs, as a precondition to their use; broadband Internet access and governments' role in making it available; developments in mobile payments; ICT security issues; ICTs for improving environmental performance; and the relative priority of ICTs in education. For more informationThe OECD/infoDev workshop on ICTs for Development: www.oecd.org/ICT/4DOECD work on Policy Coherence for Development: www.oecd.org/development/policycoherence infoDev: www.infoDev.org

L’externalisation des fonctions et des services à des prestataires externes est une pratique établie dans de nombreux pays développés et en développement. D’une part, l’externalisation peut offrir un soutien essentiel aux États qui doivent fournir d’urgence des services de base. D’autre part, elle risque de contourner les États et nuire à leur relèvement à long terme. Le Partenariat pour la gouvernance démocratique de l’OCDE a été formé en 2007 afin d’aborder dans une optique plus stratégique cette question majeure.Le guide ne prend pas position en faveur ou contre l’externalisation. Ce n’est pas non plus un manuel technique. Ce guide est destiné aux praticiens de terrain et aux décideurs des politiques publiques dans les États qui sortent d’un conflit ou qui sont considérés comme fragiles. Son but est d’aider les décideurs et les praticiens à faire des choix éclairés sur les types d’externalisation les mieux adaptés à leur pays. C’est un outil permettant aux décideurs d’évaluer la viabilité de l’externalisation — de façon temporaire ou sur le long terme — dans la prestation d’un service essentiel (tel que l’éducation de base, la santé, l’eau et l’assainissement) ou d’une fonction gouvernementale (telle que la gestion des finances publiques et les ressources humaines). Le guide illustre ces points à l’aide d’études de cas tirées des expériences acquises dans de nombreux États fragiles, allant de l’Afghanistan à Haïti et au Libéria.

Les sources de risques sont nombreuses et diversifiées ; elles vont des événements climatiques et météorologiques aux maladies animales ; des variations du prix des produits agricoles à celles du prix des engrais et autres intrants ; mais aussi des incertitudes financières aux risques créés par les politiques publiques et les réglementations. Les perturbations récentes observées sur les marchés internationaux des produits agricoles, couplées avec les inquiétudes croissantes en matière de changement climatique, ont conféré un rôle central à la gestion du risque dans le débat sur les politiques agricoles. Cette publication analyse les caractéristiques et l’ampleur des politiques liées au risque ainsi que ce que nous savons sur le nombre des risques agricoles. Elle examine également les instruments qui existent sur ou en dehors de l’exploitation pour gérer le risque agricole et comment l’approche holistique aide à comprendre le rôle des pouvoirs publics.

Local governments have the power to influence the energy choices of their citizens. Many cities and towns have already encouraged energy efficiency measures. Even so, as demand for energy services continues to grow, the energy infrastructure that every city and town depends on will need to be expanded, upgraded or replaced. This provides the opportunity to increase the deployment of renewable energy technologies and decentralised energy systems, and hence gain the multi-benefits of increased energy security, climate change mitigation and sustainable development, but also the social benefits of reduced air pollution, such as improved health and employment. Many combinations of policies have been employed to stimulate local renewable energy development. These policies include: local governance by authority; providing resources; enabling private actors; leading by example; allowing self-governance. Mega-city mayors, down to small-town officials, have successfully introduced such policies, although these vary with location, local resources and population. Cities, Towns and Renewable Energy – ' Yes In My Front Yard ' includes several case studies chosen to illustrate how enhanced deployment of renewable energy projects can result, regardless of a community’s size or location. The goals of this report are to inspire city stakeholders by showing how renewable energy systems can benefit citizens and businesses, assist national governments to better appreciate the role that local municipalities might play in meeting national and international objectives, and help accelerate the necessary transition to a sustainable energy future.

This second volume of the Partnership for Democratic Governance Series investigates whether ‘contracting out’ core government functions and services has been conducive to capacity development. Each case study discusses the evidence and emerging lessons of contracting out in fragile and post-conflict situations.The chapters contained in this publication first appeared as contributions to the Partnership for Democratic Governance's collaborative online platform, PDF Online. Through this platform, users are able to post comments on discussion papers, send messages to the authors and easily find ifnormation relevant to the topics covered in this publication. To join the PDG Online Community, please visit www.pdg-online.org.Selected as a 2009 Notable Document by the American Library Association Government Documents Round Table.

The latest System of National Accounts (the 2008 SNA) explicitly recognises, for the first time, that expenditures on research and experimental development (R&D) should be recorded as capital formation. This is a natural extension to the 1993 SNA, which recommends recording many acquisitions of software and databases, mineral exploration, and entertainment, artistic and literary originals as capital formation, too. These products have a common characteristic, namely that their value reflects the underlying intellectual property they embody, which is why they are referred to collectively in this publication as intellectual property products (IPPs). But they also share another important characteristic: their measurement is not straightforward, and in the absence of clear guidance it is highly likely that estimates will not be comparable between countries. This Handbook is designed to provide that guidance by considering IPPs collectively, based on their common characteristics, by type, based on any specificities, such as data availability, and by detailed transaction - for example the valuation of IPPs that have been produced for internal use by their developers, the valuation of unsuccessful IPPs, and the production of IPPs produced and made freely available by government.

Les gouvernements de nombreux pays de l’OCDE, mais aussi de plusieurs pays non membres, s’emploient activement à promouvoir la production et la consommation de nouveaux carburants de transport issus de produits agricoles. Le rapport conclut qu’il existe d’autres solutions que les politiques actuelles de soutien des biocarburants qui permettraient aux gouvernements de réaliser plus efficacement leurs objectifs.

Innovation has become a key factor for economic growth, but how does the process take place at the level of individual firms? This book presents the main results of the OECD Innovation Microdata Project -- the first large-scale effort to exploit firm-level data from innovation surveys across 20 countries in an internationally harmonised way, with a view to addressing common analytical questions. Through the use of common indicators and econometric modeling, this analytical report presents a broad overview of how firms innovate in different countries, highlights some of the limitations of current innovation surveys, and identifies directions for future research.

Innovation is crucial to long-term economic growth, even more so in the aftermath of the financial and economic crisis. In this volume, the OECD and the World Bank jointly take stock of how globalisation is posing new challenges for innovation and growth in both developed and developing countries, and how countries are coping with them. The authors discuss options for policy initiatives that can foster technological innovation in the pursuit of faster and sustainable growth. The various chapters highlight how the emergence of an integrated global market affects the impact of national innovation policy. What seemed like effective innovation strategies (e.g. policies designed to strengthen the R&D capacity of domestic firms) are no longer sufficient for effective catch-up. The more open and global nature of innovation makes innovation policies more difficult to design and implement at the national scale alone. These challenges are further complicated by new phenomena, such as global value chains and the fragmentation of production, the growing role of global corporations, and the ICT revolution. Where and why a global corporation chooses to anchor its production affects the playing field for OECD and developing economies alike.Selected as a 2009 Notable Document by the American Library Association Government Documents Round Table.