Publications & Documents

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) – the ability of microbes to resist antimicrobials – remains an alarming global health threat. This is despite the efforts made by OECD and EU/EEA countries to curtail it. Unless additional effective interventions are scaled up quickly, AMR rates are forecasted to increase in the next three decades across OECD and EU/EEA countries, with costs exceeding the healthcare expenditure on the COVID-19 pandemic. Using microsimulation and machine-learning techniques, this report analyses critical policy levers to inform the next generation of AMR initiatives. It shows that tackling the detrimental health and economic impact of AMR requires embracing a One Health framework – a collaborative, trans-disciplinary and multi-sectoral approach that promotes close co-operation and collaboration across human health, animal health, agrifood systems and the environment. This report identifies 11 One Health 'best buys' that, if implemented systematically, would improve population health, reduce health expenditure and generate positive returns for the economy.

Prices of essentials like energy and food have increased dramatically in OECD countries, adding uncertainty to household finances despite a persistently strong labour market post COVID-19. The latest edition of the OECD Risks that Matter (RTM) survey confirms that costs of living are at the top of people’s minds even in the world’s wealthiest countries: around nine in ten respondents, on average, report feeling concerned about inflation. Drawing on a representative sample of 27 000 respondents across 27 OECD countries, RTM illustrates respondents’ perceived economic risks, levels of satisfaction with current social policies, and preferences for future government action on social protection. People are calling on governments to help with the cost-of-living crisis, to spend more on health post COVID-19, and to reinforce support for older people, including in long-term care. Based on a comprehensive cross-national survey of perceptions of social protection, this report offers lessons for the functioning of social programmes as countries emerge from COVID-19, manage the cost-of-living crisis, and plan for future challenges.

The 2018 OECD report Pharmaceutical Innovation and Access to Medicines noted that public debates about pharmaceutical policy are often marked by a lack of authoritative and commonly accepted information supporting the arguments of the stakeholders involved. A set of agreed indicators would facilitate better informed, more fact-based pharmaceutical policy debates to benefit all stakeholders, including the general public, policy makers, and the industry itself, and could help restore and strengthen trust among them. As part of its broader work agenda on 'Increasing the transparency of pharmaceutical markets to inform policies', the OECD undertook a comprehensive analysis to evaluate the feasibility of establishing a set of core indicators. The selection of indicators was guided by the principle that health policy aims to improve population health, and that access to effective medicines produced by a viable industry is essential to achieving that objective. To help policy makers understand how financial resources in the pharmaceutical industry contribute to the research and development of effective products in areas of need, indicators should cover three domains: inputs, including financial flows into the industry; activity, including financial performance and R&D expenditure and activity; and outputs, capturing product outflows and benefit to health systems. This paper presents the key findings on the feasibility of populating indicators to address the input and activity domains within this framework.

The demand for help with daily activities – so-called long-term care – is set to increase in Croatia. The population is ageing at a faster rate than the EU average, and by 2050, about one-third of the population is projected to be aged 65 years and over. In addition, with one of the highest poverty rates among older people in EU countries, at 30%, most older people cannot afford long-term care without public support. However, the long-term care system is both fragmented, with multiple benefits and services across different providers, and underfunded with public expenditure among the lowest across EU countries. As a result, long-term care remains unaffordable for most people even after receiving public support, leading to gaps in access, inequities, and a strong reliance on relatives to provide the bulk of long-term care. This report suggests avenues to improve access and equity of long-term care and proposes policy recommendations to enhance the support for family carers.

What are the root causes of gender inequality? Building on the fifth edition of the Social Institutions and Gender Index (SIGI), the SIGI 2023 Global Report provides a global outlook of discriminatory social institutions, the fundamental causes of gender inequality. It reveals how formal and informal laws, social norms and practices limit women’s and girls’ rights and opportunities in all aspects of their lives. Globally, 40% of them continue to live in countries where gender-based discrimination is assessed as high or very high. The report stresses how discriminatory social institutions curtail women’s and adolescents’ fundamental access to sexual and reproductive health and rights. It also sheds light on the gendered impacts of climate change and underlines how women can play a pivotal role in climate change mitigation and adaptation. To accelerate efforts aimed at achieving SDG 5 and eliminating the underlying and structural factors that hamper women’s empowerment, the report offers concrete policy actions. It calls for a gender-transformative approach to leverage crises and challenges into windows of opportunity to establish women and men as agents of change.

This is the last in a series of three reports that explore how science was mobilised in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The report focuses on system-level issues and highlights challenges and opportunities that are inherent to the organisation of science systems and that need to be addressed to improve the resilience of these systems and their capacity to address complex societal challenges and crises. The analysis is structured around five interconnected themes: the strategic mobilisation of science capacity; managing conflicting priorities; co-ordination and collaboration across levels of governance; transdisciplinary and reflexive science; and dynamic and system-oriented governance. Key areas for intervention and more specific policy actions are identified under each theme and provide a framework for systemic action to strengthen science in support of socio-technological transitions.

This is the second in a series of three reports that explore how science was mobilised in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The focus is on science for policy – research agenda setting, scientific advice and public communication and engagement. The report includes recommendations and options for policy action to improve the resilience of national science systems and their capacity to cooperate internationally in response to crises. The context in each country is different, as illustrated by the many case studies included in the report, and so the priority attached to these recommendations and the specific details of how they might be implemented will vary. They are provided as an overall framework for science policymakers and other actors, including research funders and research providers, to consider.