Public governance

Colombia has launched an ambitious reform to improve its risk governance and boost resilience to disasters. This OECD Disaster Risk Governance Scan reviews Colombia’s progress in implementing the reform against the 2014 OECD Recommendation on the Governance of Critical Risks. The report identifies success factors and good practices in implementing the disaster risk reform agenda, focusing on central government policies and their implementation, and provides a set of recommendations to strengthen Colombia’s efforts in the future.

Colombia, the fourth largest economy in Latin America, is back on track after decades of conflict. The country is looking to open up opportunities by addressing structural challenges, further benefiting from trade and investment, and increasing productivity. Colombia's march towards prosperity requires transforming the economy through a renewed policy approach that prioritises an expanded knowledge base, unlocks regional potential and fast tracks digital technologies. The success will depend on Colombia’s capacity to leverage its long-standing planning capacity and its ability to bring together all the relevant stakeholders. The Production Transformation Policy Review (PTPR) of Colombia provides a novel and timely assessment of the country's industrialisation strategies. It relies on international peer learning and domestic consensus building, and benefited from knowledge sharing through the OECD Initiative for Policy Dialogue on Global Value Chains, Production Transformation and Development.

This country review report offers an independent analysis of major issues facing the use of school resources in Colombia from an international perspective. It provides a description of national policies, an analysis of strengths and challenges, and a proposal of possible future approaches. The analysis focuses on the funding of school education, the provision of school education and the development of the teaching profession. Rural education represents a transversal theme of the report within the context of Colombia's peace agreement and objectives to close rural-urban gaps in social and economic development. Issues covered include the level of spending, sources of funding and funding mechanisms; the organisation of the school network, including the funding of private provision; school governance, leadership and community participation; the organisation of teaching and learning, including learning standards, educational materials, student assessment, and instruction time; teacher learning in pre-service and in-service education; and teacher recruitment and career progression. The report covers all levels of compulsory education as well as transitions from early childhood education and care to school education and from school education to the labour market and tertiary education.

This review analyses the shift from e-government to digital government in Colombia. It looks at the governance framework for digital government, the use of digital platforms and open data to engage and collaborate with citizens, conditions for a data-driven public sector, and policy coherence in a context of significant regional disparities. It provides concrete policy recommendations on how digital technologies and data can be harnessed for citizen-driven policy making and public service delivery.

This review analyses the monitoring and evaluation system of Colombia's Online Government Strategy and provides recommendations for developing an impact assessment methodology for digital government. It looks at the background, evolution and current status of the Strategy, and draws insights from the first implementation of a transitional methodology. The findings will help Colombia build the tools and capacities needed to effectively and sustainably implement its digital government strategy.

Integrity is crucial in order to ensure sustainable peace in Colombia. This report provides a focused analysis of Colombia’s integrity system, addressing existing gaps and elaborating policy recommendations on how to build a coherent public integrity system. The review pays special attention to improving co-ordination at the national level and with the regions, cultivating a culture of integrity in the public administration, and enabling effective accountability through internal control and risk management. It emphasises the priority of mainstreaming integrity policies in the processes and sectors related to the implementation of the Peace Agreement to prevent corruption and to contribute to the inclusive and sustainable development of the country.

This review of Corporate Governance in Colombia was prepared as part of the process of Colombia's accession to OECD Membership. The report describes the corporate governance setting for both listed companies and the state-owned sector (SOEs). The review then examines the legal and regulatory framework and company practices to assess the degree to which the recommendations of the G20/OECD Principles of Corporate Governance and the OECD Guidelines on Corporate Governance of State-Owned Enterprises have been implemented. The review finds that Colombia's framework for the corporate governance of listed companies is largely consistent with the Principles, although some companies have been reluctant to implement some of the good practices recommended in Colombia's national corporate governance code. For SOEs, the report recognises substantial reforms undertaken during the review process to adopt an ambitious national ownership policy. Reforms have included establishing an ownership co-ordination unit and more transparent reporting on SOE performance, and removing ministers from SOE boards and establishing more transparent board nomination processes aimed at enhancing the qualifications of board members. The report seeks continuing efforts to consolidate these reforms and to implement plans announced in the national ownership policy.

This study examines the multi-level governance framework for public investment in Colombia. It provides a diagnosis of the strengths and challenges of the Colombian system and includes comparative data and a set of benchmarks to promote exchange of good practices and promote learning. It makes recommendations for how to further improve the system, make more effective use of existing resources and catch up to OECD countries in terms of infrastructure development . The review also suggests a set of indicators against which Colombia can measure its progress.

Public procurement is a critical element of good governance, as it is a crucial nexus of interaction between the public and private sectors. This report examines ongoing public procurement reforms in Colombia, focusing on issues such as the availability of data on public procurement, preventing conflicts of interest, competition and contracting award methods, and legal control and remedy systems.  

This innovative book combines results from research conducted in Colombia about how communications services consumers make consumption choices with OECD expertise in regulatory policy, behavioural economics, and data analytics, in order to help improve the consumer protection regime in Colombia. It focuses on the types of incentives that should be provided to change both provider and user behaviour, and considers where appropriate regulatory interventions may be needed to ensure that these incentives are realised. This work supports the Communications Regulator of Colombia in redesigning its consumer protection regime. This effort has refocused the regulatory framework from 'protecting rights' towards making the market function best; this involves encouraging the providers to improve the quality of their services and rates offered in the market and to foster a better understanding of what is being offered and how. The book also makes specific recommendations on possible follow-up experiments to test some of the possible solutions to help communications services consumers better understand the information provided by service operators.