Reports

These guidelines seek to strengthen the capacities of law enforcement practitioners to combat corruption related to the COVID-19 pandemic and other emergency situations. In particular, they aim to: (i) provide law enforcement practitioners with practical advice on the challenges law enforcement faces in an emergency crisis; (ii) illustrate good detection, investigation and prosecution practices during emergency situations and identify key challenges that may arise in future crises, including through international cooperation mechanisms; (iii) inform law enforcement practitioners about the benefits of emerging technologies and innovative institutional developments identified during COVID-19 that can assist with combating corruption.

The OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises on Responsible Business Conduct are recommendations addressed by governments to multinational enterprises. They aim to encourage positive contributions enterprises can make to economic, environmental and social progress, and to minimise adverse impacts on matters covered by the Guidelines that may be associated with an enterprise’s operations, products and services. The Guidelines cover all key areas of business responsibility, including human rights, labour rights, environment, bribery, consumer interests, disclosure, science and technology, competition, and taxation. The 2023 edition of the Guidelines provides updated recommendations for responsible business conduct across key areas, such as climate change, biodiversity, technology, business integrity and supply chain due diligence, as well as updated implementation procedures for the National Contact Points for Responsible Business Conduct.

Expanding on the findings of Brick by Brick: Better Housing Policies, this second volume delves into key trends shaping housing policies in the post-COVID-19 era. The first chapter provides an overview and discusses the need to monitor the pandemic's impacts on housing affordability, address the energy crisis through low-carbon housing initiatives, maintain financial resilience amid fluctuating housing cycles, and facilitate the reshaping of housing markets in response to remote work and environmental concerns. The second chapter focuses on the decarbonisation of the housing sector. It recommends a mix of carbon pricing, energy-efficiency certification and regulation, and subsidies to meet net-zero targets while accounting for housing market specificities. The chapter also calls for deploying complementary policies to limit adverse impacts on low-income households. The third chapter examines housing finance, focusing on the tension between supporting mortgage borrowing and promoting financial resilience. It also discusses the rise of non-bank real estate finance and the potential for mortgage finance to support housing decarbonisation. The fourth chapter explores how the new work-life balance, enabled by the rise of remote work, is reshaping housing demand and proposes a set of tailored urban policies to address this shift. Overall, the report provides a comprehensive blueprint for housing policies in the post-pandemic world.

This edition of the OECD Sovereign Borrowing Outlook analyses the impact of increased macroeconomic and geopolitical uncertainty on sovereign borrowing needs and borrowing conditions. It provides outstanding debt amounts from 2007 to 2022, along with 2023 projections for OECD member countries. It also reviews sovereign debt issuance trends in emerging markets and developing economies. This edition continues to explore the perspective of public debt managers on sustainable bonds, with a focus on reporting requirements and performance of these bonds in markets. It also provides recommendations for sovereign debt management offices on how best to develop and implement buyback programmes.

The global push for more sustainable and less-carbon intensive economic models has increased the salience of Kazakhstan’s long-standing diversification agenda. That this agenda remains only partially fulfilled reflects a number of issues that affect the conditions for investment, innovation and entrepreneurship. Elaborating on feedback garnered through a small, focussed survey of foreign firms in Kazakhstan, this report provides new insights into private-sector perceptions of the ongoing reform process and in doing so draws attention to some of the most pressing issues facing policymakers and business.

Addressing barriers to private-sector development has been a long-standing ambition of the government of Uzbekistan, with an extensive programme of reforms that began in 2017 redoubling efforts to foster the growth of a more competitive and productive population of private-sector firms. Uzbekistan needs a more dynamic and innovative private sector if it is to meet the challenges and seize the opportunities of the green and digital transitions, which create a new impetus for accelerating these reforms. Elaborating on feedback garnered through a small, focussed survey of foreign firms in Uzbekistan, this report provides new insights into their perceptions of the ongoing reform process and in doing so draws attention to some of the most pressing issues facing policymakers and business.

This handbook aims to help companies identify, prevent and address child labour and forced labour risks, in the cocoa sector. The handbook builds on the leading international, government-backed standards on supply chain due diligence and responsible business conduct: the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises and the associated OECD Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Business Conduct, and the OECD-FAO Guidance for Responsible Agricultural Supply Chains. This handbook was developed in collaboration with the International Cocoa Initiative (ICI), with financial support from the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and technical inputs from the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH (GIZ).

This report analyses the relationship between financial literacy, inclusion, and awareness, as well as the use of financial products and services, and the digitalisation of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs). It presents the results of a thorough data collection and analysis exercise carried out with owners and managers of MSMEs in Bulgaria, Croatia, Georgia, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Romania in 2021 and 2022.

The informal extractive sector is a major source of employment in most countries affected by conflict but has up until now been largely left aside when identifying reinsertion opportunities for ex-combatants. This paper identifies synergies between disarmament, demobilisation, and reintegration (DDR) programmes implemented in conflict-affected and high-risk areas and existing supply chain due diligence initiatives fostering the integration of artisanal and small-scale miners (ASM) in global supply chains in these areas. The report highlights the role that OECD-led initiatives to support ASM formalisation in conflict zones can play to support DDR programmes.

Although measurements of biodiversity-related financial risks are in their infancy, several metrics and indicators are available to assess their impacts and dependencies in the financial system, and approaches are emerging to translate biodiversity risks into financial risks. This mapping paper provides a comprehensive catalogue and literature review of existing and emerging definitions, key metrics and indicators, measurement approaches, tools and practices for central banks, financial supervisors, and financial market participants to measure biodiversity-related financial risks.