Reports

In light of recent education reforms, Brazil is currently considering a series of changes to the purpose and design of its Basic Education Assessment System (Sistema de Avaliação da Educação Básica, SAEB), which has been a critical source of information about student learning outcomes for the past 30 years. To inform these discussions, the OECD was invited to review a set of policy proposals for reforming the current SAEB so that it more closely aligns with Brazil’s new learning standards and provides data to support a range of education actors - from the classroom to the ministry – in their efforts to raise educational performance and reduce inequalities. The findings from this OECD Review are set out in the below policy perspective.

The Education in Brazil: An International Perspective report was developed drawing on internationally comparative data on education in Brazil, in particular the extensive range of data collected by the OECD through its surveys. The experiences of other countries and how they have tackled challenges similar to those now faced by Brazil, along with the insights from consultations with key national experts, also inform the analysis. The report benchmarks with OECD and a set of comparator emerging economies the whole education system from early childhood education and care to tertiary education, focusing on: Access and participation Learning and labour market outcomes The allocation, use and efficiency of financial, human and material resources School leaders, teachers and teaching The school climate and student well-being The report highlights the many strengths of Brazil’s education system, identifies the main challenges ahead and offers policy implications for the future.

The state of Paraná, one of Brazil’s most populated and developed states, has been aligning its public policies with sustainable development since the 1990s. More recently, Paraná has used the SDGs as a tool and framework to reduce longstanding challenges related to health, education and safety as well as to address global megatrends affecting the state such as climate change, demographic pressures and digitalisation. Despite the absence of a state-wide sustainable development plan, Paraná is aligning its Multi-Year Plan (PPA) for 2020-23 and other planning and budgeting tools with the SDGs to face the socio-economic territorial disparities within the state. Through a multi-stakeholder governance framework, guidelines and financial contributions, the state provides incentives to align local and regional planning systems with the 2030 Agenda and to address sustainable development challenges in an integrated way.

First published in 2017, Fighting Tax Crime - The Ten Global Principles is the first comprehensive guide to fighting tax crimes. It sets out ten essential principles covering the legal, institutional, administrative, and operational aspects necessary for developing an efficient and effective system for identifying, investigating and prosecuting tax crimes, while respecting the rights of accused taxpayers. This second edition addresses new challenges, such as tackling professionals who enable tax and white-collar crimes, and fostering international co-operation in the recovery of assets. Drawing on the experiences of jurisdictions in all continents, the report also highlights successful cases relating to the misuse of virtual assets, complex investigations involving joint task forces, and the use of new technology tools to fight tax crimes and other financial crimes. The Ten Global Principles are an essential element of the OECD’s Oslo Dialogue, a whole-of-government approach for fighting tax crimes and illicit financial flows. Alongside the policy document, the second edition is joined by 33 country chapters, detailing jurisdictions’ domestic tax crime enforcement frameworks as well as the progress made in implementing the Ten Global Principles. These chapters are available separately online.

This report compiles comparable tax revenue statistics over the period 1990-2019 for 27 Latin American and Caribbean economies. Based on the OECD Revenue Statistics database, it applies the OECD methodology to countries in Latin America and the Caribbean to enable comparison of tax levels and tax structures on a consistent basis, both among the economies of the region and with other economies. This publication is jointly undertaken by the OECD Centre for Tax Policy and Administration, the OECD Development Centre, the Inter-American Center of Tax Administrations (CIAT), the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). The 2021 edition is produced with the support of the EU Regional Facility for Development in Transition for Latin America and the Caribbean, which results from joint work led by the European Union, the OECD and its Development Centre, and ECLAC.

Career guidance for adults is a fundamental lever to help adults successfully navigate constantly evolving labour markets. As labour markets in Latin America are hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic and mega trends such as globalisation and digitalisation continue to impact labour demand, support is urgently needed. Millions of adults have lost their jobs and need to identify new career options. However, career guidance for adults is still rare in Latin America. More common are vocational guidance programmes for young people, or labour intermediation services for adults. This report analyses career guidance initiatives for adults in four Latin American countries (Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Mexico). It emphasises the need to establish career guidance higher up on the policy agenda of the region. Lessons are drawn on how to strengthen the coverage and inclusiveness of career guidance, provision and service delivery, quality and impact, as well as governance and funding. The findings build on information collected through the 2020 Survey of Career Guidance for Adults (SCGA), an online survey of adults’ experience with career guidance.

Brazil spends around 15% of GDP on different social benefits, but within these expenditures, different benefits have different social impacts. While the small conditional cash transfer programme Bolsa Família is well-targeted to the poor and has a strong diminishing effect on inequality, pension benefits largely reach those with above-median incomes. Over many years, and as a result of different indexation mechanisms, the real value of pension benefits has increased rapidly, while conditional cash transfers have struggled to keep pace with inflation. This paper presents a simulation experiment using household data to demonstrate the significant potential that changes in the annual benefit indexation mechanism of social security benefits could have had for reducing inequality. Maintaining the purchasing power of pension benefits while shifting the increased pension spending that resulted from automatic indexation towards conditional cash transfers would have allowed significantly stronger progress in reducing inequality. This strengthens the case for rethinking the current indexation mechanism of social security benefits in Brazil.

As Brazil is significantly less integrated into international trade than other emerging market economies, opening up to trade has significant potential to create jobs that are more productive and better paid. At the same time, this will be associated with structural changes and adjustment costs. Some workers are required to move to more productive firms, change occupations, sectors or even location. In particular, low-skilled workers need to upgrade their skills to move into newly created medium-skilled jobs in expanding firms and sectors. Workers who stay in their jobs will face similar challenges as firms upgrade production processes towards more advanced technologies. Well-designed and well-funded training and adult education policies, combined with effective social protection and employment services, can go a long way to mitigate adjustment costs for low-skilled, unemployed and informal workers. Evidence suggests that training policies can make a real difference, provided that its content is aligned with skill demands in local labour markets. Moreover, the education system plays a fundamental role for preparing current and future generations for the challenges that international integration and rising digitalisation will bring about.