Publications & Documents

Millions of children around the globe experience justice problems and legal needs, which are especially acute for children facing other adversities and disadvantages. To this end, this OECD Child-Friendly Justice Framework supports countries in developing a government-wide strategy to strengthen child-friendly practices in the justice system. Building on the analysis of the legal needs of children and challenges they face when confronting justice problems, this framework provides a basis for child-friendly reforms of justice systems, in line with international standards and obligations. Underpinned by a clear child-centric purpose, the framework provides guidance and good practice examples for (1) designing and delivering child-friendly justice services, (2) establishing the governance enablers and infrastructure to support child-friendly services, (3) empowering children and justice system workers to facilitate child-friendly justice, and (4) planning, monitoring and accountability needed to ensure that child justice reforms are effective and sustained.

Two out of five OECD countries contract out some of the job brokerage and counselling functions of publicly financed employment services using outcome-based payment models. This paper examines several important aspects related to the design and implementation of such outsourcing. First, innovative payment models can improve incentives for external providers to offer training and more effective services for hard-to-place clients. Second, providing forward guidance to providers and accounting for contingencies can mitigate their risks, e.g. of being underpaid relative to expenses incurred, thus lowering service costs. Third, letting individuals choose a provider can result in services that are better tailored and foster ongoing competition between providers. Finally, automating data exchange can, somewhat paradoxically, improve data privacy and data protection while enabling new payment models. These and related findings are discussed with country examples based on desk research and interviews with stakeholders in several OECD countries. The paper builds on work conducted in the project 'Reforming the Swedish Public Employment Service', which was carried out with funding from the European Union via the Technical Support Instrument and was implemented by the OECD in cooperation with the European Commission's Directorate-General for Structural Reform Support.

Citizenship and residency by investment (CBI/RBI) programmes are government-administered programmes that grant citizenship or residency to foreign investors by expediting or bypassing normal migration processes. These programmes can help spur economic growth through foreign direct investment, but they are also attractive to criminals and corrupt officials seeking to evade justice and launder the proceeds of crime reaching into the billions of dollars. This report highlights how CBI programmes can allow criminals more global mobility and help them hide their identity and criminal activities behind shell companies in other jurisdictions. It highlights the vulnerabilities of these complex and international investment migration programmes, including the frequent use of intermediaries, involvement of multiple government agencies, abuse by professional enablers and lack of proper governance of the CBI/RBI programmes. The report proposes measures and examples of good practice, that can help policy makers and those responsible for managing the investment migration programmes address these risks. These include an in-depth analysis and understanding of how criminals can exploit CBI or RBI programmes and incorporating risk mitigation measures, such as multi-layer due diligence, in the design of the investment migration programme.

Regional development is rooted in place-based strategic planning and strengthened regional innovation systems. In Romania, the eight Regional Development Agencies (RDAs) are responsible for strategic planning for regional development and delivering innovation support services to regional and local actors. They also manage the public investment funds dedicated to these activities. These are challenging tasks. Many RDAs face difficulties in ensuring that regional and sub-regional development objectives and priorities align, expanding the definition of innovation, and activating their regional innovation ecosystem. Equally difficult is keeping stakeholders engaged and committed to the regional development and innovation agendas. This report synthesises the regional development and innovation challenges facing Romania’s RDAs and potential activities to overcome these in three areas – strategic planning and performance measurement, finance and implementation, and communication and stakeholder engagement. It also offers insights and recommendations for higher-levels bodies to further support RDAs through guidance, facilitating peer-exchange, and actively engaging the RDAs in regional development decision making.

This report provides an assessment of Hungary’s Draft Medium Term National Anti-Corruption Strategy for 2023-2025 (NACS) and the Action Plan for its implementation. The NACS is one of several steps Hungary is taking to improve its rule of law performance. This report highlights strengths and makes recommendations for improving the NACS based on international good practice, the OECD’s Public Integrity Indicators, and Hungary’s commitments within its Recovery and Resilience Plan and remedial measures.

When it comes to high-tech innovations, the United States leads the path amongst OECD economies. However, in the context of the national record-breaking activities in high tech innovation, there lies distinct and growing geographical disparities. This report dives into strategies for better understanding innovation that occurs in rural places, and places outside major metropolitan areas, often going beyond science and technology. It provides analysis and recommendations to support regional development initiatives aimed at closing the gaps in innovation between rural and urban areas. The report includes a special topic chapter on the role of broadband and education in rural areas, exploring trends and providing policy recommendations to enhance rural innovation through these specific and critical framework conditions.

Open government is a powerful catalyst for driving democracy, public trust, and inclusive growth. In recognition of this, the OECD Council adopted the Recommendation on Open Government in 2017. To date, it remains the first - and only - internationally recognised legal instrument on open government and has guided many countries in designing and implementing their open government agendas. This report takes stock of countries' implementation of the Recommendation, its dissemination, and its ongoing significance. It is based on an OECD survey carried out in 2020/2021 among all countries that adhered to the Recommendation and other partner countries, as well as on further data collected through a perception survey with delegates to the OECD Working Party on Open Government.

This report examines the innovative capacity of the public sector of Romania, exploring opportunities for the public sector to work in new and novel ways to improve outcomes. It assesses the current innovative capacity and suggests paths forward to enhance capacity. The report provides foundational evidence for the creation of an action plan to enhance the public sector’s capacity to innovate for impact.

The OECD AI Principles call for AI actors to be accountable for the proper functioning of their AI systems in accordance with their role, context, and ability to act. Likewise, the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises aim to minimise adverse impacts that may be associated with an enterprise’s operations, products and services. To develop ‘trustworthy’ and ‘responsible’ AI systems, there is a need to identify and manage AI risks. As calls for the development of accountability mechanisms and risk management frameworks continue to grow, interoperability would enhance efficiency and reduce enforcement and compliance costs. This report provides an analysis of the commonalities of AI risk management frameworks. It demonstrates that, while some elements may sometimes differ, all the risk management frameworks analysed follow a similar and sometimes functionally equivalent risk management process.