Publications

Safety is a core dimension of health care quality. Measurement of patient safety culture in OECD countries has been increasingly conducted as part of efforts to monitor patient safety and to contribute to health system performance assessment. Building on four years of work, a second OECD data collection on patient safety culture was conducted in 2022-2023, with the support of the members of OECD Expert Group on Patient Safety Culture. Data from almost 650,000 health care workers, from over 3,000 different sites/hospitals, across 14 countries was added in this round of data collection. This report documents the state-of-the-art of patient safety measurement using the Hospital Survey of Patient Safety Culture (HSPSC) and is the first report to document international comparisions using the HSPSC v2, which has been recently adopted by ten countries who submitted data. Despite many commonalities between countries in the implementation of PSC measurements, there remains differences in the scope of implementation and survey response rates. Moreover, survey findings show general deficits in staff perceptions of safe staffing and workpace levels and response to errors among hospital workers, areas that could be targeted for policy action to improve patient safety.

This report provides an in-depth analysis of Peru’s justice system and offers concrete recommendations, based on OECD countries' experience and best practices, for how to make it more effective, efficient, transparent, accessible, and people-centred. Building on the OECD’s Recommendation on Access to Justice and People-Centred Justice Systems, the report suggests how Peru can best implement its challenging justice reform agenda so that access to justice is available to all, including the most in need. In particular, it proposes actionable solutions for modernising Peru's institutional and functional arrangements to improve the administration of justice and people-centred service delivery, bringing it closer to OECD standards and best practices in this area.

This policy paper aims to strengthen the capacities of law enforcement authorities in Asia and the Pacific to combat corruption and fraud during emergencies. It builds on lessons learnt from recent emergencies, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, to improve the preparedness of law enforcement authorities for future health, environmental or economic crises. The paper takes stock of the challenges law enforcement practitioners face in detecting, investigating and prosecuting corruption and fraud during emergencies, and highlights good practices and provides practical guidance for law enforcement.

This paper studies the differences between the organisation of budget management in selected government administrations in the Western Balkans and the Republic of Moldova and good practice across the European Union (EU). It observes that the ministry of finance (MoF) in these administrations typically engages in direct budget negotiations with a large number of budget organisations. This practice is in stark contrast with the budgeting approach observed in the EU, where the MoF only deals directly with government ministries and a limited number of constitutional bodies. The paper highlights the adverse consequences for the strategic role of the MoF for fiscal policy, the accountability of line ministries for budgeting and service delivery in their sector and the introduction of modern public financial management instruments such as medium-term budgeting and performance-based budgeting. This paper recommends that governments reduce the number of first-level budget organisations and give line ministries more responsibility for budget management in their sector. At the same time, the paper recommends strengthening line ministries’ accountability for budget management towards the parliament.

The OECD review of Gender Equality in Costa Rica: Towards a Better Sharing of Paid and Unpaid Work is the fourth in a collection of reports focusing on Latin American and the Caribbean countries, and part of the series Gender Equality at Work. The report compares gender gaps in labour and educational outcomes in Costa Rica with other countries. Particular attention is put on the uneven distribution of unpaid work, and the extra burden placed on women. It investigates how policies and programmes in Costa Rica can make this distribution more equitable. The first part of the report reviews the evidence on gender gaps and their causes, including the role played by social norms. The second part develops a comprehensive framework to address these challenges, presenting a broad range of options to reduce the unpaid work burden falling on women, and to increase women’s labour income. Earlier reviews in the same collection have looked at gender equality policies in Chile (2021), Peru (2022) and Colombia (2023).

Ce rapport présente les principales conclusions de la seconde enquête transnationale de l'OCDE sur les déterminants de la confiance dans les institutions publiques, réalisée fin 2023. Avec près de 60 000 réponses représentatives de la population adulte de 30 pays de l'OCDE, l'enquête permet d’explorer comment les attentes des individus envers le gouvernement et leurs interactions avec celui-ci influencent leur confiance envers les institutions publiques. Cela va des interactions quotidiennes avec les institutions publiques à la prise de décision gouvernementale sur des questions politiques complexes. Le rapport identifie certains des principaux déterminants de la confiance dans le gouvernement et les autres institutions publiques et examine les possibilités d'action en matière de politiques publiques. Pour la première fois, le rapport analyse également l'évolution des niveaux de confiance et de ses déterminants dans les 20 pays de l'OCDE qui ont participé à l'enquête 2021, ainsi que la manière dont un environnement d'information marqué par un nombre croissant de contenus polarisants et de désinformation affecte la confiance de la population dans les institutions publiques.

Les technologies émergentes peuvent être source d’avantages sans précédent dans les domaines de la santé, de l’énergie, du climat, des systèmes alimentaires et de la biodiversité. Cela dit, ces technologies et leur convergence présentent parfois des risques pour la vie privée, la sécurité, l’équité et les droits humains. Cette dualité impose aux pouvoirs publics de mieux anticiper les bouleversements et de créer les conditions requises pour que le développement technologique favorise la prospérité économique, la résilience, la sécurité et la recherche de solutions aux problèmes sociétaux. Fondé sur les travaux antérieurs et les instruments juridiques de l’OCDE, le présent cadre fournit aux pouvoirs publics, aux autres acteurs de l’innovation et à la société dans son ensemble les moyens d’anticiper les problèmes de gouvernance, de les traiter en amont et de renforcer les capacités dans ce domaine à plus long terme afin d’orienter plus efficacement l’innovation. Le principe de « gouvernance anticipative des technologies » sur lequel il repose est composé de cinq éléments interdépendants et outils de gouvernance connexes : (1) des valeurs directrices, (2) le renseignement stratégique, (3) la mobilisation des parties prenantes, (4) une réglementation agile et (5) la coopération internationale. La manière dont chacun de ces éléments s’applique dépend du contexte dans lequel s’inscrivent les technologies émergentes.

High energy prices and major geopolitical shifts, paired with an accelerated global digitalisation of industries of economies worldwide and rising pressure to achieve sustainability goals, have created new uncertainties for German SMEs. Successfully navigating these changes, and in turn, seizing new growth opportunities, will require sustained and significant investments. Access to an appropriate and diverse set of financing sources will be critical. This paper examines current policy practices to help German SMEs access finance, with a particular focus on efforts to link growth to sustainability goals in the national policy mix. It provides a brief overview of the German SME landscape, including key strengths and challenges in the context of the twin transition, and discusses the financing instruments available to small businesses in the country, including those with growth ambitions. It then analyses federal government efforts to unleash finance for innovation, investment, and network expansion as drivers of SME growth, and how these efforts compare to other OECD countries.

De multiples crises provoquent des turbulences, de l'instabilité et de l'insécurité dans les sociétés contemporaines, avec des répercussions sur les économies, l'environnement, la politique et les affaires mondiales. Pour apporter une réponse efficace, les gouvernements devront être plus ambitieux et agir avec plus d'urgence dans leurs politiques en matière de science, de technologie et d'innovation (STI) afin de relever les défis mondiaux. Des investissements soutenus et une plus grande directivité des activités de recherche et d'innovation sont nécessaires, et ils devraient coïncider avec une réévaluation des systèmes et des politiques STI pour s'assurer qu'ils sont à même de contribuer aux changements visés. Ce document d'orientation fournit un cadre pour aider les gouvernements à procéder à ces évaluations. Il identifie six orientations politiques STI pour les changements transformateurs qui devraient guider ces évaluations. Il applique ces orientations à de multiples domaines de la politique STI, notamment le financement de la R&D, le personnel de recherche et d'innovation et la coopération internationale en matière de R&D, et propose aux responsables publics et aux autres acteurs concernés un cadre pour la formulation et la mise en oeuvre de réformes STI qui accéléreront les changements transformateurs.

Armenia's ICT sector has experienced remarkable growth, expanding by 20% in 2022, underscoring the country's commitment to digital transformation as a policy priority. Despite these efforts and trends, SMEs continues to face significant obstacles in their digital transformation, including lack of awareness, low digital skills levels, and financial constraints. This reports aims to support the Armenian government in addressing these challenges and fostering business digitalisation. Building on previous OECD work on digitalisation policies and insights from the 2024 edition of the SME Policy Index for Eastern Partner countries, this publication offers a comprehensive overview of Armenia’s institutional framework and policy initiatives for SME digitalisation. Through data-driven analysis, it examines the challenges hindering the digital transformation of Armenian businesses and provides insights to unlock their potential. This report serves as a guide, offering detailed recommendations aimed at improving framework conditions for SME digitalisation, building a structured system for SME digitalisation support, and fostering synergies in the ecosystem to facilitate digital transformation.