Share

Regional, rural and urban development


  • 28-November-2023

    English

    Leveraging cultural and creative sectors for development in the European Union outermost regions

    This report assesses the current state and future potential of cultural and creative sectors (CCS) in the nine outermost regions of the European Union (EU): Guadeloupe, French Guiana, Martinique, Mayotte, Réunion, and Saint Martin (France); the Azores and Madeira (Portugal); and the Canary Islands (Spain). Global trends, such as increases in cultural tourism, trade in creative goods and services, and FDI in CCS offer significant opportunities for EU outermost regions to expand their cultural and creative sectors, promote synergies with tourism and help drive job creation. In addition, CCS policies can also boost well-being outcomes and social cohesion through preserving and promoting local cultural heritage and encouraging cultural participation. CCS policy which capitalises on these global trends, whilst recognising the specific context of EU outermost regions, could help promote these areas and contribute to local development.
  • 25-October-2023

    English

    Innovative agro-food industries in the EU Outermost Regions

    This paper provides an overview of agro-food value chains in the EU Outermost Regions (EU ORs). It assesses emerging trends, discusses opportunities and challenges, reviews the policy frameworks and tools that can strengthen the beneficial participation of EU ORs in international agro-food value chains, and proposes priority actions. The paper is developed within the framework of the EU-OECD project on Global Outermost Regions.
  • 9-October-2023

    English

    Enhancing international partnership and co-operation in Friuli Venezia Giulia, Italy

    In recent years, international development co-operation has undergone a transition from a conventional donor-recipient model to a partnership-centred approach, including with regions and cities. Friuli Venezia Giulia, a small region in north-eastern Italy with extensive policy autonomy, has been active in international co-operation and is seeking to get more out of its actions both for the region and with its co-operation partners around the world. This paper evaluates its strategy on international partnership and co-operation and proposes recommendations, including more targeted initiatives that leverage the expertise of the region for greater impact in partner countries and for local benefits.
  • 11-April-2023

    English

    Comparing access to urban parks across six OECD countries

    This work leverages globally consistent data on parks from Google Maps, in combination with the computational power of Google Maps Directions API to quantify accessibility to parks across nearly 500 metropolitan areas in six countries: Estonia, France, Greece, Mexico, Sweden, and the United States. We combined high resolution population data from Worldpop with parks data and navigation estimates to measure: (1) Fraction of the population with access to parks within a 10-minute walk; and (2) the median walking time to the closest park. We find large differences in access to parks between countries, as well as large variability across cities and their respective commuting zones. To demonstrate how this framework can support cross country comparisons and efforts to track progress towards SDG11, we assessed access to parks by income group in selected countries, finding that the median walking time to a park is shorter for residents of low income neighbourhoods both in French and American metropolitan areas.
  • 2-February-2022

    English

    Allocation of competences in policy sectors key to migrant integration - In a sample of ten OECD countries

    A first step to implement effective migrant integration policies is to know who does what in policy sectors key to integration. Responding to this need, this paper offers policy makers a tool to understand the organisation of public action in key sectors for integration - Employment, Education, Housing, and Health/Welfare – in a sample of 10 OECD countries: Austria, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, New Zealand, Spain, Sweden and the Netherlands. The complexity of the division of powers among levels of government calls for coordination mechanisms between actors, whatever the level of decentralisation. Besides, it throws lights on subnational governments’ role in integrating migrants and enabling them to participate to local development for the benefits of all. The geographic differences that exist in migrant presence and outcomes mean countries should build on local authorities' knowledge of local realities, aptitudes to coordinate different policy fields at the relevant scale and cooperate with non-governmental organisations.
  • 2-February-2022

    English

    Multi-level governance for migrant integration - Policy instruments from Austria, Canada, France, Germany and Italy

    Comprehensive and coordinated action across levels of government responsible for different policy domains (labour, education, housing and welfare/health) as well as across local actors is crucial to migrant integration. To respond to this need for co-ordination, different policy instruments are mobilised by countries. This paper presents six of them, to illustrate three categories of practices supporting migrant integration through better multi-level co-ordination: Reinforcing co-ordination (financial, human, technical) between levels of governments and private actors such as businesses or non-governmental organisations to foster migrant integration and retention: The Canadian Atlantic Immigration Pilot (AIP) and the French Territorial Contracts for the Reception and Integration of Refugees (CTAIR); Resolving information and evaluation asymmetries: Vienna (Austria) Integration and Diversity Monitor and the German Network IQ; Illustrating the positive externalities of territorial development and investment programmes on migrant integration and social cohesion: The Italian Inner Areas Strategy and the French Urban Policy.
  • 14-December-2021

    English

    Enhancing the impact of Italy’s start-up visa - What can be learnt from international practice?

    Italy’s start-up visa aims to make the national start-up ecosystem more easily accessible to foreign talent, rich with knowledge and skills, and more integrated into global markets. Government reports show that the programme has not yet achieved a critical scale. The analysis of similar initiatives in Chile, France, Ireland and Portugal identifies five gateways for attracting more foreign entrepreneurs, such as an effective policy outreach, smooth inter-institutional co-operation across the migratory process, and the provision of sound support services for a 'soft landing' of entrepreneurs upon arrival. These takeaways may also inform new talent attraction policies targeting remote workers, an expanding group in the context of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
  • 6-November-2021

    English

    Enhancing the effectiveness of sub-national biodiversity policy - Practices in France and Scotland, United Kingdom

    Sub-national governments have a key role in delivering on national and international biodiversity commitments. Drawing on policy practices from Scotland (UK), France and other signatories to the Edinburgh Declaration, this paper provides an overview and analysis of sub-national strategies, plans and mechanisms to ensure policy coherence and co-ordination. It then examines the policy instruments that subnational governments can leverage to deliver positive biodiversity outcomes. The paper highlights, among other things, the need to: develop clear and measurable biodiversity targets at sub-national level; incorporate biodiversity considerations into sub-national climate action plans and urban, rural and regional development strategies, plans and instruments; and promote nature-based solutions at a sub-national level to harness synergies between climate mitigation, climate adaptation and biodiversity.
  • 12-July-2021

    English

    Regions and globalisation - An original approach to regional internationalisation and its application to the case of France

    The COVID-19 crisis demonstrated that local authorities are on the front line when it comes to dealing with the various effects of globalisation. In France, as in OECD countries in general, responsibility for producing and implementing strategies that combine economic development, innovation and internationalisation falls to the regional level. This summary document covers the main lessons learned from OECD policy analysis and statistical work carried out on French regions’ internationalisation. It proposes an original methodology for assessing the position of regions in globalisation and applies this to France, comparing statistical observations with the internationalisation strategies adopted by French the regions. Also presented are multi-level governance measures in which the actors of regional internationalisation are involved.
  • 19-May-2020

    English

    Regional Strategies for the Social Economy - Examples from France, Spain, Sweden and Poland

    This paper explores the linkages between regional strategies for the social economy and regional development in four EU countries: France, Spain, Sweden and Poland. It provides a comparative perspective of regional strategies for the social economy (Section 1), based on i) the level of recognition of the social economy itself, ii) multi-level governance arrangements, iii) the regional strategic priority given to the social economy and iv) financial resources available for regional strategies. It gives examples of strategies for the social economy in selected regions in the four countries to document the diversity of practice (Section 2). It outlines conclusions and policy orientations (Section 3) to help reinforce the positive impact of regional strategies for the social economy on regional development.
  • 1 | 2 > >>