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Governments worldwide are increasingly adopting behavioural science methodologies to address 'sludge' – the unjustified frictions impeding people' access to government services and exacerbating psychological burdens. Sludge audits, grounded in behavioural science, provide a structured approach for identifying, quantifying, and preventing sludge in public services and government processes. This document delineates Good Practice Principles, derived from ten case studies conducted during the International Sludge Academy, aimed at promoting the integration of sludge audit methodologies into public governance and service design. By enhancing government efficiency and bolstering public trust in government, these principles contribute to the broader agenda on administrative simplification, digital services, and public sector innovation.

Given the important role of strategic foresight in policymaking and resilience, the Government of Flanders has been taking steps to improve its capabilities in this area. This report outlines the main findings and recommendations of the OECD assessment of the strategic foresight system of the Government of Flanders. It includes a blueprint and roadmap for incorporating strategic foresight into the public administration of Flanders over the next five years.

Inter-municipal co-operation (IMC) has proved to be a constructive and efficient instrument in many EU and OECD countries for solving several issues at the local government level, including the lack of resources, administrative fragmentation, the investment burden of individual municipalities or better and more efficient organisation of public service provision. Although IMC is still often thought of as an alternative to the politically sensitive merging of small municipalities, nowadays its use has raised the interest of public administrations whose local governments are medium- and large-sized and that see this instrument as a way to empower local governments, provide them with more responsibilities, ensure sustainability of public services and fuel planning capacities and strategic thinking at the local and regional level. This paper summarises examples from EU and OECD countries where IMC either has a long-standing history or has recently received increased support and attention. It also provides an analysis of the legislative basis, support and incentives and practical data of IMC in the Western Balkan administrations. The paper offers several recommendations specific to the Western Balkan administrations for how to benefit from IMC.

As 'market referees', regulators contribute to the delivery of essential public utilities. Their organisational culture, behaviour, actions and governance are important factors in how they, and the sectors they oversee, perform. The OECD Performance Assessment Framework for Economic Regulators (PAFER) looks at the institutions, processes and practices that can create an organisational culture of performance and results. This report uses PAFER to assess both the internal and external governance of Brazil’s National Agency for Water and Basic Sanitation (ANA). The review offers recommendations for the regulator to build upon its strong technical reputation and good practices. It proposes an integrated set of recommendations to help ANA best fulfil its roles relating to water resource management and water-use regulation, dam safety, and water supply and sanitation.

Violence against women (VAW) and girls exists in all countries and across all socio-economic groups, with around one in three women experiencing sexual and physical violence in their lifetime worldwide. This issue was exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, intensifying the need for urgent action to eradicate it. Many governments, including in the MENA region, have enacted policies and programmes to tackle VAW. However, limited strategic planning, long-term investment in services, and co-ordinated responses among public institutions and actors involved in the implementation of VAW strategies have made it difficult to break the VAW cycle. Drawing on data collected through the 2022 OECD Survey on Strengthening Governance and Victim/survivor-centric Approaches to end Violence Against Women in MENA Countries, this report provides an overview of MENA countries’ efforts to develop whole-of-government VAW responses, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic and with a view to help anticipate future crises. It assesses the gaps that hinder progress towards achieving lives free from violence for all women and girls and provides recommendations to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of the policy and institutional frameworks across MENA countries in addressing VAW.

This report outlines good practice principles intended to encourage the incorporation of behavioural perspectives as part of standard policymaking practice in government and governmental organisations. Evidence from the behavioural sciences is potentially transformative in many areas of government policy and administration. The 14 good practice principles, organised into five dimensions, present a guide to the consistent production and application of useful behavioural science evidence. Governments and governmental organisations looking to mainstream behavioural public policy may use the good practice principles and case studies included in this report to assess their current policy systems and develop strategies to further improve them.

Lobbying and influence activities are legitimate acts of democratic participation and enable different groups to provide input and expertise to the policymaking process. This report looks at Chile’s existing framework to ensure equity, integrity and transparency in public decision-making processes, and assesses its resilience to the risks of undue influence by special interest groups. The report also explores how to improve transparency and facilitate the disclosure of lobbying and influence activities. Finally, it discusses complementary reforms of the legal framework on integrity and transparency that could help strengthen the lobbying framework.

Supreme audit institutions (SAIs) are a critical part of public accountability systems. They ‘watch’ over governments’ use of public money and report about it publicly, helping to increase transparency. SAIs have an interest in strongly engaging with external stakeholders – including citizens – to make sure that their work is relevant, understood and used to hold governments to account. This paper provides a compilation of European SAIs’ practices on communication, co-operation and collaboration with external partners and is intended to provide inspiration to SAIs of EU candidate countries and potential candidates to further strengthen their engagement with their non-governmental stakeholders.

Since joining the EU in 2013, Croatia’s macroeconomic performance has improved significantly. At the same time, large demographic and socio-economic disparities across Croatian regions persist. These trends provide the backdrop against which Croatia has reformed its legislative and strategic planning framework for regional development. Such reforms culminated in the adoption of the National Development Strategy 2030, which includes balanced regional development among its main long-term objectives. They have also led to the creation of regional development agencies, and the design of development plans at the county and local levels. This report assesses the extent to which Croatia’s multi-level governance system is supporting its regional development objectives. In particular, it provides an overview of the country’s regional development performance on several demographic, economic and well-being indicators. From there, it considers how the regional development reforms adopted since 2014 affect the ability of national and subnational governments to design, implement, fund, monitor and evaluate place-based regional development plans. Finally, this report provides practical recommendations to help national and subnational policy makers develop and implement strategic frameworks to meet their territorial development objectives and deliver tangible results to communities across the country.

Given the fast pace of global socio-economic development, more tailored, focused, and localised efforts to strengthen public sector capacity in small island developing states (SIDS) is increasingly important. SIDS have unique vulnerabilities, rich histories and contexts, and strengths that can be harnessed for sustainable development. Development partners need to adapt how they provide capacity-strengthening support, taking individual SIDS’ circumstances and needs into account to better help them achieve their ambitions. This report summarises perspectives from small island developing states (SIDS) on current experiences and opportunities to improve capacity-strengthening support to make it more tailored, impactful, and sustainable. The report uses the broad definition of capacity-strengthening as activities that improve the competencies and abilities of individuals, organisations, and broader formal and informal social structures in a way that boosts organisational performance. It concentrates on public sector capacity, including interactions with other stakeholders across sectors.