Publications & Documents

Parliaments have a unique role in ensuring that adopted laws, regardless of who initiated them, are evidence-based and fit-for-purpose. For the executive branch, laws are vital instruments through which they deliver public policy. Governments therefore rely on parliaments to scrutinise and adopt legislation in a timely, well-planned and co-ordinated manner. Parliamentary scrutiny of government lawmaking and its role in ex post evaluation of law implementation helps the legislature hold the executive to account. Evidence-based lawmaking is especially critical to EU integration processes as they involve adoption of many new laws. This paper reviews how laws are planned, initiated, prepared, scrutinised and evaluated by the parliaments of six Western Balkan administrations. The report discusses the concept of lawmaking within a parliamentary system of government. It considers how parliaments and governments co-operate and co-ordinate their legislative activities throughout the lawmaking cycle, providing a comparative analysis of existing rules and procedures as well as lawmaking practices. A set of key findings and policy recommendations are provided to support the Western Balkan administrations to plan and implement future reforms.

The 2024 edition of Government at a Glance: Latin America and the Caribbean provides the latest available evidence on public administrations and their performance in the LAC region and compares it to OECD countries. It includes indicators on trust in public institutions and satisfaction with public services, as well as evidence on good governance practices in areas such as the policy cycle, budgeting, public procurement, infrastructure planning and delivery, regulatory governance, digital government and open government data. Finally, it provides information on what resources public institutions use and how they are managed, including public finances, public employment, and human resources management. Government at a Glance allows for cross-country comparisons and helps identify trends, best practices, and areas for improvement in the public sector. Governance indicators are especially useful for monitoring and benchmarking governments’ progress in their public sector reforms. Each indicator in the publication is presented in a user‑friendly format, consisting of graphs and/or charts illustrating variations across countries and over time, brief descriptive analyses highlighting the major findings of the data, and a methodological section on the definition of the indicator and any limitations in data comparability.

In November 2023, OECD member countries approved a revised version of the Organisation’s definition of an AI system. This document contains proposed clarifications to the definition of an AI system contained in the 2019 OECD Recommendation on AI (the 'AI Principles') to support their continued relevance and technical soundness. The goal of the definition of an AI system in the OECD Recommendation is to articulate what is considered to be an AI system, for purposes of the recommendation.

Rising disinformation has far-reaching consequences in many policy areas ranging from public health to national security. It can cast doubt on factual evidence, jeopardise the implementation of public policies and undermine people's trust in the integrity of democratic institutions. This report explores how to respond to these challenges and reinforce democracy. It presents an analytical framework to guide countries in the design of policies, looking at three complementary dimensions: implementing policies to enhance the transparency, accountability, and plurality of information sources; fostering societal resilience to disinformation; and upgrading governance measures and public institutions to uphold the integrity of the information space.

Since 2014, the Flemish government has undertaken a series of reforms of its budgetary system, including the implementation of performance-informed budgeting, which includes both the implementation of spending reviews and performance budgeting. The aim of the reforms is to better integrate policy development and resource allocation and improve the accountability and transparency of the Flemish public sector. This report takes stock of performance-informed budgeting practices in Flanders. It provides an assessment of their key strengths and highlights where improvements can be made. Finally, it includes recommendations to further strengthen the approach to performance-informed budgeting in Flanders.

In many countries, public expenditure, including transfers, plays a major role in reducing income inequality. The report reviews the various ways that budgeting can be used to this end. A first includes taking a broad approach to results-based budgeting, taking social and distributional goals into consideration. A second relies on integrating distributional impact analysis directly into the budget process. The report discusses the concrete experience of eight OECD countries in this area, analysing how they are integrating distributional impact assessment in spending and budgeting decisions. Finally, it discusses the tools, frameworks and data that are needed to take distributional considerations into account as part of evidence-informed policy making.

Policy coherence relies on the development of strategic plans, the availability and use of relevant evidence and data, the right set of skills across the public administration, political commitment, and leadership. Effective policy coherence cannot be achieved without good co-ordination, which relies on sound co-ordination mechanisms, such as interministerial committees or councils, as well as information-sharing tools. The legitimacy and coherence of public policy is also grounded in the support that a government has from stakeholders and citizens. This policy paper offers a tailored policy framework for Romania that builds further on the other outputs of the TSI project 'Enhancing Policy Coherence, Transparency, and Co-ordination at the Centre of Government in Romania'. It includes tailored and actionable tools for improving policy coherence across government by strengthening policy development, co-ordination, and stakeholder participation.

This policy paper analyses the institutional mechanisms in place and under preparation in Romania to steer and co-ordinate policy development and action priorities relating to climate change. It also reviews the risks and opportunities for the newly created co-ordination mechanisms within the centre of government in this policy area, looks at how the co-ordination mechanisms for greening of the economy align with existing governance frameworks in terms of mandate, and discusses lessons learned from the framework for sustainable development. Drawing upon extensive consultations and peer input from OECD countries, this policy paper offers tailored recommendations for enhancing green governance in Romania.