Geography of Opportunities: On the road to the OECD Regional Outlook 2023

What is the Regional Outlook?

The biannual OECD Regional Outlook provides an overview of mega-trends, developments, and performance in OECD regions, and of the underlying drivers of territorial disparities.

It offers guidance and recommendations to policymakers on how to address these inequalities through effective regional development policy that builds on regional strengths and mobilises different levels of governments, private actors and citizens.

A note on the upcoming Regional Outlook 2023

The implications of global megatrends, and current and future shocks, are highly asymmetric across regions within OECD countries. The major challenges posed by the COVID-19 crisis, climate change, digitalisation, demographic change, changes in the shape of globalisation, and the shocks of the large-scale aggression by Russia against Ukraine, can affect regions within a country very differently.

Acting on these place-based challenges and asymmetries will continue to require effective evidence-based regional development policy and multi-level governance to:

Support a strong recovery from the COVID-19 crisis across regions, cities and rural areas
Address the challenges and grasp the opportunities of the climate and digital transitions and demographic change
Build resilient regions to anticipate and response to current and future shocks

The upcoming edition will give special attention to drivers shaping regional inequalities across OECD countries, and will explore how to seize regional opportunities at a time when regions need to adapt to megatrends, prepare for shocks, and build resilience.

Past Editions of the Regional Outlook

Evolving hand-in-hand with the policy challenges of the time, the successive editions of the Regional Outlook have focused on different emerging issues related to regional growth and well-being:

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1. OECD Regional Outlook 2021: Addressing COVID-19 and Moving to Net Zero Greenhouse Gas Emissions	2.OECD Regional Outlook 2019: Leveraging Megatrends for Cities and Rural Areas	3. OECD Regional Outlook 2016: Productive Regions for Inclusive Societies	4. OECD Regional Outlook 2014: Regions and Cities: Where Policies and People Meet	5. OECD Regional Outlook 2011: Building Resilient Regions for Stronger Economies

Interim Analysis

Impact of the War in Ukraine on OECD Regions: Managing human, social and economic challenges and building a more resilient future

Russia’s large-scale aggression against Ukraine has sown catastrophe in the country; destroying lives, homes, and infrastructure. The war has also created profound and asymmetric economic and social impacts across the world, including many that are likely to be long lasting. Managing the humanitarian crisis, and the flow of refugees, is an immediate priority. Yet, governments at all levels are also grappling with the implications of further disruptions to supply chains and travel, and rising prices, which are jeopardising efforts to rebuild their economies after COVID-19. Because these impacts will not be felt equally within OECD countries, they have important implications for regional development policies – not least in the wake of the spatial challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper presents an early assessment of the impact of the war in Ukraine across OECD regions looking at several dimensions including refugee flows, energy price increase, disruption of trade flows and GVCs, and tourism.

Read it here

Making the most of public investment to address megatrends, regional inequalities and future shocks

Public investment is a key policy lever to tackle the big challenges faced by society – climate change, demographic trends, digitalisation, and economic and other shocks. Investment helps to lay the foundations for future economic prosperity and well-being in our cities and regions. It can also help to reduce inequalities, adapt places to megatrends, enhance resilience and mitigate the impact of shocks. As we emerge from the COVID-19 crisis, and already face a new crisis following Russia’s large scale aggression against Ukraine, existing commitments of public investment to support the recovery provide an important opportunity to address current and future challenges. Rising to this occasion calls for effective public investment by all levels of government.

Read it here

Regional Policy paper cover for Regional Outlook website