Reports

The OECD’s Development Assistance Committee (DAC) conducts periodic reviews of the individual development co-operation efforts of DAC members. This peer review of Ireland reviews its development policies and programmes. It assesses not just the performance of its development co-operation agency, but also policy and implementation. It takes an integrated, system-wide perspective on the development co-operation and humanitarian assistance activities of the member under review.

This booklet highlights key lessons learned on engaging with the public based on DAC members’ practices as documented in peer reviews, DevCom’s reports and publications and wider work from across the OECD. It includes examples from DAC members’ experiences and sketches out challenges they continue to face as they move toward more strategic, effective and innovative engagement with citizens and taxpayers on development co-operation.

Southeast Asia’s booming economy offers tremendous growth potential, but also large and interlinked economic, social and environmental challenges. The region’s current growth model is based in large part on natural resource exploitation, exacerbating these challenges. This report provides evidence that, with the right policies and institutions, Southeast Asia can pursue green growth and thus sustain the natural capital and environmental services, including a stable climate, on which prosperity depends.

Carried out in consultation with officials and researchers from across the region, Towards Green Growth in Southeast Asia provides a framework for regional leaders to design their own solutions to move their countries towards green growth. While recognising the pressures that Southeast Asian economies face to increase growth, fight poverty and enhance well-being, the report acknowledges the links between all these dimensions and underscores the window of opportunity that the region has now to sustain its wealth of natural resources, lock-in resource-efficient and resilient infrastructure, attract investment, and create employment in the increasingly dynamic and competitive sectors of green technology and renewable energy.

Some key policy recommendations are that these challenges can be met by scaling up existing attempts to strengthen governance and reform countries’ economic structure; mainstreaming green growth into national development plans and government processes; accounting for the essential ecosystem services provided by natural capital, ending open-access natural resource exploitation; and guiding the sustainable growth of cities to ensure well-being and prosperity.

Deepening economic integration via regional co-operation has emerged as a key priority in the reform strategies of most developing economies over the past decade. This is evidenced by the explosive growth in bilateral and regional trading agreements in which they now participate. Regional aid for trade can help developing countries spur regional economic integration, enhance competitiveness, and plug into regional production networks.

Based on a rich set of experiences regarding regional aid for trade projects and programmes, the study finds that regional aid for trade offers great potential as a catalyst for growth, development and poverty reduction. The study recommends greater emphasis on regional aid for trade as a means of improving regional economic integration and development prospects. While regional aid for trade faces many practical implementation challenges, experience has shown that associated problems are not insurmountable but do require thorough planning, careful project formulation, and prioritization on the part of policy makers.

This report examines the effects of recent economic growth in Viet Nam on social cohesion. It finds that recent rapid economic growth in Viet Nam has not resulted in an increase in overall inequality, but the level of inequality was already high. Growth was not particularly inclusive, benefiting most the middle class and the richest households, and favouring less households in the bottom 20th percentile. Income mobility was also high, and while a majority of households experienced upward income mobility, downward absolute income mobility affected one in five households. Economic growth was not particularly job rich with employment growth lagging behind economic expansion.

In particular, important challenges were identified in the area of education and skills policies relating to fast-changing labour market needs. Minimum wage policies had a small but positive effect on employment, but concerns were highlighted over partial coverage and weak compliance. Tax policy and specifically personal income tax had only a small impact on reducing inequality, but transfers from central to local governments produced an equalising effect, albeit with mixed results in terms of satisfaction with public services. Finally, social protection systems have been extended, but important coverage gaps remain among the poor and ethnic minority groups, and informality remains a key challenge for universal extension.

The Mutual Review of Development Effectiveness is an exercise in mutual accountability undertaken jointly by ECA and the OECD following a request of NEPAD Heads of State and Government in 2003. Its purpose is to assess what has been done by Africa and its development partners to deliver commitments in relation to development in Africa, what results have been achieved, and what the key future priorities are. It complements the self-assessments produced by each side to the partnership, and is in line with the shift in emphasis from aid effectiveness to development effectiveness, and the emphasis on mutual accountability at Busan. NEPAD Heads of State and Government and AU/ECA Finance Ministers have reaffirmed the value of this exercise.

The 2014 report follows the same structure as previous reports, divided into 4 main ‘clusters’ of issues covering: sustainable economic growth, investing in people, good governance and financing for development.

This book provides a comprehensive assessment of the innovation system of the Netherlands, focusing on the role of government and including concrete recommendations on how to improve policies that affect innovation and R&D performance.

The ability of citizens to demand accountability and more open government is fundamental to good governance. There is growing recognition of the need for new approaches to the ways in which donors support accountability, but no broad agreement on what changed practice looks like. This publication aims to provide more clarity on the emerging practice. Based on four country studies Mali, Mozambique, Peru and Uganda, a survey of donor innovations and cutting-edge analysis in this field, and the findings of a series of special high-level international dialogues on how to best support accountability support to parliaments, political parties, elections and the media. The publication takes the view that a wholesale shift in behaviour is required by parts of the development assistance community - moving outside conventional comfort zones and changing reflexes towards new approaches to risk taking, analysis and programming around systems of accountability and ‘do no harm’ efforts in political engagement.

This piece is aimed at a range of development practitioners, as well as a wider audience, including civil society actors and citizens around the world who interact with donors working on accountability support.