|
As an intergovernmental organisation, does the OECD engage with civil society?
The OECD has formal relations with business and labour organisations through the Business and Industry Advisory Committee (BIAC) and through the Trade Union Advisory Committee (TUAC), both of which participate in a wide range of OECD’s activities, including regular consultations with OECD Committees. The OECD Council meets with BIAC and TUAC to discuss issues of mutual interest once a year, and the committees take part in preparations for the annual meeting of OECD ministers. BIAC (www.biac.org) was established in 1962 as an independent organisation officially recognised by the OECD as being representative of business and industry. TUAC (www.tuac.org) was originally established as a trade union advisory committee to the European Recovery Programme and later continued working with the OECD as representative of labour and social interests.
Over time, it became clear that other interest groups had also become active on the world stage. OECD Ministers declared in 1993 that “governments should provide for transparency and for consultation with interested parties in the development and implementation of trade and environmental policies with potentially significant effects on each other.”
Again, at their 2001 meeting, OECD ministers stressed the importance of continued dialogue with BIAC , TUAC, and other representatives of civil society, as dialogue “builds trust in public institutions and promotes public understanding of the benefits and challenges of global economic and social change.” The Ministers called for “improved policy integration and coherence at all levels of government, closer involvement of parliaments, and better mechanisms for interacting with citizens and civil society organisations”.
Today, the OECD pursues informal and highly constructive working relationships with representatives from many sectors of civil society. A number of OECD Committees consult regularly with these civil society organisations (CSOs), as well as with BIAC and TUAC. In some areas, CSOs have played an important role in the actual drafting and implementation of OECD instruments, such as the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, which were revised in 2000. Online consultation allows civil society the world over to comment on draft OECD guidelines in many areas including investment policy, government administration, pensions, the Internet and many other issues.
How can civil society organisations become involved with the OECD?
National CSOs collaborate with individual OECD governments and the OECD as an institution associates international CSOs with its work. The OECD has no system of accreditation for civil society; the CSOs who consult with OECD committees have expertise in the areas of work and make a valuable contribution. Some CSOs have formed “umbrella” organisations to facilitate dialogue with the OECD. This is the case for environment, where the European Environmental Bureau based in Brussels acts as a clearing house for dialogue with the OECD, and funnels information to and from its members. Similarly, OECD Watch, a group of more than 60 CSOs, follows the work of the OECD Investment Committee in a coordinated way. Export Credit Agency Watch is another example of the umbrella organisations following the work of the OECD.
Why is civil society interested in OECD work?
Policy making begins at the OECD with discussions in specialized committees covering a wide-range of international economic, environmental and social issues that no country can fully address single-handedly. Discussion continues throughout the long process of consensus building and is informed by analyses, statistics and shared experiences in OECD and other countries. These OECD committees and sub-groups concentrate the varied expertise of many countries and ultimately produce the OECD guidelines or recommendations that will help governments formulate or improve their policies. It is in the interest of civil society and governments alike to work together in the formulation of these policy recommendations in order to tap all of the expertise and broaden public understanding and acceptance of the policies.
Who comes to OECD committee meetings?
OECD member countries decide who will represent them at OECD committee meetings, which are closed to the public. They send delegates from their home capitals to attend the meetings or they are represented by their permanent delegation to the OECD.
The role of the OECD Council, made up of representatives of member countries and which is the governing body of the OECD, provides guidance on the work of the OECD Committees, working groups and expert groups. OECD Committees are served by the OECD Secretariat which organises committee meetings and prepares background documents that serve as basis for committee discussion. Documents are circulated among members for comment in the intervals between meetings. The entire body of documentation surrounding committee work is available to member governments at all time by means of an electronic archiving system called OLISnet.
Are OECD guidelines and recommendations the same as national laws and how are they enforced?
The OECD, through its committees, facilitates the production of internationally agreed instruments, decisions and recommendations. Decisions and treaties negotiated within the OECD are legally binding whereas recommendations are not legally binding and are considered as “soft” law. These “soft” laws are nonetheless effective thanks to the OECD’s highly developed process of peer review(www.oecd.org/peerreview).
Peer review has been used at the OECD since the organisation was created more than 40 years ago and has evolved over time to take account of new developments including the involvement of civil society, business and labour. The point of the exercise is to help the state under review improve its policymaking, adopt best practices and comply with established standards and principles.
OECD peer reviews cover a wide range of topics, from economics and governance to education, health, environment, agriculture, fisheries and energy. A long-standing type of peer review is that covering the overall economic performance and prospects of an individual country, as is the case with the OECD’s regular Economic Surveys. But peer reviews can also examine several countries at the same time with respect to a particular theme, such as environmental protection or regulatory reform. Such exercises are generally carried out on a regular basis, and each one results in a published report that assesses accomplishments, spells out shortfalls and makes policy recommendations.
The key to the effectiveness of peer reviews is the “peer pressure” exerted during the process by the states carrying out the review. The final results of OECD peer reviews are made public.
Is all OECD information available to the public?
Much of OECD work is made available to the public either through print publishing or on the OECD Web site. Working documents under discussion are usually not made public before a consensus has been reached, unless the OECD wishes to invite public comment. But OECD policy is the presumption of disclosure (1997 resolution of council on classification of documents ). To classify the information, an active decision must be taken. Two levels of confidentiality exist (For official use and Confidential), both with a limited time span. Every three years, documents belonging to one category are automatically downgraded so that almost all documents are available to the public after six years at the latest (for the full text of the policy document, see Council resolution on the classification and declassification of information). Some documents remain classified when disclosure would "seriously prejudice the interest of the Organisation or any of its members” but this ranking is exceptional and used as sparingly as possible.
Where is the information available?
Documents and publications
The OECD publishes some 250 titles each year in the two official languages, French and English, periodicals, journals and also regularly published flagships like Education at a Glance, Employment Outlook, and the bi-annual Economic Outlook. A number of publications are released in a third or even more languages.
In 2002, the OECD Council adopted a publications policy to improve the quality of OECD publications and the effectiveness of their dissemination. The policy allows for a flexible pricing system to accommodate different audiences.
SourceOECD provides institutional subscribers with a wide range of OECD publications and offers the possibility for them to make it available to their entire institution. For example, with SourceOECD, one subscription supplies the entire student and teaching body of a university with the full range of OECD publications which can be downloaded or read on line. OECDdirect is an online service that provides alerts to anyone who signs up on publications in their areas of interest.
It is also possible to order books from the OECD Online Bookshop (www.oecd.org/bookshop).
The Internet
Many other documents are posted on the Web site, and a number of books can be browsed free of charge online. Information about the OECD itself can be found on the OECD website, including the OECD financial statements are available on the Web site at www.oecd.org/about/finstatements.
Online information
The OECD Web site www.oecd.org is constantly being upgraded. It contains information relating to all the OECD work areas, including OECD legal instruments and reports. There are also policy briefs, newsletters, working papers, a selection of free statistics and information about the OECD’s history and committees. Meeting agendas, their background documents and conclusions are often posted on the Web site.
The media (www.oecd.org/media)
An important channel for disseminating and explaining OECD work to the outside world is through the media. The OECD organises news conferences, seminars and interviews for journalists. News releases are posted on the OECD Web site. In cases where the potentially market-(or policy) sensitive nature of the material raises issues of fair competition, the OECD releases information under embargo to allow all journalists equal opportunity to handle the material in a timely fashion. Texts are made available to journalists on request a few hours ahead of the official release time. Release times for material issued under embargo take account of different time zones in different parts of the world.
The OECD archives
Historical documents of the OECD are available to the public at Historical Archives of the European Communities in Florence, Italy after 10 years with a few standard exceptions. The Florence archives contain microfilm and microfiche as well as written and electronic documents.
Researchers query the OECD by phone or via the webmaster. Ten archivists located at the Paris headquarters aid the public in locating documents. Official documents issued as “Unclassified” since 1990 are available in electronic format and can be searched by directorate, date, or code number via www.oecd.org/officialdocuments.
Are there other ways of engaging with the OECD besides through committees? (www.oecd.org/oecdgroups)
The OECD stages a number of forums, many of them in non-member countries, where the participation of civil society is welcome. The annual OECD Forum is designed to allow business and labour leaders; ministers; academics and civil society representatives access to ministers to debate issues at the heart of OECD activity. The Forum is open to the public and immediately precedes the annual OECD ministerial meeting so that debates at the Forum inform the ministers’ discussions. The OECD stages many regional workshops and seminars organised by individual OECD directorates, notably in the areas of investment; trade; corporate governance; bribery and corruption; the environment, development, biotechnologies, agriculture, Internet and communication and territorial development; in order to engage with civil society at the grass roots.
Does the OECD deal directly with parliamentarians as well? (www.oecd.org/publicaffairs/parliamentarians)
The OECD has regular meetings with the Economic and Social Committee of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly at the OECD. Also, the Secretary-General attends the annual debate on activities of the OECD at the Council of Europe. High-level Parliamentarian Seminars take place in February and October every year in topical areas related to recent OECD work.
Groups of parliamentarians regularly visit the OECD in the framework of the OECD visits programme. They usually want to learn about OECD work in precise areas, like education, taxation or public management. In all, the OECD receives 4,000 visitors a year, mostly students, but also diplomats, politicians, researchers and professional people.
How successful is OECD engagement with civil society? (www.oecd.org/civilsociety)
The OECD has broadened and deepened its engagement with civil society since the late 1990’s. Each committee has worked out its own system for consulting with civil society, based upon the nature of its work and the culture of the committee. There was a period of adaptation as OECD committees and CSOs worked out the appropriate system and terms of engagement. The CSOs who continue to collaborate with the OECD in a constructive fashion today are the ones which have contributed significantly along the way, building a climate of mutual respect and confidence.
OECD Watch, for example, was created in March 2003 and grew out of the collaboration in 1999-2000 between the OECD and civil society in drafting revisions to the “OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises”, a voluntary code of conduct for international business with a distinctive government backed follow up mechanism.
Since the 2000 Review, civil society has contributed importantly to the work of the OECD Investment Committee by helping to promote and implement the Guidelines as well as co-operating in other areas of the committee’s activity. OECD Watch has made co-operation with civil society even more effective by acting as a clearing house for information flows between the OECD and from the field. The OECD Investment Committee has taken steps to expand further the scope of CSOs contributions to the IC's work, in such areas as open and transparent policy framework, international investment agreements and private sector participation in infrastructure. The Committee has facilitated timely access to the Committee’s working documents in combination with refined ground rules for continued effective co-operation with CSOs.
The OECD Environmental Policy Committee (EPOC) engages with environmental civil society organisations (CSOs) in a range of OECD environmental activities including inviting Stakeholder Groups to selected parts of some Committee meetings and for consultations with its Bureau. In addition they are frequently invited to conferences, workshops, and expert meetings. The European Environmental Bureau, a Brussels-based federation of some 140 environmental citizens' organisations, coordinates throughout all OECD member countries civil society participation in OECD environment activities.
In April 2004 stakeholders participated in Session I and the Ministerial lunch that followed the session. This was the first time Stakeholders were invited to participate in an official OECD Ministerial Meeting. This was an important step forward in terms of increased transparency and more open dialogue with civil society and business. Stakeholders are again invited to take part in selected sessions of the next Environment Ministerial Meeting to take place on 28-29 April 2008.
|
