OECD Partners

The World Bank

The World Bank is a key partner for OECD’s co-operation with non-members. It contributes its extensive in-country presence and its long experience with policy applications in widely different settings and across sectors. It is able to combine intellectual and financial support to its borrowers, engage in capacity building and help interpret their wider interests in the global debate. “Joint Statement on Co-operation” was signed by the OECD Secretary-General and the World Bank President in January 2006, replacing its 2000 predecessor. It notes that the co-operation between the World Bank and the OECD has matured and become well established in a number of areas, including trade, corporate governance, debt management, pensions, taxation and in the field of development assistance and highlights other areas where the World Bank and the OECD should enhance their co-operation: agriculture, anti-corruption, competition, education, environmental sustainability/climate change, governance, health, insurance, investment, labour and employment, lagging regions (territorial development), migration and statistics. The World Bank participates as an observer in more than 30 OECD bodies and takes part as a full participant in the DAC Working Party on Aid Effectiveness and Donor Practices and the International Tax Dialogue. It also provides strong support to OECD's Global Forums and regional approaches in Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America and the Middle East.

Asian Development Bank

The "Letter of Intent between the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the OECD" of March 2005 defines the guiding principles of the OECD-ADB partnership and outlines priority areas of co-operation with particular relevance for Asia. This partnership agreement was concluded following a series of joint OECD-ADB activities such as the Business Tendency Surveys for Dynamic Asian Economies, the Eurasian Corporate Governance Roundtable or the ADB-OECD Anti-Corruption Initiative, formalising co-operation between both organisations. ADB and OECD agreed to explore possibilities for effective collaboration on development challenges such as aid effectiveness, anti-corruption policies, corporate governance, local economic and employment development, environmental policies, capacity building, regulatory reform, competition law and policy and statistical capacity building. Partnership activities include joint organisation and sponsoring of seminars and conferences, information sharing and staff exchanges.

Inter-American Development Bank

In April 2003 the OECD and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) signed a "Joint Statement of Priorities" aiming to develop further co-operation in the following priority areas: competition and regulatory policy; competitiveness and growth policies; trade integration and investment; private pensions, insurance and financial markets; labour legislation and employment policy; public governance and institutional strengthening; local financing and development policies; taxation; SME and entrepreneurship policies; information and communications technology, and anti-corruption. The IDB is strongly involved in OECD’s regionally-focused policy dialogue and capacity building activities in Latin America. For instance, the IDB provides support to the annual Latin America Competition Forum which will hold its fourth meeting in El Salvador on 11 and 12 July 2006. It also participates in the organisation of regional development forums in collaboration with the OECD Development Centre. Moreover, the IDB is a full member of OECD’s International Tax Dialogue, the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) Networks/Working Parties on development evaluation, gender equality, aid effectiveness and donor practices, and the OECD Local Economic and Employment Development (LEED) Programme.

United Nations Conference on Trade and Development

The OECD and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) elaborated a "Joint Statement of Priorities for OECD-UNCTAD Partnership" in 2002 to work co-operatively on poverty reduction, trade and investment. The two organisations have accumulated considerable expertise on trade, investment and development policies in widely differing country contexts. While OECD has experience in building strong open economies, UNCTAD has a track record promoting development and integrating developing countries into the international trading system. The unifying theme for OECD-UNCTAD co-operation is to promote institutional and policy reforms to build a competitive domestic productive capacity for enhancing development and integration into the global trading system. UNCTAD participates as observer in the OECD Investment and Competition Committees and a number of trade-related OECD Working Parties.

World Health Organization

Since the first framework of co-operation between OECD and the World Health Organization (WHO) in December 1999, many joint projects have been successfully achieved. The revised “Framework for Co-operation between OECD and WHO”, signed in November 2005, reinforces the initial partnership framework by establishing modalities for the joint planning and the co-ordination of joint work. It also identifies new priority areas for future co-operative efforts. In particular, the OECD and the WHO aim to strengthen their co-operation in the following four substantive areas: 1. Statistical Description of Health Systems; 2. Analysis of Health Systems, including their Financing and Efficiency; 3. Biotechnology, Food Safety and Chemicals Management; 4. Development Assistance. The WHO participates as observer in the OECD Committee on Radiation Protection and Public Health and the Environment Policy Committee.