Publications & Documents

Whistleblower protection is essential for safeguarding the public interest, for promoting a culture of accountability and integrity in both public and private institutions, and for encouraging the reporting of misconduct, fraud and corruption wherever it occurs. While many countries are increasingly developing legal frameworks to protect whistleblowers, more can be done to mainstream integrity and promote open organisational cultures. This report analyses whistleblower protection frameworks in OECD countries, identifies areas for reform and proposes next steps to strengthen effective and comprehensive whistleblower protection laws in both the public and private sectors.
 

This report is a progress review on the implementation of key OECD recommendations made in the 2014 Public Governance Review of the Office of the Comptroller General of Chile (the CGR). It takes stock of the CGR’s recent activities in key areas – stakeholder engagement, support to internal control and rebalancing its audit portfolio – and assesses their impact based on consultation with CGR officials and external stakeholders of the Chilean executive, legislature and civil society.

The 2015 OECD Recommendation of the Council on Gender Equality in Public Life promotes a government-wide strategy for gender equality reform, sound mechanisms to ensure accountability and sustainability of gender initiatives, and tools and evidence to inform inclusive policy decisions. It also promotes a “whole-of-society” approach to reducing gender stereotypes, encouraging women to participate in politics and removing implicit and explicit barriers to gender equality. This Recommendation is unique, as it provides not only governments, but also parliaments and judiciaries, with clear, timely and actionable guidelines for effectively implementing gender equality and gender mainstreaming initiatives, and for improving equal access to public leadership for women and men from diverse backgrounds.

Public investment, and particularly infrastructure investment, is important for sustainable economic growth and development as well as public service provision. However, it is also vulnerable to capture and corruption. This publication examines the direct and indirect benefits of public investment if carried out in a clean and efficient manner. It provides a Framework for Integrity in Public Investment, mapping out risks of corruption at each phase of the investment cycle. It also identifies tools and mechanisms to promote integrity in the public investment cycle and provides examples of their successful implementation in both the public and private sectors.

Urban, demographic and climate trends are increasingly exposing cities to risks of having too little, too much and too polluted water. Facing these challenges requires robust public policies and sound governance frameworks to co-ordinate across multiple scales, authorities, and policy domains. Building on a survey of 48 cities in OECD countries and emerging economies, the report analyses key factors affecting urban water governance, discusses trends in allocating roles and responsibilities across levels of government, and assesses multi-level governance gaps in urban water management. It provides a framework for mitigating territorial and institutional fragmentation and raising the profile of water in the broader sustainable development agenda, focusing in particular on the contribution of metropolitan governance, rural-urban partnerships and stakeholder engagement.

The Open Government Review of Tunisia is the first of its kind analysing a country’s open government policies and practices and their institutional and legal frameworks for implementation against OECD instruments. The analysis focuses on how public sector’s openness, transparency and accountability can be enhanced and therefore promote trust in government, in assessing : coherence and coordination of open government policies; citizens’ participation in policymaking; public financial management; integrity and anti-corruption initiatives; and the role of Information and Communication Technologies and Social Media. It also includes case studies of open government and local development. By bringing together a multitude of OECD instruments and expertise in different areas of public governance, the Review provides Tunisian policymakers, public sector officials and civil society activists with practical indications on how to improve and successfully implement their national open government agenda. In addition, the Review contains a list of recommendations that have been included in Tunisia’s first Action Plan for the Open Government Partnership.