Publications & Documents

This report, prepared by FAO and the OECD with inputs from IFPRI, IFAD, the World Bank and WTO, has been submitted to the G20 Presidency of the Argentine Republic in response to the Presidency’s request for information on future trends and challenges faced by global agriculture, with a special focus on the role of soils in promoting food security and the measures that could be undertaken to facilitate sustainable soil management.

SMEs play an important role for economic growth and social inclusion in Indonesia. Based on data from the Ministry of Co-operatives and SMEs, Indonesian SMEs account for nearly 97% of domestic employment and for 56% of total business investment. Indonesia has a Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise (MSME) Law and a specific ministry dedicated to co-operatives and SMEs. The wealth of public programmes for SMEs could be streamlined, and more could be done to support innovative companies able to generate productive jobs and participate in international markets. The development and implementation of an SME strategy would be instrumental to improve the overall coherence of national policy measures, objectives and measurable targets. The review of SME and entrepreneurship policy of Indonesia is part of a peer-reviewed series, by the OECD Working Party on SMEs and Entrepreneurship, which aims to improve the design, implementation and effectiveness of national SME and entrepreneurship policies.

This report looks at how regions and cities across the OECD are progressing towards stronger economies, higher quality of life for their citizens and more inclusive societies. This edition presents regional and metropolitan updates for more than 40 indicators to assess disparities within countries and their evolution since the turn of the new millennium. The report covers all OECD countries and, where data is available, Brazil, People’s Republic of China, Colombia, Lithuania, Peru, the Russian Federation, Tunisia and South Africa.Three new features characterise this edition. First, an assessment migrant integration, based on new indicators produced for OECD regions. Second, recent trends on entrepreneurship in regions, with new indicators on creation and destruction of firms and on the jobs associated with such dynamics. Third, an assessment of socio-economic conditions, inequalities and poverty in metropolitan areas and their neighbourhoods.

Road and Rail Infrastructure in Asia: Investing in Quality discusses the challenges facing the region and possible policy options, including those previously or currently used in Emerging Asian countries, with reference to the experiences of OECD member countries. It provides analysis and recommendations for the region’s policy makers to consider in their efforts to improve the quality of infrastructure. In particular, it highlights the importance of considering the spill-over effects of infrastructure in investment decisions. A comprehensive infrastructure impact evaluation does not simply consider the financial feasibility of an individual project, but attempts to judge the full extent of the externalities of planned investments, looking at the positive and negative economic, social and environmental effects over different time periods. The report first presents project case studies, illustrating how policy makers have incorporated the principles of quality infrastructure. It then examines the local economic impact of infrastructure, the role of local governments in infrastructure development and the benefits and challenges of their involvement. It then goes on to discuss different infrastructure financing options including funding from public and private sectors, as well as public-private partnerships, and concludes with a focus on fostering improved alignment between national development strategies and infrastructure planning.

The higher education sector in The Netherlands offers excellent examples of what it means to be innovative and entrepreneurial, and promote entrepreneurial mind sets, entrepreneurship and knowledge exchange. Creating value from academic knowledge through innovative services, products, processes and business models that meet economic, social and environmental needs lies at the core of this strategy. The current challenge is to strenghten the anchoring of value-creation processes in education and research. This can be achieved through increased interdisciplinarity, entrepreneurial mindset development across all subject areas, incentives for effective wider world engagement of researchers and students, and growth-oriented support for startups. This report presents an in-depth analysis of the policy framework and institutional practices and provides useful guidance for policy makers and university leaders across the world. HEInnovate is a joint initiative of the European Commission and the OECD to promote the innovative and entrepreneurial higher education institution.

This report looks at a range of key labour market, economic and social indicators related to Canada’s growing Indigenous population, which comprises First Nations, Inuit and Métis. In 2016, there were over 1.6 million Indigenous People in Canada, accounting for 4.9% of the total population, which is a significant increase from 3.8% in 2006. The report looks at the implementation of the federal government’s Indigenous Skills and Employment Training Strategy through in-depth analysis across four case study areas, including 1) the Centre for Aboriginal Human Resources and Development in Winnipeg, Manitoba; 2) Community Futures Treaty Seven in Calgary, Alberta; 3) MAWIW Council in Fredericton, New Brunswick; and 4) Kiikenomaga Kikenjigewen Employment and Training Services (KKETS) in Thunder Bay, Ontario. The report highlights critical success factors to better link Indigenous People to high quality jobs while also providing recommendations regarding future labour market and skills programming for Indigenous People in Canada.

This third edition of Job Creation and Local Economic Development examines the impact of technological progress on regional and local labour markets. It sheds light on widening regional gaps on job creation, workers education and skills, as well as inclusion in local economies. Drawing on new data, it examines the geographical distribution of the risk of automation and whether jobs lost to automation are compensated by the creation of jobs at lower risk of automation. Building on data from labour force surveys, the report looks at the rise of non-standard work, highlighting the main regional determinants of temporary jobs and self-employment. Finally, it considers determinants of productivity and inclusion in regional and local labour markets, as well as policies to foster greater inclusion of vulnerable groups into the labour market. Individual country profiles provide an overview of regional labour markets and, among other things, an assessment of the performance in terms of 'quality' jobs created among different regions.