Publications & Documents

Around one-third of the European Union’s budget is dedicated to cohesion policy, which promotes and supports the overall harmonious development of its Member States and regions. The success of this investment relies on effective partnerships among governments, stakeholders, and citizens. Citizens have a key role to play in shaping decisions on public investment, as well as in making public authorities more transparent and accountable. From July 2020-December 2021, the European Commission and the OECD partnered to explore how five authorities across Europe could place citizens at the centre of their investment decisions. This report summarises lessons learned throughout this project and, particularly, the results of applying innovative citizen participation methods to cohesion policy more broadly.

This profile provides a concise and policy-relevant overview of health and the health system in Poland as part of the broader series of the State of Health in the EU country profiles. It provides a short synthesis of: the health status in the country; the determinants of health, focussing on behavioural risk factors; the organisation of the health system; and the effectiveness, accessibility and resilience of the health system. This edition has a special focus on the impact of COVID‑19. This profile is the joint work of the OECD and the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies, in co-operation with the European Commission.

Despite its rapid economic growth over the past decades, Poland’s economic inactivity rate remains above the OECD average and regional differences in labour force participation persist. This report sheds light on the drivers of economic inactivity across Polish regions and analyses them in light of both individual and structural factors associated with labour force participation. It highlights the need for more inclusive active labour market policies to help integrate the economically inactive into labour markets across Poland. A better integration of services provided by national and local institutions, as well as a strengthened role of the social economy, is needed to address the complex needs of economically inactive persons.

This paper presents a Self-assessment Tool (SAT) to help local self-government units (LSGUs) in Poland strengthen public governance practices in the design and implementation of local development strategies. The SAT should help local actors assess their standards and practices across a set of key governance dimensions that may affect the effectiveness of investments and local development strategies undertaken by local administrations and the quality of the services they deliver. It provides key indicators to enable counties and municipalities to assess main strengths and gaps in public governance and local development practices, and in turn to design and pursue actions to improve services to citizens, and more effective engagement with stakeholders to build a collective vision and local development agenda.

This report provides an assessment of public governance and territorial development in Polish local self-government units (LSGUs). It offers key recommendations to governments at the national, regional and local levels in Poland on how to enhance development, improve service delivery and strengthen management processes within LSGUs. It addresses eight key thematic areas, including strategic planning, co-ordination across administrative units and policy sectors, multi-level governance and investment capacity, the use of monitoring and evaluation evidence for decision-making, budgeting, strategic workforce management, open government, and regulatory policy to reduce administrative burden and simplify public procurement. The report proposes a classification of LSGUs in Poland based on OECD typology, in order to reflect the economic functionality of specific regions/territories as a means to help LSGUs design more effective local development policies. A self-assessment tool for LSGUs in Poland complements the report and provides key indicators that allow counties and municipalities to assess their main strengths and weaknesses on public governance and local development practices, plan how to better serve citizens, enhance local sustainable development and engage with stakeholders to build a collective vision and plan of action.