By Date

The 2023 edition of Government at a Glance provides a comprehensive overview of public governance and public administration practices in OECD Member and partner countries. It includes indicators on trust in public institutions and satisfaction with public services, as well as evidence on good governance practices in areas such as the policy cycle, budgeting, public procurement, infrastructure planning and delivery, regulatory governance, digital government and open government data. Finally, it provides information on what resources public institutions use and how they are managed, including public finances, public employment, and human resources management. Government at a Glance allows for cross-country comparisons and helps identify trends, best practices, and areas for improvement in the public sector.

The precautionary principle has been an important aspect of regulatory delivery for nearly four decades. Now widely applied and with a global reach, the principle is often invoked whenever the scientific evidence surrounding the safety of a given technology is not conclusive. It is often applied where a safety risk is known to exist, but the probability and magnitude of harm are uncertain or unknown. The principle thus supports — and is an important element of — risk-based regulation. It is an important principle for the energy transition, in particular, though it is complex to apply in practice. The safety risk of technologies supporting the energy transition is immediate, which can lead regulators to operate and apply the principle over-cautiously — sometimes to the extent of complete inaction. This report examines how the precautionary principle can be used to support flexible decision making by helping regulators and operators manage risk through positive action.

In Malta, public procurement accounted for approximately 6% of GDP in 2019 and is recognised as a strategic instrument for achieving government policy goals, including recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite recent efforts, the public procurement system still faces several challenges in several areas. This report provides an overview of the procurement system and tailored recommendations in six main areas: i) the organisational structure of the public procurement system, ii) public procurement processes, iii) risk management, iv) the strategic use of public procurement, v) the professionalisation of the procurement workforce, and vi) the performance measurement framework.

This report assesses Romania’s efforts to strengthen its integrity and anti-corruption system. It looks at the achievements of the 2021-2025 National Anticorruption Strategy (NAS) as well as the challenges that remain, including addressing structural issues such as political engagement, the role and placement of ethics offices and the design and review of integrity plans. The report provides recommendations for mainstreaming central government integrity policies into practical and concrete actions at the sectoral level, with a view to improving implementation of the 2021-2025 NAS as well as future strategies.

Despite strong economic performance and significant governance reforms over the past few decades, Lithuania has a higher share of its population at-risk-of poverty than other EU countries (21.4% in 2020 compared to an EU average of 16.3%), with some people more at risk than others, particularly people with multiple and complex needs in vulnerable situations who tend to rely more on public services. The provision of personalised services is fundamental to addressing the needs of people in vulnerable situations and to improving their well-being. This report is part of a joint project between the OECD and the European Commission to develop a more integrated approach to personalised services for people with disabilities, young people leaving care, and people leaving prison in Lithuania and to increase the involvement of non-governmental organisations in the design and delivery of those services. The report provides an analysis and assessment of the governance arrangements and NGO involvement in Lithuanian public service provision, the associated operating models and information technology (IT) infrastructure of employment and social services; and service design and delivery methods for the three groups. Finally, the report proposes recommendations to deliver effective, well-integrated public services to people in vulnerable situations in Lithuania.

The United States, the world’s largest economy, has made progress in reducing several environmental pressures while maintaining one of the highest Gross Domestic Products per capita in the world. It has decoupled emissions of greenhouse gases, air pollutants, water abstractions and domestic material consumption from economic and population growth. However, high consumption levels, intensive agricultural practices, climate change and urban sprawl continue to put pressure on the natural environment. Despite the recent acceleration of action to address climate change, further efforts are needed to achieve the goal of net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. The United States is also among the major contributors to marine litter with serious consequences for communities and the environment. The review provides 30 recommendations to help the United States improve its environmental performance, with a special focus on marine litter and a cross-cutting focus on environmental justice. This is the third Environmental Performance Review of the United States. It provides an independent, evidence-based evaluation of the country’s environmental performance over the past decade.

This paper maps 'who does what' across levels of government in OECD countries in relation to active labour market policies (ALMPs), with a focus on the role of subnational governments. It highlights recent reforms in the multi-level governance of ALMPs in a number of countries, and shows that in about two out of five OECD countries, subnational governments have some type of formal competences for delivering ALMPs. It also shows other ways subnational governments are commonly involved in such policies. This includes delivering their own labour market programmes, often targeted to those farthest from the labour market or facing multiple barriers to employment. Finally, it considers some of the benefits and drawbacks of more decentralised approaches to ALMPs and offers some general principles for managing these trade-offs across different types of governance systems.

This OECD Public Governance Monitor (PGM) provides a concise analysis of Sweden’s public governance system, instruments and capabilities, and helps identify areas of opportunities for public governance reforms. The report provides an overview of public administration in Sweden looking at public governance mechanisms around six key themes: public sector effectiveness, spending, citizen participation, the governance of climate change and other cross-cutting priorities, digital transformation, and public integrity. The report suggests several priorities for reforms to improve public sector effectiveness, increase the impact of participatory mechanisms, reinforce the governance of cross-cutting topics, strengthen the steering of digital government policy and take a more holistic approach to public sector integrity, in particular by revising the national anti-corruption plan.