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The COVID-19 crisis was a significant stress test for public administrations, challenging - like never before - the capacity of public sector organisations to respond to emergencies while achieving their goals and priorities. It also provided a unique learning opportunity, as public sector organisations adapted to new circumstances and permanently changed the way they interacted, operated, and delivered services. This policy paper provides a comprehensive analysis of the responses and adaptations of public sector organisations to the COVID-19 crisis, with a focus on 11 EU Member States (Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Italy, Poland, Portugal, the Slovak Republic, Slovenia, and Spain). It assesses the resilience of public sector organisations through the lens of the Common Assessment Framework (CAF) model, a quality management tool used across EU Member States and beyond to self-evaluate organisational operations and performance.

This document presents the principles of good practice for public communication responses to mis- and disinformation. The Principles aim to help governments counter mis- and disinformation via the public communication function and other policy responses through strengthening domestic and international media and information ecosystems and reinforcing democracy. This document identifies nine common principles underpinning good practices for how governments can engage with partners across citizens, civil society and the private sector, based on evidence and interventions observed around the world during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.

A growing number of OECD countries are facing the challenge of making their public service more attractive, even as public policy management becomes increasingly complex and requires new skills. This paper seeks to identify the attractiveness factors of the public service in the French regions and across the member countries of the European Union, particularly within a context of major trends in public employment that are constantly changing. The first section aims to shed light on the attractiveness of the French public service in French regions, through a mostly qualitative focus on four regions (Grand Est, Hauts-de-France, Île-de-France, Normandy). These regions are facing, in whole or in part, difficulties in attracting, recruiting, and retaining their public employees. The second section, in addition to a better understanding of the major trends affecting public employment across the European Union and OECD member countries and the implications for the Human Resources (HR) function, explores the measures implemented by other administrations in OECD member countries as well as the private sector to develop or adapt their human resources policies in order to better plan attractiveness efforts.

Latvia’s current National Development Plan, approved in 2020, sets out a clear vision for the Latvian justice system by 2027. This includes establishing international standards and good practices in the development of national policies to build a child-friendly justice system. This report assesses the benefits of implementing the Barnahus model in Latvia as a child-friendly and interagency one-stop shop to support children exposed to violence or abuse as well as those who have witnessed violence. It examines a whole-of-state approach to promote a justice system that is more people- and child-friendly, incorporating sound governance mechanisms. This report provides recommendations for delivering more targeted and accessible child-friendly justice services in Latvia, as well as different approaches used in OECD Member and partner countries to close justice inequality gaps. 

Regulators act as 'market referees', balancing often competing interests of stakeholders, including governments, current and future actors in the markets, and consumers. At the same time, markets are changing at an unprecedented pace due to new technologies, the international drive toward carbon-neutral economies, shifts in consumer needs and preferences, and, more recently, the profound changes brought by the COVID-19 pandemic. Assessing the performance of economic regulators must therefore be a continuous effort. This progress review evaluates the changes put in place by Peru’s telecommunications regulator, OSIPTEL, since the previous OECD performance assessment review in 2018, in the interest of increasing the effectiveness of its regulatory activities and improving final outcomes for consumers and the economy.

This report examines the process for developing the Lithuania’s National Anticorruption Programme (NAPC) for 2022-2033. It assesses the NAPC’s past accomplishments as well as challenges in priority areas, and draws lessons for the coming period. It also highlights implementation gaps in at-risk areas and identifies opportunities for improving the design and implementation of the NAPC.

The OECD Public Governance Review of the Czech Republic identifies priority governance areas for reform in the Czech Republic and offers recommendations to strengthen the effectiveness, agility and responsiveness of the country’s public sector. The review first provides a snapshot on the effectiveness of the public administration and its capacity to address contemporary governance challenges, such as digitalisation and climate change. It then analyses a number of critical and priority public governance areas including citizen engagement, centre-of-government-led co-ordination and strategic planning, evidence-informed policy making in the Czech public administration, public administration at the local and regional level, human resources management in the public administration, and digital government. It also includes a case study on governance arrangements and regulations during the COVID-19 pandemic. The review provides recommendations for the Czech public administration to help it implement its Public Administration Reform Strategy: Client-oriented Public Administration 2030 (PAR), achieve the objectives of the PAR, and, ultimately, realise its longer-term sustainable development vision and commitments.

Subnational governments play a significant role in ensuring good public governance. The way that they are organised and function has a direct impact on the economic and social well-being of citizens and public trust in government. This report presents the system of multi-level government in the six Western Balkan economies, comparing them both with one another and in the context of broader international trends in multi-level governance. The report covers territorial and institutional organisation, competences of local governments, human resources and accountability, public financial management and vertical and horizontal co-ordination, in each case identifying key characteristics and recent trends.

The 2021 OECD Survey on Drivers of Trust in Public Institutions provides a cross-country assessment of what influences people’s trust in government and public institutions, understanding people’s perception of the functioning of democratic institutions. Most of the drivers in the Trust Survey refer to government competences and values that help countries take concrete steps to rebuild trust. Both at the individual and country-level trust may vary due to cultural, economic and social factors. This paper analyses the open-ended survey responses in 16 OECD countries to understand two questions. First can the answers provide insights into cultural differences and extreme attitudes of distrust? Second, what dimensions influence trust that are not considered in the theoretical OECD Trust Framework underpinning the Trust Survey? The results of the topic model resemble closely the drivers in the Trust Framework, but respondents name not just government inputs, outputs, and processes, but also socioeconomic vulnerabilities, intergenerational and global challenges. While many respondents write that ''corruption'', ''money'' and ''power'' drives their trust in public institutions, these feelings are not associated with government transparency and accountability. These findings show the advantage of qualitative measurements (open-ended survey questions) to understand the complex relationship between trust and public governance.