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This report provides a targeted analysis of the measures taken to strengthen integrity and combat corruption in public procurement in Quebec, Canada. It was produced at the request of the Government of Quebec following the uncovering of cases of corruption by the Commission of Inquiry on the Awarding and Management of Public Contracts in the Construction Industry (Charbonneau Commission). This report analyses the progress made in implementing the recommendations of the Charbonneau Commission and benchmarks these measures against good practices in OECD countries. The report highlights how to adopt a strategic and proactive approach to developing a robust integrity system and ways to mitigate the risks of corruption at all stages of the public procurement cycle.

This paper presents the OECD Digital Government Policy Framework (DGPF), a policy instrument to help governments identifying key determinants for effective design and implementation of strategic approaches to transition towards higher levels of digital maturity of their public sectors. This analytical work builds on the provisions of the OECD Recommendation of the Council on Digital Government Strategies and supports the qualitative and quantitative assessment of the Secretariat across countries and individual projects. The DGPF provides the ground for peer reviews and frames the design of the methodology and the OECD Survey on Digital Government to measure countries’ digital government maturity across the six dimensions covered in this Framework: digital by design, data-driven public sector, government as a platform, open by default, user-driven and proactiveness. The document is enriched with countries' practices to illustrate the concepts covered in each of the six dimensions of the DGPF.

This report comes at a time when policy makers are challenged by the COVID-19 crisis that is generating a profound reflection on economic and social well-being. Before COVID-19 hit, Indonesia had experienced remarkable economic growth, making substantial progress in poverty reduction and gains in employment. However, there are large differences in outcomes across Indonesian provinces, which often reflect the quality of local infrastructure, services, education, and jobs. This joint Asian Development Bank (ADB) and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) study sheds light on challenges and opportunities to promote employment and skills outcomes at the local level in Indonesia. The analysis presented in this OECD/ADB report shows the importance of strengthening local institutions managing and delivering employment and skills policies.

Wales (United Kingdom) is on the path to transform the way children learn, with a new curriculum aimed to prepare its children and young people to thrive at school and beyond. The new curriculum for Wales intends to create a better learning experience for students, to engage teachers’ professionalism, and to contribute to the overall improvement of Welsh education. An education policy is only as good as its implementation, however, and Wales turned to the OECD for advice on the next steps to implement the curriculum. This report analyses the progress made with the new curriculum since 2016, and offers suggestions on the actions Wales should take to ready the system for further development and implementation. The analysis looks at the four pillars of implementation — curriculum policy design, stakeholders' engagement, policy context and implementation strategy — and builds upon the literature and experiences of OECD countries to provide tailored advice to Wales. In return, the report holds value not only for Wales, but also for other education systems across the OECD looking to implement a curriculum or to enhance their implementation processes altogether.

Greece has undergone extensive reforms to cope with a deep recession over the past decade. It has made progress in decoupling air pollutant emissions from GDP and improving the conservation status of natural habitats. However, the country faces challenges in managing waste and water, and addressing air pollution. It is highly vulnerable to the impact of climate change. The energy mix has shifted towards cleaner fuels, but the economy strongly relies on fossil fuels. Progress towards sustainable development requires effective implementation of ambitious climate mitigation and adaptation policies, strengthening environmental governance and enhancing coherence between environmental and energy, transport, agriculture and tourism policies. This is the third Environmental Performance Review of Greece. It evaluates progress towards sustainable development and green growth, with special features on climate change mitigation and adaptation, and biodiversity conservation and sustainable use.

Rural Well-being: Geography of Opportunities presents the latest iteration on this policy framework, reflecting several important changes in rural development in recent years. Fully taking into account the variety of situations characterising rural regions, the new policy framework leverages improved data and analysis while broadening the scope from economic focus to encompass the environmental and social dimensions of well-being. The new approach places the well-being of citizens at the forefront of its objective and recognises the diversity of rural places brought by a deeper understanding of their diverse and complex socio-economic systems and their connection to cities. The framework also looks to the future and unfolding megatrends such as globalisation, digitalisation, climate change and demographic change. It reflects on how these will impact rural economies and reviews policy options to mitigate the challenges and capitalise on opportunities as well as to develop resilience against emerging crises. Finally, recognising the strong interdependencies between different stakeholders and the need for partnerships between government, the private sector and civil society to successfully implement policies, the Rural Well-being Policy Framework focuses on governance mechanisms, including the OECD Principles on Rural Policy.

It is increasingly understood that entrepreneurship plays a critical role in economic growth and well-being. But which policies can governments develop to release its benefits? This publication offers guidance and inspiration. It identifies the range of entrepreneurship policies being pursued internationally, the problems the policies seek to solve and how they are designed and implemented. The focus is on how to create a broad base of start-ups with the potential for sustainability and growth by building a pipeline of new entrepreneurs, supporting start-ups to overcome barriers in areas such as skills, finance and innovation and stimulating vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystems. The publication examines the rationale for entrepreneurship policy, presents a typology of policy approaches and highlights principles for policy success. The points are illustrated by 16 case studies of inspiring practice policies from 12 OECD countries. These cases span policies for regulations and taxation, entrepreneurship education and training, advice and coaching, access to finance, internationalisation, innovation, and holistic packages for ecosystem building. Helpful summary tables guide readers to the information that will respond to their questions. The publication will give readers an overview of key entrepreneurship policy interventions and tips on entrepreneurship policy success.

This paper studies the potential drivers of governments’ approval rates in 18 Latin American countries using Internet search query data from Google Trends and traditional data sources. It employs monthly panel data between January 2006 and December 2015. The analysis tests several specifications including traditional explanatory variables of governments’ approval rates – i.e. inflation, unemployment rate, GDP growth, output gap – and subjective explanatory variables – e.g. perception of corruption and insecurity. For the latter, it uses Internet search query data to proxy citizens’ main social concerns, which are expected to drive governments’ approval rates. The results show that the perception of corruption and insecurity, and complaints about public services have a statistically significant association with governments’ approval rates. This paper also discusses the potential of Internet search query data as a tool for policy makers to understand better citizens’ perceptions, since it provides highly anonymous and high-frequency series in real-time.