By Date

Sweden is undergoing a major reform of its public employment service Arbetsförmedlingen towards contracting out employment services to independent providers. At the same time, Arbetsförmedlingen is also undergoing a significant restructuring, resulting in a downscaling of physical presence across the country and an increased digitalisation of services. As this report shows, the social economy and in particular work integration social enterprises can play an important role in the delivery of publicly-financed employment services. The report analyses the main features of the social economy in general as well as its current role in employment policies in Sweden. Moreover, it discusses challenges in engaging social economy organisations as providers in the market for contracted-out employment services in Sweden with respect to the legal framework, contracting rules, financial barriers, payment models, and co-operation structures. Lastly, it offers recommendations based on international practice to help design and implement the proposed policy recommendations in the Swedish context.

Sweden is undergoing a major reform of its public employment service (PES) Arbetsförmedlingen, shifting its main role from providing in-house services towards monitoring of providers and working with different stakeholders in guiding and implementing labour market policies. At the same time, the PES is undergoing a significant restructuring, resulting in a downscaling of physical presence across the country and an increased digitalisation of services. To support this reform and services to jobseekers across urban and rural settings, this report a describes the main features of the Swedish labour market and employment system and analyses the challenges of the reform from a local perspective. In light of international examples, it outlines policy options for contracting services to ensure coverage in all places and for all jobseekers, managing the balance between physical and digital services, and coordinating services at the local level.

This report presents a case study of applying the OECD anticipatory innovation governance framework to develop and manage anticipatory innovation ecosystems as vehicles for knowledge generation, innovation governance and co-ordinated action to achieve policy goals. Part I establishes the case for anticipatory innovation ecosystems and sets out how they can be governed through a multi-level approach. In Part II, opportunities and challenges for applying this approach in the Latvian context are identified, and recommendations are made for developing anticipatory innovation ecosystems in Latvia.

Ireland has launched an ambitious strategy to build a more inclusive, efficient and sustainable justice sector. Irish citizens recognise these efforts: Ireland is one of the OECD countries with a higher percentage of citizens trusting their government and courts, according to the recent OECD Survey on the Drivers of Trust in Public Institutions. This study aims to support these efforts by analysing the judicial workforce and relevant support structures and processes currently employed by the Irish courts. In particular, the study seeks to contribute to the deliberations of the Irish Judicial Planning Working Group, which was established to identify reform initiatives and evaluate staffing needs to enhance the efficient administration of justice over the next five years.

Labour markets across the Netherlands recovered quickly from the COVID-19 shock and Dutch cities are now facing an unprecedented level of labour market tightness. The high demand for workers presents a unique opportunity for Dutch municipalities to find pathways into employment for those with the lowest labour market attachment and alleviate the pressure faced by local employers that struggle to find suitable workers. Supporting the diverse population in Dutch cities in finding their way into the labour market requires the efficient use of existing labour market instruments, advancing innovative methods of skills-based job matching and improving the cooperation between national, regional and local labour market institutions. This OECD report analyses current and future bottlenecks that could hamper the effective provision of local labour market services. It highlights policy options for strengthening the capacity of municipalities to support different population groups in making the transition from social welfare recipients to workers.

Less than two years after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Russia’s illegal, unprovoked and unjustifiable war of aggression against Ukraine has triggered the biggest military confrontation in Europe since World War II. Many OECD countries have reacted to Russia’s aggression by providing military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine and by imposing economic sanctions on Russia, which has accentuated supply chain disruptions, especially in the energy sector. A combination of these supply shocks with a demand shock caused by expansionary fiscal and monetary policies to tackle the pandemic has created inflationary pressures on a scale not seen in decades. Central banks around the world are acting to fulfil their price stability mandates by increasing interest rates and by engaging in quantitative tightening (primarily the selling of government bonds to reduce central bank balance sheets), all of which put pressure on borrowing costs at a time when governments are engaging in expansionary fiscal policy to alleviate the impact of inflation. The objective of this policy note is to examine the main consequences of this challenging environment for the fiscal stance of different levels of governments. These include the weakening outlook for government revenues in times of high expenditure pressures from a more rapid energy transition as well as high borrowing costs.

In recent decades, federal and unitary countries have increasingly adopted or deepened regional governance reforms, especially in the OECD and Europe, but also in Asia, America and to a lesser extent Africa. Approximately two-thirds of countries around the world have increased the power of regions over the last 50 years. This trend has happened in parallel with countries increasingly embedding a territorial approach into policy-making at the national and subnational levels. This process, however, does not follow a linear path. The rationale behind regional governance reforms differs from country to country, and over time, leading to a broad spectrum of governance models with varying institutional and financing arrangements. Taking stock of these trends, this report provides key data on regional governance reforms and their drivers, with a focus on the role of regions in the COVID-19 crisis response. The report also presents an innovative typology of regional governance models across OECD countries and the multi-level governance instruments that enable sound regional governance and help ensure these arrangements effectively serve their purpose.

Like many other OECD countries, Greece has embarked on an ambitious digital transformation of its public sector to make it more effective, sustainable, proactive and people-centred. However, digital transformation projects present challenges in terms of governance, procurement, implementation and institutional capacities. This review explores how Greece could overcome these challenges to ensure that digital government investments address critical bottlenecks such as the procurement process and result in policy coherence, achieve value for money, and deliver intended outcomes. It also highlights the crucial role of whole-of-government co-ordination.

The third in a series of three papers on cross-border government innovation, this paper focuses on hands-on delivery and implementation of cross-border innovation efforts, representing the culmination of the different types of initiatives, structures and mechanisms uncovered in the series of reports. It also discusses how governments are putting in place cross-border enablers to allow for collective design and implementation of innovative policies and services, which can also support all of the topics covered in the series. The paper offers findings based on hundreds of cases in countries as well as research and expertise, and provides lessons and recommendations for successful cross-border collaboration and innovation governance.