Headlines: 2013 Green Growth and Sustainable Development Forum, 5-6 December 2013; In Focus: Water – International Year of Water, World Water Week and the OECD's Work on Water; Promoting Green Investment in Costa Rica; Promoting Green Growth in Brandenburg; Making Growth Green and Inclusive – The Case of Cambodia; Latest publications and key upcoming events.

New international rules on state financing of rail exports will boost the development of cleaner transportation infrastructure and help countries meet green growth objectives, the OECD said.

In his remarks to the Business & Climate Summit, the Secretary-General said that business lies at the heart of what we need to achieve on climate action. If Governments produce clear, credible and coherent national policies and clear messages and signals, the full transformative power of business, markets and human ingenuity will be unleashed.

“Neither economists nor market participants, nor indeed governments foresaw a financial crisis of the type and magnitude we have now. The collapse of trust and subsequent credit freeze in the wake of the Lehman Brothers collapse was a shock.”

Economic and social reforms over the past two decades have enabled Peru to significantly improve growth and well-being while raising incomes and reducing poverty.

The Paris Agreement is an unprecedented achievement in the fight against climate change. A record number of countries came together, first in the French capital for the COP21 conference in November-December 2015 and then formally to sign the agreement at the UN on 22 April 2016, to ensure that future generations enjoy a stable, healthy and habitable world.

Despite a challenging global environment, the growth prospects of Emerging Asia (Southeast Asia, China and India) remain robust over the medium term, according to the latest edition of the OECD Development Centre’s Economic Outlook for Southeast Asia, China and India.

Read our latest December edition and all previous issues of the newsletter. The December issue draws your attention to the OECD work on Mainstreaming Biodiversity, highlights recent Green Growth news such as the launch of GGKP’s BIG-E Database and Georgia’s adherence to the OECD Green Growth Declaration. It also highlights the OECD’s most recent publications.

Skoda Auto, part of the Volkswagen Group, today launched a souped-up version of its most successful sedan the Rapid with new looks at a price range of Rs.8.34 lakh to Rs.12.78 lakh.

Buying a home?whether on loan or with earnings or from your retirement accounts?is one of all the nicest things that a person does in his/her life.

Porsche India on Tuesday launched its new sports utility vehicle (SUV) Porsche Macan, with a basic retail price of Rs.76,84,000 (ex-showroom Maharashtra).

OECD Secretary General Angel Gurría welcomes the initiative of President Francois Hollande and Chancellor Angela Merkel to put forward a structural and ambitious response to the current refugee crisis.

The digital revolution, globalisation and demographic changes are transforming labour markets at a time when policy makers are also struggling with slow productivity and wage growth and high levels of income inequality. The new OECD Jobs Strategy provides a comprehensive framework and policy recommendations to help countries address these challenges.

The Institute for Competitiveness India, the National Skill Development Corporation India and the OECD LEED Programme in collaboration with the ILO are joining forces to discuss local skills strategies for job-rich and inclusive growth in India.

The OECD LEED Delivering Local Development work stream examines the local and regional framework conditions and instruments for intervention to achieve successful local economic development in participating countries and localities. It covers strategic themes encompassing finance and investment, building the knowledge base, delivery vehicles and economic strategies (including the local development impacts from global events).

The OECD Secretary-General, Angel Gurria, congratulates Prime Minister Renzi on the passing by the Italian Senate of a bill enabling the government to elaborate a comprehensive reform of the labour market – the so-called Jobs Act.

Health and employment services should intervene earlier, involve key stakeholders and ensure they work together in order to help people with mental-health issues find work and stay in a job, according to a new OECD report.

At 75%, the employment rate in New Zealand is the third highest among OECD countries and has been only marginally affected by the recent economic crisis.

In 2010, the G20 called for the development of a set of internationally comparable indicators of skills for employment and productivity for Low-Income Countries (LIC) as part of its Multi-Year Action Plan on Development. To respond to this call, the OECD has established the World Indicators of Skills for Employment (WISE) database in close collaboration with the World Bank, ETF, ILO and UNESCO

The OECD and the Italian government are stepping up cooperation to ensure effective implementation of local development strategies to boost jobs, encourage entrepreneurship and increase social inclusion. An agreement, to be signed in Rome on 1 December 2015, will renew the mandate of the OECD Trento Centre for Local Development and establish a satellite office in Venice.

Good pay, labour market security and a decent working environment can go hand in hand with high employment, according to new OECD findings on the quality of jobs in 45 countries.

Openness to change and a continuous questioning of the way we work are the keys to being prepared for the Future of Work. This advice comes from Mark Keese, Head of the Employment Analysis and Policy Division at the OECD, and we catch up with Mark following the OECD's Future of Work Forum in January 2016.

Today the OECD is launching a new project with JP Morgan and Chase Foundation to measure and analyse skills needs in a harmonized way across countries. Experts from various countries and fields of discipline are meeting at the OECD to discuss methodological issues involved in developing a cross-country indicator of skill needs. By informing policy, this new data tool will make strides towards addressing skill shortages.

This document describes and discusses a new supply side framework that quantifies the impact of structural reforms on per capita income in OECD countries.

New Zealand should extend access to income support and introduce a longer minimum notice period for all workers to help disadvantaged laid-off workers find a new job and maintain their job quality and living standards, according to a new OECD report.

The talk of the town this year has truly been the so-called fourth industrial revolution–and rightly so. Digitalisation causes an increasing interconnectivity of people, production and processes. Combined with the rapid development in artificial intelligence, self-learning machines and robot technology it heralds a new time of revolutionary technological progress.

The German Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs and the OECD are jointly organising a High-Level Policy Forum on the New Jobs Strategy which will take place on 13 June 2017 in Berlin. The Forum will be hosted by Minister Andrea Nahles together with Secretary-General Angel Gurría.

One of the most persistent barriers to women’s success at work and to economic growth, unequal pay, will be actively challenged by a new global partnership, the Equal Pay International Coalition (EPIC).

New well-being data released today expose deep divisions in our society along fault lines of age, wealth, gender and education. The OECD’s latest How’s Life? report shows that while some aspects of well-being have improved since 2005, too many people are unable to share the benefits of the modest recovery that is underway in many OECD countries.

The tramitesmetepec.mx website organises formalities by “life events”, facilitating the search of information for citizens and entrepreneurs, and reducing the cost of regulatory compliance.

Rapid population growth, ageing infrastructure and new weather risks are straining the ability of cities in OECD countries to provide clean water and to protect against floods and droughts, according to a new OECD report. Cities will need large-scale investment and more effective tariffs and taxes to pay for upgrades to water systems.

This document describes and discusses a new supply side framework that quantifies the impact of structural reforms on per capita income in OECD countries.

The OECD Working Group on Bribery has designated Slovenian national Drago Kos to serve as the Group’s new Chair.

New Zealand must significantly increase its efforts to detect, investigate and prosecute foreign bribery. Since joining the Convention over 12 years ago, New Zealand has not prosecuted any cases of foreign bribery and only four allegations have surfaced to date. Outdated perceptions that New Zealand individuals and companies do not bribe may have also undermined detection efforts.

Most international bribes are paid by large companies, usually with the knowledge of senior management, according to new OECD analysis of the cost of foreign bribery and corruption.

Widespread corruption was one of the main reasons that led to the change of the political regime in Ukraine in 2014. The new administration pledged to fight corruption, a challenging task in the current context of the economic crisis and military conflict in the East of the country.

New international guidance on fighting corruption in the development sector goes into effect today, backed by more than 40 countries, with progress on agreed recommendations to be monitored by the OECD Working Group on Bribery.

29/03/2018 - The OECD Working Party on Responsible Business Conduct is seeking candidates for a new Chairs to assist in implementing and promoting the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises.

Korea tops a new OECD PISA survey that tests how 15-year olds use computers and the Internet to learn. The next best performers were New Zealand, Australia, Japan, Hong-Kong China and Iceland.

OECD Education Newsletter

03/04/2013 – The OECD has developed a new tool to help individual schools benchmark their students’ proficiency in reading, mathematics and science against the world’s top education systems. It will also give educators an insight into the learning environments at schools so they can consider ways to improve student learning.

30/05/2013 - OECD governments have committed to stepping up their efforts to tackle high youth unemployment and strengthen their education systems to better prepare young people for the world of work.

In most OECD countries, newly arrived 15-year-old immigrant students show poorer reading performance than immigrant students who arrived in their new country when they were younger than five.

The three questions that this Summit will focus on are: How can high quality teachers and leaders be attracted into and retained in schools of the greatest need? What are the levers for achieving equity in increasingly devolved education systems? How are learning environments created that meet the needs of all children and young people?

PISA 2012 financial literacy results focusing on the performance of Spain amongst 17 other countries and economies who participated in the assessment: Australia, Belgium (Flemish Community), Shanghai-China, Colombia, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, France, Israel, Italy, Latvia, New Zealand, Poland, Russia, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, and the United States

ICT has influenced almost all aspects of our lives and has changed the way we communicate, work and socialize. Education plays a key role in ensuring that everyone can reap the benefits of our technology-rich world, as well as help mitigate some of the risks.

This report offers a broader view of teachers and school principals across all levels of compulsory education, and all the similarities and differences in the issues they are facing.

In many countries, less experienced teachers (those with less than five years’ teaching experience) are more likely to work in challenging schools and less likely to report confidence in their teaching abilities than more experienced teachers.

Bringing you the highlights from the OECD Directorate for Education and Skills

When we think of technology and education, we usually think of information and communication technologies (ICTs).