OECD countries have agreed to work towards greater gender equality in public life – including in governments, parliaments and judiciaries – with concrete measures to improve women’s access to leadership and decision-making roles and integrate more of a gender perspective into public policies.

Blog article on the complex and multi-dimensional challenges faced by city policy-makers in addressing urban issues at all levels of government.

Blog examining how corruption can have a negative impact on citizens health, and underlines the difficulties of controlling trade networks and examines how illicit trade continues to evolve.

Japan must make revitalising growth its number one priority with reforms to boost productivity and encourage more women and older people into jobs to compensate for its rapidly shrinking labour force, according to the OECD.

Chile has improved its regulatory policy in recent years, but could see benefits from further measures and a comprehensive effort to improve the way it prepares and issues new laws and regulations, according to a new OECD report.

Discussion of progress to enhance regulatory quality and promote inclusive economic growth in the Latin American region.

The world cannot resolve today’s development challenges with purely national approaches. We need to complement them with local approaches, too. We live in an era of enormous transformations, in which our traditional political structures and forms of democratic participation must adapt. That means casting a bigger focus than ever on the important role of local power and communities.

Blog article asks if our democratic processes are more responsive to the rich than they are to the poor and the middle class?

In Hungary, young people want to have bigger families, but concerns over issues like housing and striking a work-life balance appear to be obstacles. In response, the government has introduced a range of family-friendly policies–a vital step in helping families fulfil their dreams and in meeting the challenge of a rapidly ageing population.

The OECD has been selected to co-lead one of the ten policy units contributing Habitat III taking place in Quito, Ecuador from 17-20 October 2016.

Report identifies how cities can become more resilient so that they can absorb, recover and prepare for future shocks (economic, environmental, social & institutional).

Internet access and use is growing in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), but the region needs to move faster in adding broadband infrastructure, expanding access and services and equipping people with the right skills for firms and households to fully benefit, according to a new OECD report.

Mexico has become a frontrunner in a short time in making government data publicly accessible, but it now needs to put this wealth of digital information to use to foster innovation and benefit the Mexican economy and society, according to a new OECD report.

Blog post on how Mexico's commitment to open data is helping to bring a broad range of innovative services to citizens.

To achieve a euro area fiscal stance that fosters the recovery, countries with fiscal space under the Stability and Growth Pact rules should use budgetary support to raise growth, and existing incentives and flexibility should be taken advantage of to pursue reforms of tax and spending policies.

Through measurement, reviews, the identification of good practices and policy dialogue, the OECD seeks to better understand, track and help to improve access to justice.

Online resource to help implement the OECD Recommendation on Public Procurement. This website provides policy tools, country examples and indicators to measure public procurement systems.

This paper investigates the relationship between fiscal decentralisation and economy-wide disposable income inequality.

Governments should rethink city housing, transport and other urban systems to ensure that fast-growing cities do not become inequality traps, according to a new OECD report showing that a majority of cities have higher levels of inequality than the national average.

La inversión pública en Colombia ha aumentado sustancialmente en los últimos años hasta alcanzar casi el 4% del PIB, una cifra superior a la media OCDE de 3.2%. Sin embargo, según indica un nuevo informe de la OCDE, para hacer frente a la brecha en infraestructuras y para superar las desigualdades territoriales será necesario que el país mantenga y amplíe sus esfuerzos en materia de inversión.

OECD will measure the impact of digitalising the Mexican Social Security Institute formalities and guide future efforts on simplification

The Centres of Government meetings review issues on how to make the centre of national government work more effectively. They are held annualy by a member of the network.

The public consultation took place from 1 August to 31 October 2016.

The Regional School of Public Administration (ReSPA) has devoted its 9th Annual Conference to opening direct channels of discussion on experiences, methodologies and innovative practices in the process of optimization of public administration in the Western Balkans.

The effect of the size and mix of public spending on growth and inequality

This paper seeks to identify the conditions under which raising public investment can sustainably lift growth without deteriorating public finances.

Public investment benefits current as well as future generations.

To investigate how public finances could best be designed to promote long-run growth and address inequality, it is essential to have comprehensive, cross-country comparable data on government spending and revenues, along with structural and policy indicators.

This paper reviews the key issues concerning the impact of public spending and taxation on long-run growth and inequality and takes stock of existing theoretical and empirical studies.

An estimated baseline convergence model capturing the long-term effect of human capital and physical investment on potential output for a panel of OECD countries is augmented with public investment and its components.

This paper provides evidence on the effects of the size and the composition of public spending on long-term growth and inequality.

For the last five years the global economy has been in a low-growth trap, with growth disappointingly low and stuck at around 3 per cent per year. Persistent growth shortfalls have weighed on future output expectations and thereby reduced current spending and potential output gains.

Governments in Latin America will need to improve public sector management and capacity – including budget allocation – to compensate for the pressure on public finances from sliding commodity prices, according to a new report by the OECD and Inter-American Development Bank covering more than 15 countries in the region.

The Global Forum provides a unique opportunity for OECD countries to engage with non-members, as well as parliaments, justice institutions, civil society and the business world, to discuss public governance issues and global concerns.

Spending on public administration itself is relatively low and so are indicators of its performance.

Spending on public administration itself is relatively low and so are indicators of its performance.

A roundup of OECD news & events on regional issues - December 2016

Malaysia has sustained over four decades of rapid, inclusive growth, reducing its dependence on agriculture and commodity exports to become a more diversified, modern and open economy.

Malaysia has sustained over four decades of rapid, inclusive growth, reducing its dependence on agriculture and commodity exports to become a more diversified, modern and open economy.

Comments on the draft OECD Best Practice Principles on Stakeholder Engagement in Regulatory Policy are to be sent to regstakeholders@oecd.org by 15 March 2017.

This paper describes the main anti-avoidance rules against international tax planning by multinational enterprises in OECD and G20 countries.

Seminar on Innovations and challenges in the management of a regional policy held in Bratislava, Slovak Republic, 22 February 2017

Forum on competition and regulation: In pursuit of market efficiency

Behavioural economics incorporates behavioural, social and cognitive dimensions into economic thinking, and its practice has grown as economists strive to improve their models, forecasts and policies. Today it is making a measurable difference in policy effectiveness around the world.

Women’s representation in parliaments remains a global issue. In 2016, women constituted 23% of parliamentarians over both upper and lower houses combined, with the Pacific, Arab States and Asia having the lowest representation (16.4%, 18.2%, and 19.2% respectively).

OECD promotes the exchange of experiences and good practices for the improvement of regulation among Latin American countries

Indonesia's fiscal position is generally sound and policy making prudent. However, the country still faces important challenges in terms of economic and social development.

The third version of the Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) Reference Guide provides the most relevant examples, references and resources to help readers inform themselves on key PPP topics.

A Job for Life? The old notion of a safe job in the civil service is profoundly changing - OECD Insights blog by Bill Below.

The Second International Conference on National Urban Policy was held in Paris France on 15-16 May 2017. The conference was a joint initiative of the OECD, UN Habitat and Cities Alliance.