Mexico’s river basins are under severe water stress. The quality of rivers, lakes and aquifers is declining and floods, droughts, and hurricanes are more frequent. These are some of the alerts signaled in OECD’s Making Water Reform Happen in Mexico.

This publication looks at regional innovation in Wallonia, Belgium, by examining the political context, governance issues and the role of innovation in the economy, along with regional innovation strategies to promote growth.

Through the example of Abruzzo, whose capital L’Aquila was destroyed by an earthquake four years ago, a new OECD report recommends policies that can speed the recovery of regions hit by natural disasters, making them more attractive to residents, tourists and investors.

Ireland’s economy is now showing encouraging signs of recovery from the financial crisis, but more must be done to reinvigorate growth and create the jobs that will get the country back to full health, according to the OECD.

The 9th OECD Rural Development Policy Conference in Bologna, on 23-25 October 2013, will launch the publication "Rural-Urban partnerships: an integrated approach to economic development".

Slower growth in key markets like China and India is reducing momentum across the Australian economy, cutting into employment opportunities and putting more pressure on the government to ensure that public policy delivers optimal results for growth and job creation.

LEED and Cedefop organise the second edition of the Green Skills Forum which will bring together experts in innovation, employability and skills development and lessons from work conducted by the OECD, Cedefop, and other organisations on the implications of the green economy for skills development and training policies.

This review addresses the territorial dimension of a range of policy challenges in the Ukraine, including Ukraine's productivity challenge, large inter-regional disparities, and need for decentralisation.

Recommendation of the OECD Council on Effective Public Investment Across Levels of Government

In partnership with the Swedish Public Employment Service, Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions (SALAR), Swedish Ministry of Employment and the World Association of Public Employment Services (WAPES), LEED held the 10th Annual Meeting of the Forum on Partnerships and Local Development in Stockholm 23 April – 25 April, on the theme of ‘job creation just ahead: building adaptable labour markets’.

The Netherlands is gradually emerging from a double-dip recession with strengthened public finances and reforms on track to improve the labour and housing markets and the health care and pension systems. These reforms are paying off, says the OECD. Growth is expected to reach 1% this year and 1.3% in 2015.

Air pollution is costing advanced economies plus China and India an estimated USD 3.5 trillion a year in premature deaths and ill health and the costs will rise without government action to limit vehicle emissions, a new OECD report says.

Life expectancy, air quality, safety and other indicators of well-being can vary dramatically within countries, depending on which region you live in. Looking beyond national averages is vital to get an accurate picture of quality of life and to guide local government policy.

Statistics Working Paper N. 58 - 2014/3 - This paper presents a set of indicators of income inequality and poverty across and within regions for 28 OECD countries. These indicators were produced through a new household-level data collection based on internationally harmonized income definitions undertaken as part of the OECD project on “Measuring regional and local well-being for policymaking”.

Health care use varies widely across countries but can also vary as much or more within countries. Governments should do more to improve their health systems to prevent unnecessary interventions and ensure that everyone has the same access to quality healthcare, wherever they live, according to a new OECD report.

Angel Gurría and Michael R. Bloomberg reaffirmed today their commitment to support international cities’ efforts to lead in the global fight against climate change — and called for national support to make this happen.

Living standards continue to diverge within many economically advanced countries as poorer regions struggle to catch up with richer ones. Half of the 34 OECD countries have seen the income gap between their best-off and worst-off regions widen since the 2008 crisis, according to new OECD research.

The Japan-OECD Policy Forum on Urban Development and Green Growth will address cities’ unique role in creating synergies between environmental and economic objectives to advance green growth. Asian cities in particular are at the centre of this challenge. This event is organised as a commemorative event for the 50th Anniversary of Japan's Accession to the OECD.

Korea has made significant progress towards decentralising the management of employment and training programmes, but can still do more to create stronger links with employers at the local level, according to a new OECD report.

U.S. employers are demanding skilled workforces, but are not always able to find a local supply, says a new OECD study looking at Job Creation and Local Economic Development.

The OECD Port-Cities Programme aims to identify how ports can be assets for urban development. The programme therefore assesses the impact of ports on cities and regions. It also compares policies aimed at increasing positive regional impacts of ports and limiting negative effects.

Mr. Angel Gurría, Secretary-General of the OECD, was in Mexico from 6 to 9 January 2015 on an official visit, to present the OECD 2015 Economic Survey of Mexico alongside Mr. Luis Videgaray, Minister of Finance of Mexico.

Improving Myanmar's agricultural sector by building up food processing activities and related services could help the transformation of the country's economy, to a more modern one able to produce higher-value goods for export, according to a new OECD report.

Italy has significantly improved the quality of health care in recent decades but needs to tackle the wide disparities that remain between regions, according to a new OECD report.

New global trend such as jobless growth, a rising youth population and resource scarcity threaten to undo much of the progress of recent decades in securing people’s ability to make a living, according to a new report by the OECD Development Centre launched in Paris today at the OECD Global Forum on Development.

Local policymakers have a critical role to play in developing more resilient and inclusive economies. This event will explore topics ranging from empowering communities through local leadership to new approaches to local economic growth and catalysing growth through people by better harnessing skills and increasing productivity.

7th annual expert meeting of the initiative on Employment and Skills Strategies in Southeast Asia (ESSSA) and GIZ/ RECOTVET Policy Dialogue - 7-8 October, 2015 - Sokha Angkor Resort, Siem Reap, Cambodia

Improvements in health, access to basic services and housing have contributed most to raising standards of living of Mexicans over the past 15 years but further advances are needed to bring well-being indicators closer to the average of OECD countries, according to a new report.

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.

The webinars enabled serious discussion on the concept of ‘local economic resilience’ in an informal setting that facilitates interaction and questions. The format featured presentations from policy experts and a roundtable discussion with the audience.

The webinars will enable serious discussion on the concept of ‘local economic resilience’ in an informal setting that facilitates interaction and questions. The format will feature presentations from policy experts and a roundtable discussion with the audience.

The new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) include a significant number of interconnected objectives related to agriculture and food.

This event to be held on 21 June 2016 in Lisbon, Portugal, will discuss the preliminary findings of the OECD project "Resilient Cities" and share cities' experience on enhancing resilience.

A three-year programme of co-operation between the European Commission and LEED on self-employment and entrepreneurship in Europe.

The OECD Governance and Territorial Development Directorate has worked closely with United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) on urban development issues. This webpage highlights the complex governance challenges that cities present and offers guidance on how they may be overcome.

The OECD is working with Tunisia to develop a system of subnational indicators.

This high-level meeting will be organised for the first time in the Eurasia region, in Almaty, Kazakhstan. This event creates an opportunity to further strengthen relations between the countries of the region and the OECD and serves as a platform for a discussion on a broad spectrum of thematic issues relevant to further improving the region’s competitiveness.

In advance of the 2024 Paris Olympics, OECD ministers have agreed the first international framework to help design and manage major events in order to maximise their potential to create jobs, boost local development and generate long-term benefits for citizens and the environment.

The OECD Trento Centre organised five sessions within the 2018 Festival of Economics on Technology and Jobs on 1-3 June 2018. OECD and intenational experts along with high level government representatives discussed the impact of new technologies on jobs and its effect on local economies and policies and what regions and regional policy can do to narrow economic gaps and promote productivity catching-up.

The OECD Trento Centre and the Venice office are pleased to announce a call for internship applications. Deadline for applications: Sunday, 19th August 2018 at 23.59 (Italian time).

The OECD is implementing a project to develop recommendations for improving regional development outcomes for regions and cities specialised in mining and extractive industries. The first OECD meeting on Mining Regions was held in Antofagasta, Chile in October 2017. The Second meeting will take place in Darwin Australia on 20-24 November 2018.

The conference will cover developments and the state-of-the art of environmental microbiology, as it is applied for biotechnological purposes, and the role of genetic engineering of micro-organisms intended for use in the environment, now and in the near future.

This communication outlines the achievements made so far by OECD in addressing the human health and environmental safety implications of manufactured nanomaterials

This document provides detailed guidance for both new chemical notifiers and jurisdictions who wish to participate in a “parallel process” which enables a company to declare to all affected countries at the time of first notification that it wants them to cooperate and share information. The hazard assessment is developed by the ‘lead’ jurisdiction and then utilized by other participating jurisdictions.

The new Test Guidelines are: TG 457 and TG 460. The updated Test Guidelines are TG 109, TG 114, TG 229, TG 211, TG 305, TG 455, and TG 405. The corrected Test Guideline is TG 443

Governments and the chemical industry spend millions of dollars every year testing the safety of chemicals that people use in their everyday lives. Computer modelling, through the OECD-designed QSAR Toolbox software, now replaces many of the tests traditionally done in the laboratory. This allows regulators and industry to save money and use fewer animals to predict the hazardous properties of chemicals.

The OECD Environmental Risk Assessment Toolkit describes the work flow for environmental risk assessment and management of chemicals with links to available OECD material relevant for the different steps in risk assessment and management. This new version of the Toolkit is more interactive and has added functionalities. It will be populated with additional tools and case studies in the future.

This document presents the outcomes of the 3rd OECD Biopesticide Seminar, held in 2011, that focused on the topic of “botanicals” (also known as plant extracts). The Seminar reviewed a number of scientific and regulatory issues related to the “characterisation and analyses of botanicals for the use in plant protection products”.

This document includes a table which summarises descriptions of existing models and tools used for exposure assessment, as well as responses to a 2010 survey – conducted by the OECD Task Force on Exposure Assessment - upon which the table was based. The summary table and the responses are also available in the OECD Environmental Risk Assessment Toolkit (http://envriskassessmenttoolkit.oecd.org/).

30/01/2013 –The first update to the third generation of the QSAR Toolbox (version 3.1) has now been released containing improved search functionalities, interface improvement, a new database for observed rat in vivo metabolism; updated auto oxidation and metabolism simulators; updated DNA binding profiler and additional ways of expressing mixtures composition.