The OECD LEED Programme launches this "Call for Initiatives" to extract what local authorities and other actors know works, what the new scenario is demanding and how equipped they are to respond. We are interested in learning from the experiences of EU member countries, the wider OECD area as well as other countries.

Sweden should address housing shortages, begin integration activities early, and improve the support for those with low skills to speed up the effective integration of refugees, according to a new OECD report.

When nearly a million Vietnamese “boat people” fled their country in the late 1970s and early 1980s and sought refuge elsewhere, they were typically seen as a burden and often turned away. Eventually, many were allowed to settle in the US. Most arrived speaking little or no English and with few assets or relevant job skills. Yet Vietnamese refugees are now more likely to be employed and have higher incomes than people born in the US.

In 2015 the Lithuanian government launched an ambitious Social Model reform agenda aimed at balancing flexibility of the labour market and security provided through the system of social protection.

In a majority of OECD countries, GDP growth over the past three decades has been associated with growing income disparities.

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

This report has been elaborated by the OECD in very close collaboration with the Portuguese government and, in particular, the Ministry of Labour. A final version was submitted to the government in late December 2016 and it is expected to be released in Lisbon on the 19th of January 2017.

Comprehensive reforms to Portugal’s labour market between 2011 and 2015 have helped create jobs and reduce the country’s high unemployment rate but important challenges remain, according to a new OECD report.

Brazil’s old-age pensions have reduced old-age poverty below OECD levels, but pension expenditures of 8.2% of GDP are expected to rise rapidly as the population ages. A pension reform is necessary to ensure the financial sustainability of the system.

The OECD was invited to assess key elements of the Second Irish Public Service Reform Plan (PSRP 2014-2016), with a view to informing future public service reform efforts in Ireland.

Full and effective implementation of recent reforms, including the Jobs Act and the Good Schools reform, would help boost growth in Italy by improving people’s skills and ensuring their more effective use across the country, according to a new OECD report.

Recent reforms of Italy’s education system (“Buona Scuola”), labour market (“Jobs Act”) and industrial policy (“Industria 4.0”) have clear synergies and could reduce worrying imbalances between the supply and demand of skills on the Italian labour market, according to the new OECD report Getting Skills Right: Italy.

Korea’s economy has progressed rapidly over the past 40 years, catching up with the level of well-being in most OECD countries. It now needs to continue and speed up the reforms of its labour market in order to strengthen its social safety net, create better quality jobs and boost inclusive growth, according to a new OECD report.

Migration flows to OECD countries have dropped slightly for the first time since 2011, with around 5 million new permanent migrants in 2017, down from 5.3 million in 2016. This trend is mainly due to a significant decrease in new asylum applications, with 1.2 million applications in 2017 compared to 1.6 million in 2016, according to a new OECD report.

This report summarises experience of OECD and non-OECD countries with reforming inspections, attempts to present some of the most interesting and successful experiences suggesting that some good practices may be valid beyond the countries where they were initially pioneered.

This report summarises the results of the survey on regulatory enforcement and inspections conducted among OECD countries in 2012. The report draws some general conclusions from this survey and provides theoretical background on the topic. It also suggests some recommendations for organising and reforming inspections.

The Netherlands, as other OECD countries, faces the challenge of providing high quality health and long term care services to an ageing population in a cost-efficient manner.

The Netherlands has strongly benefited from globalisation, which boosted international trade, cross-border investment and economic growth over the latest decades.

This report assesses progress in the implementation of regulatory policy within the MENA region and highlights good practices from Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Mauritania, Morocco, the Palestinian Authority and Tunisia.

The OECD is supporting Malaysia to implement regulatory reforms supporting the country’s economic, social and environmental goals, as well as regional and global competitiveness.

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

Better services trade policy can stimulate inclusive economic growth by promoting access to the information, skills, technology, funding and markets needed for success in an increasingly digital global economy, according to a new OECD report.

Mongolia should persist with systematic reforms in its struggle against corruption, says a new report by the Istanbul Anti-Corruption Action Plan (IAP).

Corruption is one of the primary facilitators of refugee smuggling. In order to fight this crime, and help refugees safely realise their rights, the international community must understand the intricate connections between corruption and refugee smuggling.

21 April 2016, Paris: The OECD will host a High-Level Meeting on boosting the impact of anti-corruption reforms in Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

Countries in Eastern Europe and Central Asia have introduced important anti-corruption reforms in recent years. However, corruption in the region remains high. This report identifies progress achieved as well as challenges which require further action by countries.

Ireland still needs to make substantial progress on key recommendations issued three times since March 2007 by the OECD Working Group on Bribery with regard to improving its domestic criminal law as it applies to bribery by Irish individuals and companies in their international business transactions.

Ukraine has made considerable progress in the area of anti-corruption reform but faces significant challenges to implement some important tools for combating corruption, according to a recent OECD report.

Russia still needs to make substantial progress on key recommendations issued by the OECD Working Group on Bribery in 2012 and 2013.

Mongolia has made significant progress in developing its anti-corruption policy, legislation and institutions over the past few years. However, progress has recently slowed and there are increasing concerns about the future direction and pace of reforms, according to a new OECD report.

Chile must make further progress on key recommendations of the OECD Working Group on Bribery in International Business Transactions, more than three years after its Phase 3 evaluation in March 2014.

Sweden has still not implemented reforms to its Penal Code initially recommended by the OECD Working Group on Bribery in June 2012. Sweden’s legal provisions on corporate liability do not meet the requirements of the OECD Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions.

Ukraine has achieved remarkable progress on anti-corruption reforms since the 2014 Revolution of Dignity. Despite these major achievements, there is a serious risk of backsliding on reforms, according to a new OECD report.

Lithuania has taken significant steps to strengthen its legislative framework to combat foreign bribery. Yet further efforts are needed to ensure effective enforcement of anti-bribery laws with regard to corporate liability and imposing sanctions for foreign bribery, including confiscation, according to a new report by the OECD Working Group on Bribery.

Poland must make urgent progress on carrying out key recommendations of the OECD Working Group on Bribery that remain unimplemented, more than four years after its Phase 3 evaluation in June 2013.

Mexico needs to give more priority to foreign bribery enforcement, having yet to prosecute a case involving the bribery of foreign public officials 19 years after ratifying the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention.

The OECD and the Uzbekistan Government, with the support of the U.S. Department of State Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL), has launched a project to strengthen Uzbekistan’s capacity to fight corruption and boost its implementation of OECD Istanbul Anti-Corruption Action Plan (IAP) recommendations.

Greece needs to look beyond its short-term difficulties and start to prepare for a brighter future. It is at the crossroads, but can succeed, provided that it undertakes and implements relentlessly the right reforms. The reform of education is in fact the key to Greece’s future prosperity.

Denmark should build on the strengths of its vocational and educational training programme to ensure that young people enter the labour market with the skills companies need and to meet the national goal of having 60% of young people enter higher education by 2020, according to a new OECD report.

Flanders builds a "triangle of quality" based on extensive autonomy for schools, supported by pedagogical advisory services and monitored by government inspectors.

In a drive to raise the quality of classroom teaching and boost student performance, Dutch education authorities are encouraging teachers to learn from each other through a process of peer review.

The story of Korean education over the past 50 years is one of remarkable growth and achievement. Korea is one of the top performing countries in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) survey and among those with the highest proportion of young people who have completed upper secondary and tertiary education.

La calidad del sistema educacional de hoy es la base para la prosperidad económica y social del país de mañana.

The Indonesian economy has enjoyed strong and stable growth over the past decade and a half, leading to impressive reductions in poverty and major improvements in living standards. But challenges remain to continue to converge towards higher-income countries, according to the latest OECD Economic Survey of Indonesia.

Structural reforms and income distribution

The end of the mining boom has highlighted the urgent need for Chile to diversify its economy away from commodity-intensive sectors, according to a new OECD report presented by Secretary-General Angel Gurría today.

The Slovak Republic has undertaken a series of reforms to improve its education system, and the country now needs to use resources more efficiently and improve equity and inclusion in schools, according to a new OECD report.

A generation ago, teachers could expect that what they taught would equip their students with the skills needed for the rest of their lives.

If the quality of an education system can never exceed the quality of its teachers, then countries need to do all they can to build a high-quality teaching force.

The Dutch school system is one of the best in the OECD, but raising standards will require further reforms to improve early childhood education, motivate students to excel and develop a career structure that attracts more high performers to the teaching profession, according to a new OECD report.