Latest Documents

This Public Communication Scan of the United Kingdom, the first such scan of an OECD Member country, brings new insights to the OECD’s work on understanding how public communication contributes to democratic governance. The scan analyses how the United Kingdom’s Government Communication Service (GCS) is building a more effective communication function amid changes to the information ecosystem and how it can help make policymaking more responsive to citizens' needs. The analysis and recommendations in this Scan highlight opportunities for the GCS and the UK Government to align ongoing communication reforms with actions to promote more inclusive and people-centred communication that contributes to greater engagement, improved public trust, and better policy outcomes.

This paper provides a critical review of public sector innovation measurement approaches and related gaps. It explores alternative approaches to measure public sector innovation measurement which respond to different use cases, and paves the way for operationalising a measurement framework for public sector innovation. The paper proposes creating a continuous stocktake of public sector innovation measurement activities in Member countries, improving existing frameworks or creating new frameworks to guide public sector innovation measurement more systematically at country level, and identifying indicators that would be most useful for cross-country comparability.

As countries seek to draw lessons the COVID-19 crisis and increase their future resilience, evaluations are important tools to understand what worked or not, why and for whom. This report builds on the OECD work on 'government evaluations of COVID-19 responses'. It evaluates Belgium’s responses to the pandemic in terms of risk preparedness, crisis management, as well as public health, education, economic and fiscal, and social and labour market policies. Preserving the country’s resilience in the future will require promoting trust in public institutions and whole-of-government approaches to crisis management, reducing inequalities, and preserving the fiscal balance. The findings and recommendations of this report will provide guidance to public authorities in these efforts.

This paper explores the opportunities and challenges linked to a possible use of deliberative democracy processes in Lebanon. It looks at the viability and feasibility of such initiatives, which are not prevalent in the country, by identifying the main impediments to their initiation and implementation, the different formats they could take, and the expected impact. It discusses how deliberative democracy could complement and diversify the democratic tools available to Lebanese actors and thus strengthen citizens’ ability to participate in public life. The aim of the paper is to encourage an initial discussion on this topic, raise awareness about its potential to contribute to democratic governance and respond to the demand of Lebanese actors interested in pursuing deliberative democracy efforts.

The Civic Space Review of Portugal provides an in-depth analysis of the national legal frameworks, policies, institutions, and practices relevant to civic space protection, with an emphasis on harnessing user input to facilitate people-centred public service reforms. The Review assesses three key areas: 1) protecting the civic freedoms and information environment that create the conditions for public service reforms; 2) strengthening stakeholder and citizen participation in the process; and 3) moving towards more inclusive, accessible and people-centred public service design and delivery. The two case studies and concrete recommendations in the review offer a tangible path towards more inclusive, participatory public services that place citizens at their core.

The Government of Australia has made improving gender equality one of its core priorities, recognising the potential social and economic benefits that it can bring. This OECD Review assists Australia in embedding gender considerations in policy and budget decisions. It draws upon best practices across OECD countries and sets out a series of actions to enable the federal government to strengthen gender impact assessments and gender budgeting. This will help target government policy and resources towards better and fairer social and economic outcomes.

Brazil's public governance efforts have been seen as a model for other Latin American countries in areas such as civil service reform, open and digital government. However, in line with regional trends, trust in government and public institutions in Brazil has consistently declined in recent decades, hindering inclusive and sustainable growth, as well as social cohesion. The COVID-19 and other emerging crises have further exacerbated this trend and highlighted the need to strengthen the resilience of public institutions. Brazil is the first country in Latin America to undertake an OECD study on the main drivers of trust in public institutions, as part of a broader effort in building trustworthy relationships between the people and institutions. This report provides novel evidence on Brazilian people’s expectations and evaluation of government’s reliability, responsiveness, openness, integrity and fairness, based on the OECD Trust Survey. Based on this evidence, it identifies opportunities to further enhance trust, including improving the delivery and responsiveness of public services, enhancing foresight, planning, and preparedness to address long-term challenges, and promoting communication and engagement between the government and the people.

The behaviours of both top- and middle-level managers matter for promoting open organisational cultures, mitigating integrity risks and fostering ethical behaviour by their staff. This report examines key issues around integrity leadership in Brazil’s federal public administration, based on an extensive survey of senior public officials. Informed and inspired by behavioural insights, it provides concrete recommendations for strengthening integrity leadership in Brazil.

This policy paper provides an analysis of the new the Portuguese Competence Centre for Planning, Policy and Foresight in Public Administration (PlanAPP) and its functions in Portugal, focusing on strategic planning and networking activities. It analyses the role of PlanAPP in aligning and harmonising the strategic planning process and in ensuring evidence-informed, inclusive and co-ordinated strategic planning, particularly through RePLAN, Portugal’s Public Administration Planning and Foresight Services Network. The paper makes recommendations to help Portugal effectively implement the competency centre model, consolidate its strategic planning process, better define and co-ordinate high-level priorities, and set a path to achieve them effectively and coherently.

Millions of children around the globe experience justice problems and legal needs, which are especially acute for children facing other adversities and disadvantages. To this end, this OECD Child-Friendly Justice Framework supports countries in developing a government-wide strategy to strengthen child-friendly practices in the justice system. Building on the analysis of the legal needs of children and challenges they face when confronting justice problems, this framework provides a basis for child-friendly reforms of justice systems, in line with international standards and obligations. Underpinned by a clear child-centric purpose, the framework provides guidance and good practice examples for (1) designing and delivering child-friendly justice services, (2) establishing the governance enablers and infrastructure to support child-friendly services, (3) empowering children and justice system workers to facilitate child-friendly justice, and (4) planning, monitoring and accountability needed to ensure that child justice reforms are effective and sustained.