Reports

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.

Subnational governments in Asia and the Pacific are key providers of the public services and infrastructure required to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. Given this role, it is essential that policymakers and development partners understand and support the effective functioning of multi-level governance structures and subnational government finances across the region. This joint OECD-ADB report provides a comprehensive overview of subnational governments across Asia and the Pacific. It covers over 467,000 subnational governments from 26 countries, which represent 53% of the world’s population and 40% of global GDP. On average in 2020, subnational governments in the region accounted for 29% of total public expenditure (8.8% of GDP), 35% of total public revenue (8.5% of GDP) and 38% of public investment (2% of GDP). Harnessing unique data from the 3rd edition of the OECD-UCLG World Observatory on Subnational Government Finance and Investment, the analysis highlights how decentralisation and territorial reforms have reconfigured the structures and finances of subnational governments in the region. It covers a range of topics including fiscal rules, financial management capacity, priority-based budgeting, asset management and the use of public-private partnerships.

This paper examines the contribution of international migrants to regional differences in labour productivity in Australia. The study relies on individual-level administrative wage data from 2011 to 2018. It finds that a region with a 10% larger migrant share has, on average, a 1.3% larger regional wage difference, which indicates a positive link between migration and labour productivity. The presence of migrants benefits native workers with different skill levels residing in all types of regions. The positive effects of migrants are even more pronounced for higher-skilled migrants. Concretely, a region with a 10% larger share of higher-skilled migrants has, on average, a 1% higher regional productivity difference. However, these additional benefits mainly accrue to more productive regions and those with higher migrant shares than the median region.

Located in the state of Western Australia, the Pilbara is a large region and one of the least densely populated within the OECD. The Pilbara's mining sector is a top supplier of iron ore in the world, which has fuelled the economic growth of both the state and the country. While Pilbara’s industrialisation is relatively recent, dating back to the 1960s, First Nations peoples have inhabited the region for approximately 50 000 years. Despite the wealth generated by mining and extractive industries, the Pilbara faces important challenges to improve its attractiveness and well-being standards, especially for First Nations and non-mining workers. Well-being challenges also stifle growth opportunities and responsible mining investments in the region. The green transition presents the Pilbara with an opportunity to diversify its economy and improve well-being conditions of its communities, while becoming a strategic player in the global shift towards more sustainable mining. This study offers guidance on how the Pilbara can shape a more inclusive and sustainable development model that supports economic diversification and prioritises improving the living conditions of its communities, particularly First Nations.

Policies aimed at reducing the environmental impact of human activities have important consequences for labour markets, jobs, and skills. As employment is shifting towards more sustainable activities, workers are increasingly expected to have skills that support the transition to a greener economy. Assessing and anticipating emerging skill needs is crucial to avoid bottlenecks and sustain the green transition. This report sheds light on existing methods to measure changes in skill demand and supply related to the green transition through an in-depth review of practices in five OECD countries (Australia, Austria, France, Norway and Sweden). It also identifies best practice on how to feed information on changing skill needs into policies, notably in the areas of employment, career guidance, education and adult learning.

The New South Wales (Australia) Government is committed to an education system that prepares learners for rewarding lives and lifelong learning. To realise this, the NSW Department of Education (DoE) has initiated several reforms in recent years, including the Local Schools Local Decisions (LSLD) reform (2011) that was replaced by the School Success Model (SSM) reform in 2020. The SSM is a school improvement reform that aimed to deliver high quality, tiered support to all NSW public schools. The SSM also strives for a balance of autonomy and accountability for student improvement across schools by formalising system targets and priorities, among others, through a tailored school support framework.  Realising successful educational change however is complex. The DoE invited the OECD Implementing Education Policies project team to build on lessons from past reforms and receive feedback from the education profession and other stakeholders. Drawing from OECD’s international knowledge base and expertise, this report presents an in-depth assessment and offers concrete recommendations for enhancing the design and implementation of the DoE school improvement and broader education reform agenda.

This report provides a global assessment and outlook on wildfire risk in the context of climate change. It discusses the drivers behind the growing incidence of extreme wildfires and the attribution effect of climate change. It outlines the environmental, social and economic impacts of wildfires by illustrating the losses and costs observed during recent extreme wildfire events. Building on this, the report presents the findings of a cross-country comparative analysis of how countries’ policies and practices have evolved in recent years in light of observed and projected changes in wildfire risk. The analysis draws on in-depth case studies conducted in Australia, Costa Rica, Greece, Portugal and the United States. The report underlines the urgent need for governments to scale up climate change adaptation efforts to limit future wildfire costs.

In the face of what has increasingly been referred to as an ongoing 'permacrisis', governments must cope with and respond to emerging threats while already grappling with longstanding issues such as climate change, digital disruption and low levels of trust. In this context, understanding new approaches and spreading successful ideas has never been more important. To promote this, the OECD Observatory of Public Sector Innovation (OPSI) has analysed 1 084 innovative initiatives from 94 countries to derive and understand novel government practices. The report discusses four key trends: 1) new forms of accountability for a new era of government, 2) new approaches to care, 3) new methods for preserving identities and strengthening equity and 4) new ways of engaging citizens and residents. Ten case studies and dozens of supporting examples illustrate these trends.

About one in ten young people in Australia are neither in employment, education or training (NEET), a factor that may lower their long-term economic prospects and threaten their well-being. Individuals who did not graduate from upper secondary education, who have health limitations, or who are Indigenous are over-represented in this group. Preventative policies and interventions targeted at adolescents in their early- to mid-teens can reduce the share of young people out of employment, education and training. This report explores what is known about the potential preventative impact of educational and pre-employment interventions on later NEET status and presents a range of policies and initiatives from across the OECD that can reduce the NEET probability among key at-risk populations. The report covers interventions to prevent early school leaving and to promote student engagement and motivation; to strengthen career education, career guidance and employer engagement; and to improve the perception of the vocational education and training (VET) system and the learning of VET students. The report also provides recommendations on improving the monitoring and evaluation of youth policies in general and policies to keep young people in employment, education and training in particular.