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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.

The rapid acceleration in the pace of AI innovation in recent years and the advent of content generating capabilities (Generative AI or GenAI) have increased interest in AI innovation in finance, in part due to the user-friendliness and intuitive interface of GenAI tools. The use of AI in financial markets involving full end-to-end automation without any human intervention remains largely at development phase, but its wider deployment could amplify risks already present in financial markets and give rise to new challenges. This paper presents recent evolutions in AI in finance and potential risks and discusses whether policy makers may need to reinforce policies and strengthen protection against these risks.

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.

While Central Asia has proven relatively resilient to the shocks of COVID-19, China’s slowdown and Russia’s war in Ukraine, declining trend rates of growth across the region, lacklustre productivity performance and lingering global uncertainty underscore the need to address weaknesses in the business and investment climate. The implementation of predictable rules, the creation of a level-playing field between firms and greater competition in markets, in particular, could encourage both local entrepreneurs and foreign investors to invest and grow in the region. This report presents an assessment of progress since the 2019-2020 analysis of the legal environment for business and investment in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan against the backdrop of the changing international context brought about by COVID and the war.

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.

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.

Ireland is highly centralised and fast growing, creating co-ordination challenges in terms of delivering key investments and in key policy areas like transport, housing and education. Actors across levels of government recognise a need for a more coordinated approach to the delivery of the National Planning Framework, the principal spatial planning strategy of Project Ireland 2040, which includes also the National Development Plan (public investment).The report has three objectives which ultimately aim to support more balanced regional outcomes in Ireland: i) to clarify the gaps in terms of regional attractiveness across and within Ireland’s regions, including in terms of population and investment attraction; ii) to assess the ability for the National Planning Framework – in its current form – to address these gaps, and iii) to consider what multi-level governance reforms and attractiveness policies can be introduced or scaled to generate more territorially-balanced development.

Global warming is likely to reach 1.5°C as early as in 2030, with current climate action falling short of meeting the Paris Agreement goals and a mounting risk of tipping beyond the ability of human societies to adapt. Building on broader OECD work on climate, this report proposes a new OECD territorial climate indicator framework and demonstrates that the potential to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions, adapt to climate impacts and address vulnerabilities varies across different territories. The report also presents a policy framework of 9 recommended actions to help decision makers unleash more effective climate action and resilience, both by integrating a territorial approach into national and subnational climate policies and by mainstreaming climate objectives into urban, rural and regional policies. The report summarises the analysis into a checklist for national and local governments to implement a territorial approach to climate and resilience policies, as well as a compendium of 36 best practices from cities, regions and countries from all around the world.