OECD Observer
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  • News Brief - October 2008

    UK warned on corruption; Gender gap persists; Tax progress mixed; Economy; News shorts (healthcare, pollution, education, migration); Soundbites; Plus ça change…

    (1591 words)
  • Unequal growth, unequal recession?

    The world has seen recent decades of rapid growth. This has been most obvious in newly-industrialising countries, notably China and India, but has been shared by OECD countries. Yet the fruits of this economic growth have not been equally divided–either between countries or within countries. As it is put in the introduction to a new OECD report, Growing Unequal?, “there is widespread concern that economic growth is not being shared fairly” (page 15, see references). A rising tide does not necessarily raise all boats. Or, to use another liquid metaphor, we cannot rely on trickle-down.

    (1517 words)
  • Irish house price nerves

    Ireland has been the OECD’s fastest growing economy for several years, driven by strong consumer demand, fixed investment and a buoyant global demand in areas like IT, pharmaceuticals and financial services.

    (239 words)
  • Getting the measure of diabetes

    Diabetes has become one of the most serious public health challenges of the 21st century. Over 150 million adults are affected worldwide, with the number expected to double in the next 25 years.

    In 2002, the cost of diabetes in the United States was an estimated $92 billion in medical expenditures and $40 billion in lost productivity, according to the American Diabetes Federation.

    (303 words)
  • ©André Faber

    Femmes d'affaires

    Long ago I gave up trying to break through the so-called “glass ceiling” that has kept women like me out of higher management. Instead I decided to create new enterprises in which management could be reinvented by women. On 8 March 2005, I launched a business incubator devoted exclusively to projects by female entrepreneurs.

    (628 words)
  • ©Reuters/Adnan Abid

    Migration, globalisation and gender:
    Some key lessons

    Just how significant is international migration in the light of other globalisation developments? One obvious starting point for answering the question is to ask how many of the current world population of 6.7 billion people are international migrants, defined as persons living outside their country of birth.

    (1171 words)
  • ©David Rooney

    Infrastructure: Mind the gap

    Ageing, migration, climate change, healthcare, poverty: these all form part of the lengthening list of pressing public policy challenges for the 21st century. But what about infrastructure?

    (1589 words)
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    Pollution: costs of inaction

    Did you know that over three quarters of a million people die prematurely around the world every year because of outdoor air pollution? Many of these deaths and their related costs may be avoided with appropriate environmental policies.

    (839 words)
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    Lower pensions

    Making pension systems financially sustainable in the face of population ageing has obliged governments to carry out reforms. This has meant finding savings, but also lower retirement incomes. According to the latest edition of Pensions at a Glance, most of the OECD countries surveyed saw a decline in benefits as a result of pension reforms, affecting retirement incomes of average earners, but also the poorest pensioners (see graph).

    (232 words)
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    Ageing medics

    Ageing will boost demand for healthcare, but at a time when healthcare professionals are themselves ageing, how can that demand be met? Suppose a scenario with no growth in the demand for doctors in a country, and no migration either.

    (247 words)
  • Medical malpractice: What remedy?

    In October 2006, 16-year-old Lisa Norris died at home in Scotland after receiving 17 overdoses of radiation treatment for a brain tumour. Nearly 200,000 people could be dying each year in the US because of in-hospital medical errors, suggests a 2004 study by healthcare company Health Grades. According to a recent survey conducted for the European Commission by Eurobarometer, four out of five Europeans think that medical error is an important issue in their country, and nearly one in four said that they or a member of their family had been personally affected by clinical mistakes.

    (1671 words)
  • Neglected diseases

    Whole communities in the developing world are being crippled by neglected infectious diseases. Changing the way intellectual property rights are managed is vital for attracting the pharmaceutical investment needed to tackle them. Every eight months a new infectious disease appears, joining the roster of those that already affect one in six people on earth. The vast majority of those infected live in developing nations.

    (1802 words)
  • Limits of GDP

    How happy are you? Economists generally rely on monetary measures like GDP per capita to answer such questions. After all, satisfying wants is a function of what we consume, and so using per capita income as a proxy for well-being makes sense.

    (286 words)
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    Source: OECD Health Data 2006

    Beyond nursing

    Traditionally a male bastion in many countries, the medical profession has seen the proportion of female doctors steadily increasing, accounting now for an average of 38% of all doctors in OECD countries, up from 24% a quarter of a century ago.

    (221 words)
  • ©David Rooney for OECD Observer

    The road to young safety

    Driving a car is a common, everyday activity for adults of all ages. Yet, every year in OECD countries, road crashes kill about 25,000 young people between the ages of 15-24. Can anything be done to stop this waste?

    (1470 words)
  • Health care: Towards quality performance

    The performance of health care systems is under scrutiny. The Health Care Quality Indicator Project can help identify what works and what does not. And that will help policy decisions too.

    (1888 words)
  • Swiss health

    Switzerland’s health system is arguably one of the world’s best, but at what cost? This is a question raised in a new report produced jointly by the OECD and the World Health Organization (WHO).

    (221 words)
  • Source: OECD
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    Unhealthy outlook

    The public cost of health and long-term care in OECD countries will double by 2050 if current trends continue, a new OECD report finds. The rising medical demands of ageing and wealthier populations could send average health costs in the OECD area up from 6.7% of GDP to 12.8%. Even if governments manage to contain that rise, spending would still reach the equivalent of around 10% of GDP by the middle of the century.

    (252 words)
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    Wealthy fun

    Work may drive growth, but for most people, more free time contributes to well-being, as long as it is not accompanied by lower income. Still, one often-heard remark about the gap in economic performance between OECD countries is that US workers may earn more money but they work longer hours, whereas Europeans prefer more leisure to more work, or indeed, more money, and so are better off.

    (241 words)
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    Life values

    Is there a connection between health spending and life expectancy? Not necessarily. As the latest edition of the OECD in Figures 2005 points out, the Japanese have the highest life expectancy in the OECD area, but their health spending, at nearly 8% of GDP, is far from being the highest. The US on the other hand has the highest health spending at some 15%, yet it clocks in at just 22nd when it comes to life expectancy–Americans can nevertheless expect to live past 77. The lowest spender is Korea (5.6% of GDP), with a life expectancy also of 77 years.

    (211 words)
  • Day care for mothers

    Which came first, working mothers or day care centres? More mothers in the workforce generally spur the development of childcare facilities. In this study of four of the wealthier OECD countries–Canada, Finland, Sweden and the UK–where three out of four women between the ages of 25 and 54 hold down jobs, the Swedish experience suggests that without publicly-assisted childcare, the upper limit for female employment would be around 60%.

    (388 words)
  • Literacy: Words count

    Could it be that the revolution in communications technology is reaffirming the pre-eminence of one of civilisation’s oldest tools: the written word? Matters that barely a decade ago would have been dealt with orally by telephone, for instance, now transit via e-mail or text messages.

    (1091 words)
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    Suicide battle

    Suicide rates have fallen in most OECD countries, but have risen sharply in others. The highest rates occur in Hungary, Finland, Japan and Korea, with the lowest in Spain, UK, Italy and Greece. Some 130,000 deaths occurred in OECD countries in 2002. Suicides are up to four times greater among men than women.

    (226 words)
  • Towards active social policies

    Time for a change, was how social affairs ministers summed up their major meeting at the OECD in March–the first in seven years. Rather than merely insuring against misfortune, social policies must become pro-active, stressing investment in people’s capabilities and the realisation of their potential.

    (513 words)
  • Health warning

    The US was the highest per capita drug spender in 2003, at more than US$700 per person, followed by France at just over $600, and Canada and Italy at about $500 each.

    (239 words)
  • Tackling poverty

    “The greatest of evils and the worst of crimes is poverty”. George Bernard Shaw wrote these words in 1907. Today, a century later, his observation is truer than ever, for it is against the backdrop of today’s wealthy OECD countries that the costs of poverty seem both so large and reprehensible.

    (1726 words)
  • Babies and bosses

    Are work and family life compatible? Balancing jobs and family life is a challenge throughout the OECD area, and more effort is needed to make this easier for parents that want to work. Governments can help.

    (1635 words)
  • ©André Faber for the OECD Observer

    The World Social Forum

    The 21st century had just begun when something new came into the world: the World Social Forum, which met for the first time in Porto Alegre, Brazil in 2001, to coincide with the already well-established World Economic Forum in Davos. Since then it has gone from strength to strength and it is now a permanent fixture on the international calendar. What is it about?

    (1273 words)
  • Aart Jan de Geus ©ANP/Benelux Press

    Social policy: What OECD ministers are doing

    Does social policy help or hinder economic growth? Is it possible to reconcile work and family life, or must this be a tough choice that only parents should make? In this OECD Observer roundtable to mark the 2005 social affairs ministerial meeting under the theme, Extending opportunities: How active social policy can benefit us all, we have invited ministers from a cross-section of OECD countries to answer the following questions:

    (2523 words)
  • Mexico's Health Secretary Julio Frenk, who chaired the OECD Health Ministers' Meeting. ©OECD/Jacques Brinon

    Healthcare: An economic driver

    The value of shared learning and mutual understanding: this was a key message of the OECD Health Ministers Meeting last May. The agenda showed the myriad areas where economic analysis can enrich policy design: from quality, efficiency and cost-effective provision, to the economics of prevention and the incentives for innovation.

    (353 words)
  • Female values

    You argue about integrating more women into the workforce to raise productivity, describing them in the same breath as other disadvantaged groups, including the old and the disabled. I wonder how productive all “able” groups are, women or men? Blaming low productivity on those who are not in the workforce seems misplaced in some cases and definitely ignores the economic role of women not in the workforce.

    (234 words)
  • School buses save lives

    Did you know that the biggest killer of children in many OECD countries is road-related crashes? Keeping Children safe in Traffic notes that seatbelts remain one of the most effective crash protection devices ever installed in motor vehicles.

    (472 words)
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    Road safety: Making roads healthy

    Every year, 1.2 million people are killed worldwide as a result of road accidents and up to 50 million more are injured. Most of these are in non-OECD countries, but no one can feel complacent. In Europe, more than 100,000 people die, while a further 2 million people are injured. Road accidents are the principal cause of death for young men under 25.

    (680 words)
  • Can new infectious diseases be stopped? Lessons from SARS and avian influenza

    Infectious diseases can emerge and spread with deadly and debilitating effects. But they can be stopped, as experience from SARS shows.

    (1209 words)
  • Health and the economy: A vital relationship

    Investment in health is not only a desirable, but also an essential priority for most societies. However, our health systems face tough and complex challenges, in part derived from new pressures, such as ageing populations, growing prevalence of chronic illnesses, and intensive use of expensive yet vital health technologies.

    (780 words)
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    Communication Age

    Supermarket bills may seem to be getting ever higher, but OECD people devote a great deal less of their income to buying food, and a huge amount more to transport and communications, than your 17th century ancestors, a new historical look at statistics shows.

    (244 words)
  • Fat tax?

    Is it time for a food tax? Such a levy on high-calorie products, like sweet drinks, fast food and cakes, could be part of a solution to the obesity problem.

    (331 words)
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    Bitter pill

    More new drugs, and with a higher price tag, have pushed pharmaceutical expenditure up in OECD countries in the past decade. The higher cost of drugs has increased the share of the total health budget devoted to pharmaceuticals in most OECD countries, the latest edition of the OECD’s Health at a Glance shows.

    (270 words)
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    Birth rights

    Hospital stays are getting shorter, and concerns are being raised in some OECD countries that mothers are being sent home too soon after giving birth, the latest OECD Health Data shows.

    (271 words)
  • Multilater-ills

    I read with interest secretary-general Donald Johnston’s recent leader (“Multilateralism: Is there a choice?”, OECD Observer No. 237, May 2003, also online). His optimism is inspiring, but I wonder if it is not a bit excessive.

    (316 words)
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    Weighty problem

    Obesity is a growing problem in OECD countries, OECD Health Data 2003 shows. Its prevalence varies from country to country, from a low of 3% of the population in Korea and Japan in 2001, to a high of 31% in the United States in 1999.

    (717 words)
  • Making health systems fitter

    The following is a government health warning: just when you thought your health spending was under control, the cost pressures are likely to start rising again.

    (934 words)
  • Measuring sincerity

    How can we assess the economic and social importance of non-profit groups? Attention is increasingly being turned to measuring and acknowledging the impact of this “third sector”, a huge swath of organisations and activities that both overlap and slide between government and regular business.

    (341 words)
  • Get on your bike

    As the Tour de France celebrates its 100th anniversary, it seems an opportune time to praise the healthy virtues of cycling. In many countries, cycling is firmly established as a standard way of getting around. In Nordic countries, as well as in some British and German towns, cycle lanes are increasingly commonplace, sometimes as part of an integrated park-and-ride scheme with rail or bus. And, of course, bicycles have long been supreme in the Netherlands.

    (488 words)
  • Wanted: renewed partnership to fight infectious disease

    The current concerns about severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) serve as a stern reminder of the potential impact of infectious diseases, bringing home to us the economic as well as the human costs. Since WHO issued its first SARS alert on 12 March, 17 countries have been affected, over 100 people have died and nearly 3,000 people have been infected. The indirect effect of SARS on normal day to day life in affected areas and on the economy of Hong Kong in particular has of course been much wider.

    (394 words)
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    The learning business

    Education is largely a national affair, but it is fast becoming a worldwide service industry too, even for publicly-funded systems. Does trade in education help and can education be traded on the global market without compromising on issues like cultural independence or quality? These questions raise important challenges for governments, educators and students alike that will grow in the years ahead.

    (1633 words)
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    Retiring later makes sense

    Ageing poses a serious challenge to OECD countries, in particular, how to pay for future public pension liabilities. And early retirement places an unsustainable burden on pension financing. There is no easy solution, but delaying retirement could help.

    (1863 words)
  • The rules of globalisation

    Contrary to popular myth, the most serious threat to workers from globalisation is not trade or investment, on which many of our members depend for their livelihoods, but the erosion of the legitimate role of the state, and in particular the effective public regulation of markets.

    (568 words)
  • EST: blueprint for better transport

    Can anything be done to tackle transport problems and steer them to a more manageable level? There has been no shortage of trying. Whether to curb pollution, discourage cars, boost public transport use, or simply reconquer civic space for cyclists and pedestrians, initiatives abound. Yet, the car remains triumphant. Ownership is climbing, and the pressure on local authorities to yield more space to the needs of the car is unyielding. As for aviation, high-speed trains in Europe and Asia show that rail can compete with short-haul flights, but long-haul air trips continue to rise.

    (697 words)
  • Transport troubles

    Transport is a cornerstone of modern civilisation, but at what cost? Heavier than you might think.

    (2346 words)
  • Ageing populations: How the Dutch cope

    Ageing is one of the top challenges our economies face. As the OECD’s baby-boom generation reaches retirement there will be fewer workers for each pensioner and so, a greater strain on funding. The Dutch example is enlightening. It is one of the OECD’s more stable economies and, for many, a model of sound policymaking. Yet even to the Dutch, the ageing question has proven a hard nut to crack.

    (904 words)
  • PISA: The consequences for Germany

    The findings of the OECD Programme for International Student Assessment are alarming. A country with the economic and political significance of Germany belongs at the top of the league and cannot be satisfied with an education system performing at the OECD average level – never mind below it.

    (835 words)
  • FATF initiatives to combat terrorist financing

    Money laundering has always been about concealing the true source of the proceeds of organised crime, such as drug trafficking, corruption and other illicit operations. The heinous events of 11 September also highlighted the need for a comprehensive and bold strategy to prevent and suppress the funding of terrorist activities. The Financial Action Task Force (FATF), an international government organisation, is spearheading this global fight by deploying its expertise in combating money laundering to help deal with terrorist financing.

    (818 words)
  • Education is the key

    There can be no doubt that poverty, which was the scourge of the 20th century, continues to confront us as the pre-eminent challenge of the new century. High mortality rates claim the lives of millions of women and children. This scourge is manifested in the form of diseases, malnutrition, stunted physical and intellectual development, all of which result in grim consequences. One overriding factor is to blame: poverty.

    (1023 words)
  • Mrs Bush speaking to the OECD Forum, 14 May 2002

    Education: The Door of Hope

    Keynote address on education by Mrs Laura Bush, First Lady of the United States

    (288 words)
  • Brain drain - Click bigger

    The brain drain: Old myths, new realities

    In 2000 the British government and the Wolfson Foundation, a research charity, launched a five-year research award that raised little attention outside scientific circles. The £20 million scheme aims to attract the return of Britain’s leading expatriate scientists and the migration of top young researchers to the United Kingdom. That same year under greater media coverage, the US Congress announced it was raising the annual cap on the number of temporary work visas granted to highly skilled professionals under its H1B visa programme, from 115 000 to 195 000 per year until 2003.

    (1663 words)
  • How good is our global education?

    The new PISA survey of student knowledge and skills tells us more than we have ever known about which education systems do well. It reveals some interesting surprises, too. The results may point to a need for improvements to education systems worldwide, though this does not mean a standardised curriculum for all countries.

    (900 words)
  • ©Ruairi O Brien (www.robarchitects.com)

    Road pricing: What's the deal?

    Ever been late for work and blamed the traffic? The likelihood is (assuming the excuse is true) that you were in fact causing the traffic, too. After all, your car forms part of a line and is holding up the car behind. So by definition, we do not just get stuck in traffic, we produce it.

    (1662 words)
  • How healthy is our healthcare?

    Health before wealth is one of the oldest sayings in the book. Yet, while good health is obviously a foundation of human welfare, a lot of wealth is absorbed in its pursuit. OECD countries spend an average of 8-10% of GDP on healthcare. And that amount will rise in the years ahead as cost and demand pressures increase. Who cares, some might say, as long as we are living longer and healthier than ever before? If only the question were that simple.

    This article was originally written as an introduction to a series of articles on healthcare, all of which can be found on http://www.oecdobserver.org/healthcare

    (1173 words)
  • David Rooney

    Measuring up: performance indicators for better healthcare

    Industrial countries spend a large proportion of GDP on healthcare. But how can they be sure they are getting value for money? One way is to use performance indicators, but these can have their drawbacks, as well as their advantages.

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  • Healthcare expenditure : a future in question

    Healthcare costs are rising as patients become more demanding and new technologies spread. The trend is likely to accelerate in coming years as the ageing of the baby-boom generation and lengthening lifetimes cause the number of elderly people in OECD countries to rise sharply. But how much will it cost to take care of this elderly population, and should we adapt public health spending to cope?

    (Page 15  : 1620 words)
  • Private lives

    The right to privacy and medical confidentiality is taken as read in OECD countries. Yet with new genetic technologies, information about a patient can give clues to the health and physical attributes of the patient¡¦s whole family, and even future children. There are calls to improve data performance in healthcare, but are existing data protection systems strong enough to cover these new realities?

    (1116 words)
  • Long term care: a complex challenge

    Long-term care is a particularly thorny issue for healthcare policymakers because it is so intertwined with other areas of public policy, like housing and social security. Yet it is an increasingly important area of healthcare. Quality indicators can help to achieve improvements.

    (Page 27  : 1262 words)
  • What OECD ministers are doing for healthcare

    Citizens in all OECD countries want to know that they will get the high-quality health services they need, when they need them. They also want to know that they are getting value for their money. Governments face the dual challenge of improving healthcare performance and demonstrating that improvement if they are to preserve public confidence in health systems and institutions.

    In the section that follows, five health ministers from OECD countries have been invited to answer a straightforward question:

    “What action are you taking to improve health-service performance in your country and how will you gauge that improvement?”

    (Page 23  : 1788 words)
  • Ethics, medicine, economics and power

    Today’s doctors face a bewildering array of choices and constraints, from technological discovery to increasing budget pressures. Their dilemmas go beyond diagnosis and treatment to weighing the benefits of new discoveries and whether society is willing to pay for them.

    (Page 37  : 1370 words)
  • Drawing by Ruairi O Brien (www.robarchitects.com)

    Can governments influence population growth?

    Fertility levels – the number of children being born to assure the next generation – are generally low in OECD countries. This is a cause of primary concern to governments because it contributes to ageing societies and means fewer taxpayers to fund pensions, health services and so on. Yet, almost a century of policies to encourage larger families has failed to boost birth rates. The case of Sweden may help explain why. (For PDF article with graph, see bottom of article.)

    (Page 35  : 1329 words)
  • David Rooney

    Private insurance, public health

    Health is a public service almost by definition, though private insurance is expected to play a greater financing role. Finding the right balance between public and private health coverage and building the appropriate regulatory framework is an ongoing policy challenge.

    (1311 words)
  • Drawing by Ruairi O Brien (www.robarchitects.com)

    The Dutch model

    With medical professionals and institutions responsible for devising their own separate quality systems, achieving a coherent quality framework for the Netherlands is proving a harder job than many had bargained for.

    (Page 44  : 1020 words)
  • Prepare for the global e-campus

    There has been much talk but precious little action about the coming of “virtual learning”. This might be about to change, although challenges remain.

    (Page 57  : 1428 words)
  • What about the workers?

    Some workers in industrial countries fear that increased trade is bad news for their jobs, but evidence is beginning to emerge that export firms have better working conditions. Since the Battle for Seattle in November 1999, the world has seen a wave of anti-globalisation protests in Washington DC, Prague, Melbourne and more recently Gothenburg and Genoa. Anti-globalisation protestors have expressed concerns about a diverse range of policy issues including the environment, world poverty, multinational corporate strategy and trade policy.

    (Page 38  : 897 words)
  • Sustainability is good business

    Sustainability is good business

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  • Better ways to run the world

    Better ways to run the world

    (Page 33  : 874 words)
  • Does team spirit make economic sense?

    Teamwork is as vital for successful companies as it is for successful football teams. But little attempt has been made to measure its contribution to the economy, or the cost of its absence. Perhaps it is time to pay more attention to this invisible asset.

    (817 words)
  • Improving education

    The knowledge society requires not only a higher level of basic education than in the past, but also new kinds of expertise and reliable means to measure them, OECD education ministers agreed at a two-day meeting in Paris in April. They urged the OECD to develop more educational indicators to measure such elements adult life and progress in achieving the goal of lifelong learning. One key issue is the quality of teaching and the status of the teaching profession.

    (115 words)
  • "Zero immigration is pure fancy"

    Legal immigration may be desirable, but can illegal immigration be controlled or even eliminated? Jean-Pierre Garson, OECD’s expert on international migration, responded to questions from Marc Semo for the French daily, Libération.*

    (788 words)
  • Bullying at school: tackling the problem

    “For two years, Johnny, a quiet 13-year-old, was a human plaything for some of his classmates. The teenagers badgered Johnny for money, forced him to swallow weeds and drink milk mixed with detergent, beat him up in the restroom and tied a string around his neck, leading him around as a ‘pet’. When Johnny’s torturers were interrogated about the bullying, they said they pursued their victim because it was fun.”

    (2037 words)
  • Starting young

    Lifelong learning has to start at a young age and so it does in many OECD countries, with universal enrolment (more than 90%) at five or six years of age in the majority of OECD members. And in some countries virtually all three to four-year- olds are already enrolled in pre-primary or primary programmes.

    (241 words)
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    Lifelong learning for all

    The role of education in contributing to a fairer society has always been double-edged. When successful in widening participation in learning, its contribution is powerful and positive. But too often, it can have the opposite effect of being socially selective, even divisive. Policy strategies need to work with this dual focus – reinforcing inclusion and participation while tackling out-dated forms of selection. In 21st century society, this longstanding equity goal for education takes on new urgency.

    (1277 words)
  • Teacher shortage

    The teaching workforce is ageing. A considerable number of countries already have an old teaching force, with 49% of teachers in upper secondary education in Sweden aged 50 and over. Moreover, recent signs point to a worsening of the situation in several other countries, such as Germany and New Zealand.

    (670 words)
  • How old are new skills?

    New technologies were for a long time confined to specific occupations and sectors of the economy, but they are now in widespread use. They have become an integral part of daily life and are radically changing trade and the development of communications around the world. Individual levels of education and training are also constantly rising. If the knowledge economy is to expand, every individual – not only those in work – will have to be able to use, handle or produce information. Mastering new skills has become a necessity outside the workplace, to watch interactive television, use the Internet or simply withdraw money at a cash point.

    (1130 words)
  • Teaching for tomorrow

    The public education systems woven into the fabric of 20th century welfare states prepared populations to contribute to society and shaped national identity. But the industrial society and the nation state that prompted their existence have had their day, giving way to the new economy and globalisation.

    (1466 words)
  • Online government: a surfer’s guide

    OECD members have embarked on an “e-government revolution”, using new technologies to provide more convenient access to public information, improve the quality of public services and make it easier for citizens to have a say in government.

    (591 words)
  • Teachers need more IT schooling

    Teachers need more training in new technologies but should not be replaced by computer terminals, students from OECD countries told educational policymakers at a meeting in December. The 28 students, aged 17-20, were worried that many teachers were ignorant not only of the technical aspects of the new technologies, but also about how to use them as an effective learning tool. This can lead to tension between self-directed learning using computers at home and activity within school, the students told the meeting, which was one of the first of its kind, set up to get students’ views on new technology in education. The students also raised the question of the quality of the information being provided via new technologies. They said many CD-ROMs cover a subject with great breadth but not depth, and that much time can be wasted searching on the Internet, with no guarantee of the authenticity of the information recovered. And while computers provide enormous learning potential when used wisely, they do not and should not displace books, teachers and basic human interactions.

    (357 words)
  • Digital workplaces, unions and trust

    In 1980s Britain a leading government figure famously told the unemployed to get on their bikes and find a job. By 2000 that quip might have been “get on the Net and start up your dot.com”. During the NASDAQ boom of recent years, the advice made some sense, and getting a job with a new economy star firm was a tantalising option for many. But then came the hype: the business cycle was dead, we were told, and the hierarchical relationships between employees and employers had been flattened forever.

    (570 words)
  • Virtual conferences: a new way to network

    The Internet offers new opportunities to join in international discussions without the

    (795 words)
  • e-Governance: one country’s strategy

    How the British government aims to put the citizen online

    (981 words)
  • Digital lessons for digital policies

    Electronic commerce presents a raft of policy challenges for the international community. Agreement on basic principles for regulation and self-regulation is difficult but essential.

    (988 words)
  • Brain train

    ”You can’t teach an old dog new tricks” is an adage past its prime, or at least that is what neuroscientists are beginning to argue in brain science. As recently as 1997, it was “ generally accepted that formative learning takes place only in the first three years of life. But new research helped by technological breakthroughs show this not to be the case. In fact, the evidence shows that the possible loss of neurons after age 40 can be offset by stimulating the brain regularly. In other words, as with muscles, targeted exercise can bring learning benefits at any time in a life. This brain plasticity, or the capacity for lifelong learning, is an exciting finding for cognitive scientists, and is now just starting to influence educational policymaking.

    (612 words)
  • Ruairi O'Brien

    Literacy in a thousand words

    The US economy may well be the world’s largest, with the country riding a wave of unprecedented growth. Yet 40% of its adult population lack the literacy skills required to participate in today’s complex knowledge economy. Likewise, other leading economies, such as Germany and the United Kingdom, show similar patterns. Should we be concerned?

    (936 words)
  • Sustainable development and governance

    The phrase sustainable development was first coined by the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment in 1972. A friend of mine neatly summarises the case: ‘We should live here on earth as though we were intending to stay for good, not just visit for the weekend.’

    (1079 words)
  • Which model of capitalism?

    Capitalism has won. The key question now is what type of capitalism will prevail? And what are the prospects for a new global model of capitalism, given the rapid globalisation of product and financial markets, and the emergence of new, more homogenous technologies?

    (2177 words)
  • Alternative futures AD 2000-2025

    We start with three facts of world affairs. The first is the interdependence of states – their mutual vulnerability in many domains. Second is globalisation – the many forces that transcend state borders – from epidemics to electronic banking. Third is the pyramid of power – military, economic, political, cultural. At the onset of the 21st century the world is unipolar. It combines a single superpower with successive levels of great, medium, regional, and rising powers.

    (2018 words)
  • Sustainable development and business

    The striking feature of the global drive toward sustainable development is the extent to which the agenda has evolved since the 1992 ‘Earth Summit’ in Rio: at least, certainly the way in which the emphasis has changed. This has important implications and poses new challenges for business.

    (1252 words)
  • Click for larger graph

    2020: a clearer view for the environment

    The destruction of tropical forests, encroaching deserts, dry wastelands, millions more species lost, weather patterns playing havoc, cities choking, water courses trickling and vast dead oceans heaving with oil and other undigestables left behind by the human race. This is an exaggerated and harrowing view of the future and, thankfully, no such scenario for the world’s environment is in prospect, at least not between now and 2020. But is a spoiled planet really as improbable as all that?

    (1729 words)
  • What’s new? Some answers from Ancient Greece

    New economies, new politics, new technologies, new media. New products and services, new software and hardware. New, new, new. . . the modern world is devoted to innovation, the promotion and exploitation of new ideas and discoveries.

    (1559 words)
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