Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development: OECD

system for frugal Co-operation and Development OECDGROUP MEMBERSARIEL MAHABIRSINGHRACHEL CADOGANBACKGROUND AND HISTORY OF THE OECD(OECD 2010)BackgroundThe OECD is the replacement organization to the Organization for European Economic Co-operation (OEEC) whose specific purposes was to help the reconstruction of Europe after World War Two. The OECD development was not al courses smooth one as it has been sensed as rich mans club its constituents account for approximately leash-fifths of the worlds GNI and has faced many c completelys for its dismantlement (Woodward, Richard 2009). Over the chivalric 50 years, the OECD has become a valuable source of constitution analysis and internationallycomparable statistical, economic and social data. (USOECD 2014)MEMBER NATIONSImage showing member nations of the OECD(OECD 2014)MISSIONThe OECD mission is to drive policies that will improve sustainable economic growth and development, maximize employment social well-being of tribe around t he world. (Woodward, 2009)ORGANISATIONL STRUCTUREThe OECD functions as three tier structure. This is comprised of a Council, a secretariate and committals.The Council, which is at the top, consists of ambassadors from the discordant member states that argon in charge of establishing goals and policy issues. The Council holds the power of decision making as they handle the oversight and strategic direction of the organisation.The Secretariat is made up of the Secretary General, the deputy Secretaries General and directorates. These include economists, scientists and lawyers and several administrative staff, who argon liable for research, data collection and analysis. The Secretary General chairs the Council and at that placeby manages the work of the Secretariat.The Committees comprise of representatives from various member countries that come together to form groups such as knowledge, environment, trade wind and investment. duck 1 showing the organizational structure of the O ECD(OECD 2014)ROLE AND FUNCTIONThe Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development has many key roles. These roles includeThe major functions of the OECD arTo pop the question a platform in which governments of member nations can use to find solutions to common problems organize policies and share good practicesTo set global standards and principles by monitoring economic trends.and development policiesTo offers the know-how and ideas to over 1000 non-member countries for their development.(Economy Watch 2010)HOW THE OECD DOES IT?The OECD used the wide range of information gathered on various topics to help governments promote prosperity and fight poverty through economic growth and financial stability. They also ensure the environmental implications of economic and social development are taken into account. OECDs work is based on continued monitoring of events in member countries as well as outside OECD area, and includes regular projections of short and medium-term econo mic developments.The OECD Secretariat collects and analyses data, after which committees discuss policy regarding this information, the Council makes decisions, and then governments implement recommendations. (OECD 2014)Table 2 showing The way the OECD works(OECD 2014)Types of PublicationsThe OECD publications fall into three cqtegories Key Publication, which include Factbooks. At a Glance books, Insights, Outlooks, Economic Surveys, OECD Observer, Better Policies Series, OECD Insights and Blogs. They also produce several other(a) types which include statistics, journals,magazines and papers (OECD 2014)A couple examples are as followedBOOKSAfricn Economic Outlook 2014Health at a Glance Asia/Pacific 2012Agricultural insurance Monitering and Evaluation 2014JOURNALSFinanciaal Market TrendsCompetition Law PolicySTATISTICSOECD Health StatisticsOECD productivity StatisticsOECD Science, Technology and RD StatisticsPapersEducation Indicators in FocusTrade Policy Papers(OECD ILIBRARY2014 )Development Projects of the OECD1. OVERCOMING SCHOOL mishap POLICIES THAT WORKThis project is based on the idea that the OECD can provide effective support to countries on how to progress toward fair and inclusive education systems, It offers data on the policies that are successful in reducing school failure, and supports countries in promoting reform.This project directly reflects one of the roles OECDproviding the platform where governments can work together to solutions to common problems and share good practices. This project is both(prenominal) comparative and selective. It offers the breakdown of challenges faced by countries as well as an overview of the different policies implemented across OECD countries that aims at equity in education policies. Countries that are interested can have a targeted national prizement seminar during which the precise situation of the country will be examined. (OECD 2010)The overall aim of this project is to provide assistance and support t o countries trying to improvingtheir education policy and practices, in order to achieve reduction in failure and dropout rates. It updatesand fine-tunes policies giving tailor-made advice on how to design and model their policies, as well as onhow to overcome barriers to implementation. (OECD 2010)Table 3 showing The structure of the OECD Project Overcoming School affliction Policies That Work(OECD 2010)2. PROGRAMME FOR INTERNATIONAAL STUDENT ASSESSMENT (PISA)(Locally)What is PISA?PISA is the OCEDs answer to the global call for countries to have a way of comparing the effect of their investments in educate on the students knowledge and skills. (Oxford University Centre for Educational Assessment. 2011) This is an international assessment that examines educational performances on a common measure that is, reading perception across countries, OCED member nations, partner nations and other non-members. (OECD 2014)It addresses the questions of if students are ready for real living future challenges? be they able to analyze and communicate effectively? Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico, Panama, Peru, Trinidad and Tobago, Uruguay and Venezuela have all participated in this project. (OECD 201)Why PISA?With PISA and other data provided by the OECD together with policy analysis,helps to build more effective and unbiased educational system with improvedoutcomes. As PISA addresses the future questions, the data gathered by thisresearch helps to shape policy plans by identifying possible future issues. (OECD 2014)PISA represents a pledge by nations to supervise the outcomes of educationsystems through measuring student achievement on a regular basis and withinan internationally agreed common framework. It aims to present a pertlyfoundation for policy dialogue and for partnership in defining and executingeducational goals, in inventive ways that reflect judgments active the skills that are relevant to adult life. (OECD, 2009, p.9)PISA is one of the OECD major policy tools this programme has pioneered new and highly collaborative ways in which to measure progress in societies on a global scale. There are many lessons that can be learnt from PISA on how to evaluate learning, the pace of achieving learning goal. Some countries have used their PISA results for a policy discussion indicates the likely pace of progress towards achieving a learning goal.3. THE BETTER LIFE INITIATIVE(Globally)This project is a combination of various OCED works that makes an labor for move beyond GDP as a measure the well being of society, the OCED has pioneered a field of research that focuses on the aspects of life that matter to people and shapes their quality of life. They have identified 11 dimensions as being essential in terms of material living conditions which are income, housing and jobs and quality of life education, community, local environment, governance, health, subjective life satisfaction work/life balance and personal safety.(OE CD 2011) This initiative is measured by the better life indexTable 4 showing The features of measuring well being1(OECD 2011)The Better lifespan Indexes an interactive tool that allows you to see how countries perform according to the importance you give to individually of 11 topics that make for a better life. From a statistical point of view, the Index relies on best practices for building composite indicators. The Index is robust to various methodological assumptions.4. LATIN AMERICA AND CARIBBEAN-OECD INVESTMENT INITIATIVE (Regionally)This Initiative aims to increase the input of private investment to economic and social development.It help improves government policies at three levels (OECD 2010)Table 5 showing How the initiative improves government policiesSuccess and Failure of InitiativesSUCCESSThe Better Life Initiative has been by itself a success, considering that it is a newly introduced program. Out of this came the Better Life Index and Hows Life. The Better Life Inde x which was launched in 2011 is an interactive tool that allows one to assess the performance of countries based on eleven key elements that are important in the development and well being of OECD countries. It has been created in order to involve and deal citizens as they too play a role in the decision making of policies that lead the way to their social well being. The eleven dimensions include Housing, Income, Jobs, Community, Education, Environment, Governance, Health, Life Satisfaction, Safety and Work Life Balance.. Each flower represents one country. Each petal represents one of the eleven dimensions. The length of the petal represents the countrys score in a topic and the width represents the importance of thetopic(OECD 2011)Table 6 showing How the better life index works(OECD 2012)FAILUREPISA Program for International Student Assessment is an international evaluation that measures fifteen year old students performance in areas such as reading, maths and science literacy. It was first administered in 2000 and this is when Finlands education system became involved.Finland has been the world leader in education however recent assessments have shown that they are no prolonged at the top as results have declined since the mid 2000s. PISA has driven the improvement in the beginning, however recent trends have changed. The involvement of PISA has therefore become a question in the education system. Some argue that it has encouraged the altering of teaching styles, curricula and grading schemes to make students well adapted to the program.It is established that while PISA has highly-developed the Finnish education system in the early 2000s it has also done some harm and produced minor downfalls. It has been proven to be an expensive way of handling the students who are left behind. These students sometimes become school drop outs or prolong their period of stay in order to successfully complete school. This therefore incurs additional costs on the governm ents.A second major issue is the gender differences in various areas of study. An example of this is in mathematics where girls are less motivated to learn and perform. This also ties in with the fact that girls are underrepresented in certain career fields such as plan and computer science. This then widens the gap in education and so places more emphasis on one side, kinda than an equal and fair system.(Strauss, 2013)Table 7 showing PISA resultsPerception and Responses to the InstitutionPUBLIC PERCEPTONPositive Perception The OECD is seen as an organization with a bright future because it is forward thinking, one of the best in analysis and policy advice. It is seen as an essential international organization that provides a place for interstate consensus and cooperation bringing nations with similar challenges of globalization and sustainable development together. (Julin 2003) The OECD is perceived as being useful with their data since in some instances has improved policies and strategies when used to implement internal measures, (Asia Society. 2014)Negative PerceptionMr. Paul Krugman is of the view that the OECD in the wake of soaring unemployment rates and low inflation have consistently called for policies that would depress advanced economies even more. He believes the OECD often makes recommendations without a rigid application program of conventional economic models. (Krugman 2013)Some believe other institutions such as the World Bank and the World Economic Forum have become competitors the OECD and are actually outperforming them in issues that were once considered OECD turf. They believed that the OECD is outperformed due to the way in which they operate -extremely slow- making the organization seem powerless to pushing burning problems to the top of their agenda. Because of this, there is the perception that the OECD is not a key player in dealing with the issues of globalization and sustainable development. (Julin 2003)CIVIL SOCIETY AND NGOS PE RCEPTIONThe OECD has been savory with civil society since its inception. For many years the civil societies, especially those whose focus is on business and labour sectors through the Business and Industry Advisory Committee (BIAC) and the Trade Union Advisory Committee (TUAC) has had a positive response to the OECD since the OECD has increasingly engaged in formal dialogues with them. (Global Policy Forum 2003)On the other hand, some civil organizations a NGOS view the OECD as a servant of developed country interests, sometimes even as an adversary, rather than a partner, in globalization and sustainable development Civil societies especially criticize the OECD for their lack of openness to membership to nations other than European and a few rich non-European nations (Julin 2003) especially since the dialogue with these other interests are usually informal..ReferencesAsia Society. 2014. What is PISA and Why Does it Matter?Accessed phratry 22, 2014.http//asiasociety.org/education/ learning-world/what-pisa-and-why-does-it-matterEconomy Watch. 2010. Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. Accessed family line 15, 2014.http//www.economywatch.com/international-organizations/organization-of-economic-cooperation-and-development.htmlFriends of the hold in group on broader measures of progress. 2014. Some national, regional and international efforts andpractices in the measurement of sustainable development and human well-being. Friends of the Chair group on broader measures of progress.Global Policy Forum 2003. NGOs and the OECD. Accessed September 22, 2014https//www.globalpolicy.org/component/content/article/177/31572.html,Julin, Jorma. 2003. The OECD Securing the future OECD Observer, December. Accessed September 22, 2014http//www.oecdobserver.org/news/archivestory.php/aid/1197/The_OECD_Securing_the_future.htmlKrugman, Paul. 2013. Uncertain at the OECD. The New York Times. September 12, Accessed September 22, 2014http//krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/20 13/09/12/uncertain-at-the-oecd/?_php=true_type=blogs_r=0OECD 2010, Active with Latin America and Caribbean. Accessed September 28, 2014.http//www.oecd.org/globalrelations/Latin_America_2013_GB.pdfOECD 2010, Latin America and Caribbean Conference on investment for jobs and development, Santiago, Chile, 27-28September 2010 Accessed September 28, 2014 http//www.oecd.org/daf/inv/investment-policy/latinamericaandcaribbeanconferenceoninvestmentforjobsanddevelopmentsantiagochile27-28september2010.htmOECD 2011. Hows Life? criterion well-being, OECD Publishing Accessed September 18,2014http//dx.doi.org.10.1787/9789264121164-enOECD 2011. Latin America and Caribbean Conference on investing in infrastructure for jobs and development AccessedSeptember 28, http//www.oecd.org/daf/inv/investment-policy/latinamericaandcaribbeanconferenceoninvestingininfrastructureforjobsanddevelopment.htmOECD. 2011. OECD Launches Your Better Life Index. Accessed September 20, 2014.http//www.oecd.org/ global/oecdlau nchesyourbetterlifeindex.htmOECD 2012. Latin America and Caribbean Conference on international value chains Accessed September 28, 2014.http//www.oecd.org/daf/inv/investment-policy/conferenceonglobalvalue-chainsandcompetitiveness.htmOECD. 2014. About PISA Accessed September 19, 2014. http//www.oecd.org/pisa/aboutpisa/pisafaq.htmOECD. 2014. History.Accessed September 15, 2014 http//www.oecd.org/about/history/.OECD. 2014. Members and Partners. Accessed September 18, 2014 http//www.oecd.org/about/membersandpartners/OECD. 2014.Latin America and Caribbean Conference on infrastructure investment Accessed September 28,, 2014.http//www.oecd.org/countries/peru/lac-2014-infrastructure-conference.htmOECD. OECDiLibrary. Accessed September 17, 2014.http//www.oecd-ilibrary.org/booksjsessionid=2pk5e0rnb7ls8.x-oecd-live-02OECD. 2014. Who Does What? Accessed September 20 2014http//www.oecd.org/about/whodoeswhat/OECD. 2014. OECD Publishing http//www.oecd.org/about/publishing/OECD ILIBRARY. 2014 Acces sed September 20, 2014. http//www.oecd-ilibrary.org/Oxford University Centre for Educational Assessment. 2011. POLICY EFFECTS OF PISA Accessed September 18 2014http//oucea.education.ox.ac.uk/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Policy-Effects-of-PISA-OUCEA.pdfOECD/AfDB/UNDP(2014),African Economic Outlook 2014 Global Value Chains and Africas Industrialisation, OECDPublishing. Accessed September 21, 2014. http//www.oecd-ilibrary.org/development/african-economic-outlook_19991029Strauss, Valerie. 2013. Are Finlands vaunted schools slipping? The Washington Post , December 3. Accessed September8, 2014. http//www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/12/03/are-finlands-vaunted-schools-slipping/United States OECD. 2014. What is the OECD? Accessed September 22, 2014.http//usoecd.usmission.gov/mission/overview.htmlWoodward, Richard. 2009. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Global Institutions, Taylor Francis. Accessed September 15, 201 4http//books.goo gle.tt/books?id=F61_AgAAQBAJpg=PR1lpg=PR1dq=why+is+the+oecd+dismissed+as+a+rich+mans+clubsource=blots=DTD0vhbGIHsig=3s8GpUJXJRm4icRfN8rmkprI5qAhl=ensa=Xei=g8ciVNqSK8eQgwTn7YHQAQredir_esc=yv=twopageqf=false1