Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development: OECD

GROUP MEMBERS

ARIEL MAHABIRSINGH
RACHEL CADOGAN

BACKGROUND AND HISTORY OF THE OECD

(OECD 2010)
Background
The 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 always smooth one as it has been perceived as “rich man’s club” its members account for approximately three-fifths of the world’s GNI and has faced many calls for its dismantlement (Woodward, Richard 2009). Over the past 50 years, the OECD has become a valuable source of “policy analysis and internationallycomparable statistical, economic and social data.” (USOECD 2014)
MEMBER NATIONS

 
Image showing member nations of the OECD
(OECD 2014)
MISSION
The OECD mission is “to promote policies that will improve sustainable economic growth and development, maximize employment social well-being of people around the world.” (Woodward, 2009)
ORGANISATIONL STRUCTURE
The OECD functions as three tier structure. This is comprised of a Council, a Secretariat and Committees.
The Council, which is at the top, consists of ambassadors from the various member states that are 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 are responsible for research, data collection and analysis. The Secretary General chairs the Council and thereby manages the work of the Secretariat.
The Committees comprise of representatives from various member countries that come together to form groups such as education, environment, trade and investment.
Table 1 showing: the organizational structure of the OECD

(OECD 2014)
ROLE AND FUNCTION
The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development has many key roles. These roles include:
The major functions of the OECD are:

To provide a platform in which governments of member nations can use to find solutions to common problems organize policies and share good practices
To set global standards and principles by monitoring economic trends.
and development policies
To 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. OECD’s 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 economic 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 Publications
The 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 types which include statistics, journals,magazines and papers (OECD 2014)
A couple examples are as followed

Africn Economic Outlook 2014
Health at a Glance Asia/Pacific 2012
Agricultural Policy Monitering and Evaluation 2014

JOURNALS:

Financiaal Market Trends
Competition Law & Policy

OECD Health Statistics
OECD Productivity Statistics
OECD Science, Technology and R&D Statistics

Papers;

Education Indicators in Focus
Trade Policy Papers

(OECD ILIBRARY2014)
Development Projects of the OECD
1. OVERCOMING SCHOOL FAILURE: POLICIES THAT WORK
“This 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 OECD—providing the platform where governments can work together to solutions to common problems and share good practices. This project is both 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 assessment 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 to countries trying to improving
their education policy and practices, in order to achieve reduction in failure and dropout rates. It updates
and fine-tunes policies giving “tailor-made advice on how to design and model their policies, as well as on
how to overcome barriers to implementation”. (OECD 2010)
Table 3 showing: The structure of the OECD Project Overcoming School Failure: Policies That Work

 

(OECD 2010)
2. PROGRAMME FOR INTERNATIONAAL STUDENT ASSESSMENT (PISA)
(Locally)
What is PISA?
PISA is the OCED’s answer to the global call for countries to have a way of comparing the effect of their investments in schooling 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 science across countries, OCED member nations, partner nations and other non-members. (OECD 2014)It addresses the questions of if students are ready for real life future challenges? Are 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 improved
outcomes. As PISA addresses the future questions, the data gathered by this
research helps to shape policy plans by identifying possible future issues. (OECD 2014)
PISA represents a pledge by nations to supervise the outcomes of education
systems through measuring student achievement on a regular basis and within
an internationally agreed common framework. It aims to present a new
foundation for policy dialogue and for partnership in defining and executing
educational goals, in inventive ways that reflect judgments about 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.