OECD - Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

Members

The 30 Member States of the OECD are: the USA, Canada, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Korea, Norway, Iceland, Switzerland, Turkey and 19 of the 27 EU Member States (countries that are currently members of the EU but not the OECD: Bulgaria, Romania, Slovenia, Cyprus, Malta and the three Baltic states – Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia). The European Commission also takes part in the OECD’s activities.

Following an OECD Council Resolution in 2007, the accession process was initiated for selected countries. These accession countries are Chile, Estonia, Israel, Russia and Slovenia. 

The emerging countries Brazil, India, Indonesia, China and South Africa (BIICS) have not yet submitted applications for accession to the OECD. A decision made in 2007 by the OECD Council at Ministerial Level was to engage in closer cooperation with the BIICS countries, partly with a view to their future accession. The Council also decided that Southeast Asia is a region of strategic interest for the OECD in terms of attracting new member states.
Programmes for closer cooperation are currently being negotiated between the OECD and the BIICS counties.

By intensifying its dialogue and cooperation with non-members across the world, the OECD is acquiring an increasingly global outlook.

Tasks

At the OECD, government representatives from all member states come together to discuss (and, to a certain extent, coordinate) the entire spectrum of political measures on the basis of comparative analyses. Peer assessments and the mutual exchange of ideas are the OECD’s main instruments for creating policies aimed at achieving the highest possible level of sustainable growth and employment and raising the standard of living.

In May 2007, the OECD Council at Ministerial Level decided to develop an OECD Innovation Strategy. The aim of the strategy is to give the OECD’s Member States a comprehensive, coherent and up-to-date understanding of the wide field of innovation and issue innovation policy recommendations to them. To this end, the Innovation Strategy needs a horizontal and interdisciplinary approach. A final report on the strategy will be presented in 2010.

The BMBF uses the OECD as a forum to actively shift regulations, topics and discussions in research and education policy from the national level to the international debate, obtain scientific corroboration, and then draw conclusions for its national policy-making work.

Education

The establishment of a Directorate for Education in 2002 reflected the increasing importance of education policy within the OECD. The work programme for education-related projects is agreed in the Education Policy Committee (EDPC). The Centre for Education Research and Innovation (CERI) is in charge of a separate work programme for education policy projects which also includes societal and economic aspects. It is governed by the CERI Governing Board.

Through its participation in the relevant bodies, Germany is involved in the drafting and development of the flagship publication of the Directorate for Education: "Education at a Glance".  The BMBF publishes a document that summarizes the most relevant results of this publication for Germany (see Important Information in the 2008 Edition). 

Germany also participates in the PISA study, an international school benchmarking study in which the skills of 15-year-olds are assessed in the key areas of mathematics, reading comprehension and the natural sciences. The OECD’s work attracts great interest in Germany, particularly in the context of the PISA study, and has a significant impact on the German education policy debate at a federal level. It provides the Federal Government, the Länder, and the public at large with important insights that contribute to the efforts to reform the German education system.

Germany is also involved in the preliminary work for a new OECD project for the international assessment of adult competencies (PIAAC). In addition, Germany is represented in a national expert group that is involved (in an advisory capacity) in designing a feasibility study for the international assessment of learning outcomes in higher education (AHELO).

In the area of vocational education and training, Germany was one of six countries to participate in a study on Systemic Innovation in Vocational Education and Training. The aim was to analyse how the participating countries implement innovations in their respective vocational education and training systems, how they involve different stakeholders, and how the results of the innovations are gathered and assessed. All country reports as well as a final comparative report describing the findings of the entire study are to be published in 2009.

Research

The OECD’s Directorate for Science, Technology and Industry develops studies and science policy recommendations in selected areas of national and multinational science policy. The work programme is agreed in the Committee for Scientific and Technological Policy (CSTP), which has established working groups on Science and Technology Indicators (NESTI), Technology and Innovation Policy (TIP), Biotechnology (WPB), Nanotechnology (WPN), Research Institutions and Human Resources (RIHR), and the Global Science Forum (GSF).

Germany is involved in the drafting of the flagship publication –  “Science, Technology and Industry (STI) Outlook” – which is issued every two years. Among other things, the latest edition of the STI Outlook includes:

• An analsysis of the most important global trends and developments in science and research
• A comparative analysis of trends in the national science and innovation policies of the OECD Member States and selected other countries
• Short profiles outlining the strengths and weaknesses of the OECD Member States and selected other countries
• An analysis of the current status of research on the socio-economic impacts of publicly-funded research and development
• An analysis of microdata about innovation in companies 

Germany is involved in a series of OECD projects on science and innovation research within the working groups. One example is the project Open Innovation in Global Networks, which examines research trends in the private sector. These include internationalization and the outsourcing of research and development activities to sub-contractors, customers, and universities. Germany was one of twelve countries to contribute to this project in the form of company case studies, which were drawn up by a national expert.

Current Developments

Germany will participate in the 2009-2010 programme phase of the OECD project Learning for Jobs – The OECD Policy Review of Vocational Education and Training. The project is the result of a decision made in 2005 by the OECD ministers of education to make vocational education and training a priority within the OECD’s activities in the area of education. The aim of the project is to adapt the vocational training systems of the participating countries to the demands of the labour market more effectively. Following the first project phase (late 2007 – late 2008), in which eight countries were assessed, seven further countries (including Germany) will be added in 2009 and 2010.  The results are to be published in 2010 in the form of individual country reports featuring analyses and country-specific recommendations as well as a general comparative report.

The question of how education and training systems should be structured to give them the greatest possible innovative strength is particularly important to the BMBF, as there are still enormous knowledge gaps in this area. That is why Germany is participating in an OECD project that is designed as a joint contribution to the Innovation Strategy by the Directorate for Education and the Directorate for Science, Technology and Industry: the Innovation Strategy for Education and Training. The first aim of the project is to determine what qualifications are necessary for innovations to arise. This will form the basis for the development of new approaches for innovation-friendly education and training policies. The project will also try to find out how education and training systems can themselves become more innovative. As a kick-off event for this project, the OECD and the BMBF jointly held the OECD/Germany Workshop on “Advancing Innovation: Human Resources, Education and Training” on 17 and 18 November 1008 (Summary in German).

Germany has a special interest in questions relating to the governance of multinational research cooperation. In its Internationalization Strategy, the Federal Government reiterated its aim to take advantage of its position in international bodies to support the development and implementation of an international research agenda designed to solve global challenges (e.g. climate, health, security). A long-term international research dialogue will help identify the most important fields of action for global science policy, create institutions, mechanisms and framework conditions for global research collaborations and research infrastructures, and develop scenarios for their implementation.

On Germany’s initiative, the OECD organized a first workshop on the subject of multinational research cooperation to solve global challenges. It took place before the regular autumn meeting of the Committee for Scientific and Technological Policy (CSTP) in October 2008. A second workshop in March 2009 will double as the kick-off event for a more comprehensive OECD project in the 2009-2010 programme phase. The aim of the project is to analyse the effectiveness of existing governance mechanisms for multinational research cooperation in selected areas of global significance (e.g. climate, energy, infectious diseases) and develop new concepts based on promising approaches.