Improvements in health, access to basic services and housing have contributed most to raising standards of living of Mexicans over the past 15 years but further advances are needed to bring well-being indicators closer to the average of OECD countries, according to a new report.

The FAO, OECD and UNCDF launched a joint multi-year initiative to assess Food Security and Nutrition (FSN) policies from a territorial perspective. This joint initiative will assess, scale up, and pilot innovative policy approaches and governance mechanisms to improve food security and nutrition in rural areas, in both emerging and developing countries.

We are looking for national and sub-national policies and initiatives for social enterprise creation and development. The focus will be placed on initiatives funded by the European Social Fund, by other EU funds and programmes, by Member States and sub-national authorities and NOT on examples of successful social enterprises.

The OECD and the Italian government are stepping up cooperation to ensure effective implementation of local development strategies to boost jobs, encourage entrepreneurship and increase social inclusion. An agreement, to be signed in Rome on 1 December 2015, will renew the mandate of the OECD Trento Centre for Local Development and establish a satellite office in Venice.

The webinars enabled serious discussion on the concept of ‘local economic resilience’ in an informal setting that facilitates interaction and questions. The format featured presentations from policy experts and a roundtable discussion with the audience.

The Regional Development Policy Division was honoured to have been selected by the Regional Studies Association (RSA) to receive the Institutional Ambassador Award 2015 on 18 November. The award is in recognition of the high calibre of reports and measurement tools produced by the Regional Development Policy Committee and its supporting Working Parties.

The project will identify the policy levers and instruments that can be helpful in the design of strategies to accompany the transition to older local labour markets, and identify how national policy frameworks can best support these transformations.

The webinars will enable serious discussion on the concept of ‘local economic resilience’ in an informal setting that facilitates interaction and questions. The format will feature presentations from policy experts and a roundtable discussion with the audience.

The World of Public Employment Services provides systematic and comparative information to help understand the development of PES around the world as well as the challenges and opportunities they face today. This book is the most comprehensive analysis undertaken to date of the current situation and development of PESs, covering 73 organizations on all continents.

The tourism industry in OECD countries continues to grow strongly despite economic weakness in advanced economies, and outperformed tourism globally in 2014. However, active, innovative and integrated policies are needed to ensure that tourism remains a competitive and sustainable sector, says OECD.

Mayors from cities across the United States, Asia, Europe, Africa and Latin America gathered in New York to launch a global campaign to address rising inequalities and foster inclusive growth in their cities, in their countries and worldwide.

The OECD will convene the 2016 edition of its Global Forum on Development on the theme of "From Commitment to Actual Implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): Policies, data and financing", on 31 March 2016 in Paris.

The new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) include a significant number of interconnected objectives related to agriculture and food.

Japan must make revitalising growth its number one priority with reforms to boost productivity and encourage more women and older people into jobs to compensate for its rapidly shrinking labour force, according to the OECD.

This year the Forum will focus on creativity, jobs and local development. We will examine how localities can support culture and creative industries as a source of knowledge and job creation and how the creative industry can act as a powerful driving force areas such as tourism, urban regeneration, and social inclusion.

Not so long ago, “globalisation” was a favourite paradigm in international business. It was a trend that began in the late 1970s and accelerated in the 1980s, when corporate takeovers were the order of the day and multinational companies fixated on maximising short-term profits and boosting share prices. One approach was “global sourcing”, also called outsourcing or offshoring.

The world cannot resolve today’s development challenges with purely national approaches. We need to complement them with local approaches, too. We live in an era of enormous transformations, in which our traditional political structures and forms of democratic participation must adapt. That means casting a bigger focus than ever on the important role of local power and communities.

This event to be held on 21 June 2016 in Lisbon, Portugal, will discuss the preliminary findings of the OECD project "Resilient Cities" and share cities' experience on enhancing resilience.

This document presents draft principles for leveraging local benefits from global sporting events. These draft principles have been prepared as part of a project on optimising the local benefits from hosting the EURO 2016. They build upon previous work on Local Development Benefits from Staging Global Events.

This year London’s population overtook its historical high of 8.6 million reached at the outset of the Second World War, bucking the trend of many European and North American cities, which have experienced only slight, or even negative, growth.

The OECD has been selected to co-lead one of the ten policy units contributing Habitat III taking place in Quito, Ecuador from 17-20 October 2016.

The purpose of the seminar is to provide the practical information about how to implement SIBs in Poland using international experiences. The seminar is addressed to the potential applicants interested in the implementation of SIB within the call for proposals planned to be launched by the Ministry of Economic Development.

A three-year programme of co-operation between the European Commission and LEED on self-employment and entrepreneurship in Europe.

This study provides an empirical analysis of the effects of environmental zoning on urban development. It focuses on the case of Natural Regional Parks (NRPs) in France. Of the environmental zoning instruments used in France, NRPs extend over the widest physical area. Three potential side-effects of NRPs on urban development in the regulated area are investigated.

Imagine you have an important decision to make. Do you carefully consider the long-term implications of each possible option or do you act impulsively? Would you approach the decision-making process differently if the consequences stretched out to 30 or even 50 years?

The 2016 Forum will discuss the opportunities and challenges of the urbanisation process in Africa, looking into how to address informality in urban areas, the role of cities as drivers of economic transformation, and innovative ways to provide adequate and predictable financing for local governments and municipalities.

The global challenges of poverty eradication, environmental sustainability, climate change, and sustainable and secure energy are all intimately linked to cities, which are simultaneously places where these global problems emerge and solutions can be found. Blog by Ricardo Herranz, Nommon Solutions and Technologies, Madrid.

The OECD Governance and Territorial Development Directorate has worked closely with United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) on urban development issues. This webpage highlights the complex governance challenges that cities present and offers guidance on how they may be overcome.

A snapshot of current and future challenges in urban development and how they are impacting on human development, well-being, and public governance systems worldwide.

This year's Green Growth and Sustainable Development Forum (GGSD Forum) focuses on the theme “Urban green growth, spatial planning and land-use”. Land use and spatial planning policies have implications for both the environment and the economy. Overall, consideration will be given to the potential for regional, rural and urban policy to contribute to green growth.

The OECD, the City of Paris and the Ford Foundation will host its second meeting in the fight against rising inequality in cities. The event will include sessions open to the public, drawing Mayors, business leaders, experts and policy makers, in addition to thematic workshops where our Champion Mayor will take to the stage to discuss subjects from affordable housing to integrating migrants and refugees.

On January 26th and 27th the Ministry of Regional Development of Ukraine and the OECD organised a seminar in Kiyv focusing on recent decentralisation and territorial reforms in Ukraine and in OECD countries.

Seminar on Innovations and challenges in the management of a regional policy held in Bratislava, Slovak Republic, 22 February 2017

This seminar was held in held in Lviv on 22 June 2017.

The Second International Conference on National Urban Policy was held in Paris France on 15-16 May 2017. The conference was a joint initiative of the OECD, UN Habitat and Cities Alliance.

This seminar series is part of the OECD project, Supporting Decentralisation in Ukraine.

The OECD LEED Trento Centre organised a working group session on "Cultural heritage as catalyst of local development " on Thursday, 22 June, 2017 - 12.30 to 15.30 in the context of ArtLab 17 in Milan.

The OECD is working with Tunisia to develop a system of subnational indicators.

This high-level meeting will be organised for the first time in the Eurasia region, in Almaty, Kazakhstan. This event creates an opportunity to further strengthen relations between the countries of the region and the OECD and serves as a platform for a discussion on a broad spectrum of thematic issues relevant to further improving the region’s competitiveness.

This OECD project on Linking indigenous communities with regional development aims to develop policy recommendations for OECD and partner countries to improve economic outcomes for indigenous communities by better linking them with regional development efforts.

This conference organised jointly by the OECD, Warwick University, the Work Foundation, and the Centre for Cities brought together stakeholders from national government departments, cities, Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) as well as business, NGOs and research institutions to discuss the key challenges facing the United Kingdom in building more and better quality jobs

Organised as part of the programme of activities of the OECD LEED Trento Centre and Venice office and LEED Forum, the capacity building seminar on Designing Strong Local Strategies for Better Jobs and Skills will offer an opportunity to learn from the latest OECD research on the key elements of successful local skills and employment strategies.

The Euregio Museum Day 2017 reviewed the pilot version of the OECD guide "Culture and local development - Maximising the impact" and worked on thematic action principles and policy options to advance the reflection on these issues.

Action to prevent the risk of major flooding in Paris and the Ile de France region has improved in recent years – particularly after the Seine burst its banks in May and June 2016 – but urban and territorial planning needs to be better adapted, governance strengthened and long-term funding clarified, according to the OECD.

The OECD LEED Trento Centre is working with Italy and the Autonomous Province of Trento to strengthen capacities to develop and implement integrated strategies targeted at improving the quality of life and well-being of people and reversing demographic trends in ‘inner areas’ (sparsely populated areas and stranded communities isolated from large and medium-sized urban centres).

The OECD Trento Centre is undertaking a review (2017/2018) to identify the needs and priorities for policy improvement and to foster the exchange of experiences, the capitalisation of acquired know-how and the generation of new and fresh thinking in the Adriatic-Ionian macro-region.

In advance of the 2024 Paris Olympics, OECD ministers have agreed the first international framework to help design and manage major events in order to maximise their potential to create jobs, boost local development and generate long-term benefits for citizens and the environment.

The OECD Trento Centre organised five sessions within the 2018 Festival of Economics on Technology and Jobs on 1-3 June 2018. OECD and intenational experts along with high level government representatives discussed the impact of new technologies on jobs and its effect on local economies and policies and what regions and regional policy can do to narrow economic gaps and promote productivity catching-up.

The Summer Academy, a three-year project 2018-2020, provides training for policy makers and representatives of cultural and creative industries (CCIs). The first edition will take place 11-15 June 2018 in Trento and Bolzano, Italy. The final conference on Friday 15 June is open to local as well as to national and international stakeholders interested in the event themes, upon registration.

The OECD Trento Centre and the Venice office are pleased to announce a call for internship applications. Deadline for applications: Sunday, 19th August 2018 at 23.59 (Italian time).