Ukraine
Public sector remuneration systems are shaped by an intricate interaction of administrative culture, economic conditions, and political systems. This paper discusses critical considerations to bear in mind when designing, planning and implementing reforms of public service wage systems. It explores key concepts such as job evaluation, pay structures, performance-related pay, market analysis for competitive pay levels and wage bill planning. It provides guidance on the process of reforming public sector salary systems to enhance their competitiveness, equity, transparency and affordability. The paper offers insights drawn from the reform efforts of several EU Member States and SIGMA partners in the Western Balkans, Moldova and Ukraine, presenting real-life examples and updated guidelines for effective, sustainable salary system changes. The primary focus is on reforms of wage systems within central government administrations, acknowledging the complexity arising from diverse classifications of civil service and public employees, and the varying scope and structure of salary systems. This paper serves as a practical guide, presenting options along with their advantages and disadvantages to aid policymakers in aligning reforms with their national public administration context and strategies.
Since the start of Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine, more than 10 million people have been displaced, either within Ukraine or abroad. Labour market integration of internally and externally displaced individuals remains challenging. While many immediate measures were undertaken in Ukraine and in host countries to support displaced Ukrainians, longer-term solutions are needed to enhance their human capital, and allow them not only to integrate into their receiving communities but also contribute to the recovery of Ukraine.
Before the war, the Ukrainian Pay-As-You-Go pension system required large government transfers. Since then, large scale emigration and an increasing number of people eligible for pensions have further increased the need for government transfers and exacerbated the challenges of population ageing. At the same time, the system provides relatively low pension benefits, despite fairly high contribution rates and short time in retirement. This reflects to a large degree a relatively narrow contribution base due to a large informal economy and underreporting of labour income. Reform of the system must encourage participation, secure liveable pensions, and safeguard the system’s fiscal sustainability.
Цифрові технології не лише створюють величезний потенціал для підвищення продуктивності компаній, вони також можуть покращити економічну стійкість та підтримати відновлення економіки під час війни. Від початку повномасштабного вторгнення Росії в Україну у лютому 2022 року український уряд досягнув значних успіхів на шляху прискорення цифрової трансформації та продовжує підтримувати цифровізацію. Незважаючи на те що цифрові технології вже приносять чималу користь Україні, малі та середні підприємства ще не повністю реалізували потенціал цифровізації. Окрім проблем, пов’язаних з війною, інші фактори, як-от недостатня обізнаність, дефіцит кваліфікованих кадрів, секторальні особливості і фінансові обмеження, ускладнюють розповсюдження цифрових технологій.
Уряд має на меті і надалі сприяти цифровізації МСП і наразі готує Стратегію підтримки МСП на період від 2024 до 2027 року. Протягом 2023 року ОЕСР надала Україні рекомендації щодо використання цифрових технологій, щоб підвищити продуктивність, підсилити стійкість і сприяти відновленню. У звіті наведений огляд результатів цієї роботи, і розглядаються: і) шляхи посилення інституційної та політичної основи для цифровізації МСП на національному і регіональному рівнях; іі) шляхи цільової підтримки цифровізації МСП, засновані на моделях ОЕСР; та ііі) конкретні шляхи використання цифровізації, які можуть допомогти МСП протистояти викликам, пов’язаним з війною.
Digital technologies not only offer a vast potential to enhance firm productivity, they can also help enhance resilience and support economic recovery in times of war. The government has made significant strides in accelerating the digital transformation and has reinforced support for digitalisation since the onset of Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022. While digital technologies have brought significant benefits to the country, Ukraine’s SMEs are yet to fully tap into the potential of digitalisation. Beyond war-related challenges, lack of awareness, digital skills shortages, sectoral specificities, and financial constraints complicate their digital development.
The government aims to further promote SME digitalisation and is currently preparing its SME Strategy 2024-27. Throughout 2023, the OECD provided guidance to Ukraine on how to help SMEs leverage digitalisation for productivity, resilience, and recovery. This report presents an overview of the findings, looking at i) ways to strengthen the national and subnational institutional and policy framework for SME digitalisation; ii) avenues for targeted digitalisation support services for SMEs, building on the OECD’s blueprint; and iii) specific ways digitalisation can help SMEs weather war-related challenges.
Supreme audit institutions (SAIs) are a critical part of public accountability systems. They ‘watch’ over governments’ use of public money and report about it publicly, helping to increase transparency. SAIs have an interest in strongly engaging with external stakeholders – including citizens – to make sure that their work is relevant, understood and used to hold governments to account.
This paper provides a compilation of European SAIs’ practices on communication, co-operation and collaboration with external partners and is intended to provide inspiration to SAIs of EU candidate countries and potential candidates to further strengthen their engagement with their non-governmental stakeholders.
The report assesses Ukraine’s anti-corruption reforms against a set of indicators, benchmarks and their elements under five performance areas that focus on anti-corruption policy, prevention of corruption and enforcement. It analyses Ukraine’s efforts to amend laws, build anti-corruption institutions, its measures to detect, investigate and prosecute corruption cases and identifies areas for improvement.
Since the onset of Russia’s large-scale war against Ukraine, millions of people have been forced to flee their homes in search of a safe haven. This report synthesises the findings of the Survey of Arriving Migrants from Ukraine (SAM-UKR), conducted by the European Union Agency for Asylum (EUAA) in collaboration with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), covering prevailing themes of forced displacement from Ukraine. These themes encompass demographics, reasons for departure, experiences along the journey, life in the host country, return intentions, and future aspirations. In addition to presenting survey results, the report draws on over 1 500 personal testimonies provided by respondents to offer a more direct insight into the decision-making process and emotional state of displaced persons, thereby illuminating their struggles, anxieties, hopes, and aspirations resulting from their displacement.
У цьому звіті аналізується ефективність державного управління в Україні за допомогою набору стандартних показників, заснованих на Принципах державного управління.
Принципи державного управління визначають, чим є ефективне державне врядування на практиці, і окреслюють основні вимоги, яких повинні дотримуватися країни під час процесу вступу до Європейського Союзу (ЄС). Вони оцінюють передумов ефективного державного управління (якість законів, політик, інституційна спроможність і процедури) і так і , як державне управління працює на практиці.
У своїх Стратегіях розширення 2014 та 2018 років Європейська Комісія виділила реформу державного управління як одну з трьох «основоположних» сфер процесу розширення ЄС. Враховуючи рішення Європейської Ради від грудня 2023 року розпочати переговори про вступ з Україною, цей звіт містить дані та рекомендації щодо того, як Україна може краще відповідати стандартам, встановленим Принципами.
Звіт є продовженням звіту SIGMA про результати базової оцінки державного управління України відповідно до Принципів державного управління 2018 року і містить порівняльну інформацію про успіхи реформ і виклики їй. Він охоплює шість тематичних сфер Принципів (стратегічні засади реформи державного управління, формування та координація політики, державна служба та управління людськими ресурсами, підзвітність, надання послуг та управління державними фінансами). У звіті наведено значення показників і порівняння загальних тенденцій в державному управлінні України.
This report analyses the performance of public administration in Ukraine through a set of standard indicators based on the Principles of Public Administration.
The Principles set out what good public governance entails in practice and outline the main requirements to be followed by countries during the European Union (EU) integration process. They address the preconditions for a good public administration (good laws, policies, institutional capacity and procedures) and how an administration performs in practice.
In its 2014 and 2018 Enlargement Strategies, the European Commission highlighted public administration reform as one of three “fundamentals first” areas of the EU enlargement process. Given the European Council decision of December 2023 to open accession negotiations with Ukraine, this report provides data and recommendations on how Ukraine could better meet the standards set by the Principles.
The report follows up on the 2018 SIGMA Baseline Measurement Report and provides comparative information on reform successes and remaining challenges. It covers the six thematic areas of the Principles (strategic framework of public administration reform, policy development and co-ordination, public service and human resource management, accountability, service delivery and public financial management). The report provides indicator values and comparison of overall trends across the administration.
The paper analyses the current system of environmental taxation and environmental expenditure in Ukraine, identifies issues in the way environmental tax policy is currently designed and implemented and highlights main areas where environmental taxation and expenditure could be improved. It uses data on environmental tax revenue and budgets from expenditure reports of the State Treasury Service of Ukraine over the period 2010 - 2020. Where available, preliminary data for 2021 were also included.
The paper aims to support the government of Ukraine in reforming environmental taxation and public funding for environmental protection. Ukraine’s Post-War Recovery and Reconstruction Plan outlines ambitious plans for reform, including in the environmental domain. It envisions restructuring the current environmental tax system, expanding it to energy and transport and harmonising it with that of the European Union. It also foresees an analytical study systematising current taxes and payments in line with Eurostat classification standards. This paper can support these efforts.
The paper presents the understanding of and attitudes towards climate change and climate policies in Ukraine, using a survey on a representative sample of more than 1 500 Ukrainians. The survey was carried out between October 2021 and February 2022 and presents the situation before Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine. The survey tests support for three main climate policies in detail: a green infrastructure programme, a carbon tax with cash transfers and a ban on combustion-engine cars. It shows that support for climate policies depends on three key factors: how people perceive the effectiveness of the policies in reducing emissions, how they perceive distributional impacts on lower-income households (inequality concerns), and if they think their household will gain or lose from the policy. The survey also shows that when citizens receive information that specifically addresses these concerns, they exhibit stronger support for the policy. How the policy is designed also matters: Ukrainians widely accept a carbon tax when its revenues finance green investments and/or compensate lower-income households. The paper highlights seven considerations for Ukraine policymakers to design measures that are effective and supported by citizens. Following Russia’s war of aggression and once conditions are right, Ukrainian policymakers can also use the survey results to guide the reform of the environmental tax system- one of the goals in Ukraine’s recovery and reform agenda.
The survey in Ukraine that the paper describes was conducted as part of a large-scale OECD international survey of attitudes toward climate policies carried out on over 40 000 respondents in twenty countries.
The SME Policy Index: Eastern Partner Countries 2024 – Building resilience in challenging times is a unique benchmarking tool to assess and monitor progress in the design and implementation of SME policies against EU and international best practice. It embraces the priorities laid out in the European Union’s SME Strategy for a sustainable and digital Europe and is structured around the ten principles of the Small Business Act for Europe, which provide a wide range of measures to guide the design and implementation of SME policies. This report marks the fourth edition in this series, following assessments in 2012, 2016, and 2020. It tracks progress made since 2020 and offers the latest key findings on SME development and related policies in the countries of the Eastern Partnership (EaP). It also identifies emerging challenges affecting SMEs in the region and provides recommendations to address them. The 2024 edition benefits from an updated methodology that also offers a deeper analysis of policies to support the digital transformation of SMEs.
This study evaluates the progress of fossil-fuel subsidy reform in Ukraine since its launch in 2016 using the OECD “bottom-up”, inventory, approach. It also identifies major subsidy schemes that need significant reform. The report reflects the energy subsidy policies and reforms in Ukraine prior to Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.
The analysis covers: budgetary transfers, government revenue foregone (or tax expenditure), induced transfers in the form of cross-subsidies or below market tariffs and transfer of risk to government. The study also covers fossil-fuels subsidies to production and consumption, particularly, for natural gas, coal and electricity generated from fossil fuels while support for energy efficiency and renewables is considered for comparative purposes. This report also briefly discusses the taxation and energy pricing policies in Ukraine that have had direct or indirect impact on the evolution of fossil-fuel subsidies in the country. Detailed estimates of all individual support measures are provided in the Annexes to the report.
Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine has had profound effects on the maritime sector. It directly disrupted maritime activities in the Black and Azov seas, causing the suspension of Ukrainian port operations and agricultural exports. Although an export corridor temporarily resumed activities, the termination of the agreement in July 2023 continues to affect Ukrainian shipping. International sanctions against Russia and Belarus have notably targeted shipowners and shipbuilders, restricting Russian ships' access to OECD ports. These sanctions have also halted orders for Russian ship owners in OECD countries, reducing new orders and vessel completions in Russian shipyards. While global seaborne trade and ship demand remain relatively unaffected, the war has prompted longer-term impacts such as altered trading routes, changes in energy demand and costs, potential implications for maritime decarbonisation, and an increase in "dark fleet" vessels.
The influx of highly qualified refugees from Ukraine has posed unique challenges for Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) policies and practices in host countries. Analysing recent survey results, this policy brief provides an overview of the diverse RPL measures countries across the OECD have implemented in order to ensure a swift continuation of learning for Ukrainian refugee students. From extending application deadlines to international cooperation on qualifications information sharing, the policy landscape is evolving rapidly to ensure these highly skilled individuals can be included effectively into new educational environments.
Post-war reconstruction in Ukraine will face challenges in public procurement, including corruption risks and lengthy procedures. Strengthening existing legal and institutional foundations, aligned with international standards, is crucial. Streamlining procurement, ensuring transparency, and promoting equality for domestic and foreign companies are vital. Central procurement institutions require support, extending to regional and local authorities. A transparent legal framework can pave the way for efficient and accountable procurement, enabling a resilient future. A unified legal framework for awarding all contracts for the reconstruction of Ukraine, regardless of the source of financing, would streamline the tendering process. It is recommendable that the framework, fully aligned with international standards, be based on the Ukrainian public procurement legislation. The multiplication of procedural rules and requirements would lead to an increase of the administrative burden and the time required of procurement officers as well as economic operators.
This market study analyses Ukraine’s electricity sector from a competition perspective. It provides a detailed description and assessment of the regulatory framework within which the Ukrainian electricity markets operate, as well as an analysis of the obstacles to competition in the wholesale and retail markets. This report includes recommendations to address the underlying causes of ineffective competition that, if implemented in the recovery phase following Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, can contribute to achieving a well-functioning, competitive electricity sector.