Reports

Being able to swim empowers individuals to make choices, have agency, and be free to choose core aspects of their life, such as working safely on or near water. It is also associated with lifelong health benefits and reduces the risk of drowning. Using data from the Lloyd’s Register Foundation World Risk Poll 2019, this paper provides the first global estimates of adults’ ability to swim without assistance. Individuals in high-income countries are considerably more likely to report being able to swim without assistance than individuals in low-income countries. Disparities also exist within countries. In particular, women are less likely to be able to swim without assistance than men in virtually all countries, birth cohorts, and levels of education. Investing in reducing inequalities in life skills, such as swimming, can foster economic development and empowerment, especially in light of threats, such as climate change.

Understanding adults’ attitudes towards the environment is necessary to gauge the opportunities and challenges of creating effective and politically-feasible climate policies. Using data from the Wellcome Global Monitor 2020, the European Social Survey (Round 8), World Values Survey and EM-DAT, this paper examines how adults’ environmental attitudes vary within and across countries and details how environmental attitudes are associated with adults’ engagement in pro-environmental behaviours and support for environmentally-friendly policies. The paper explores whether the extent to which individuals prioritise the environment over the state of the economy or vice versa depends on individuals’ exposure to natural disasters or negative labour market conditions. Results indicate that people’s economic vulnerability and the sectors they work in impact their attitudes towards their environment and support for public policy. Furthermore, the findings suggest that increases in unemployment and exposure to natural disasters influence the extent to which individuals prioritise the environment.

The paper is the first in a series of two papers mapping young people’s environmental sustainability competence in EU and OECD countries that were prepared as background for the forthcoming OECD Skills Outlook 2023 publication. The papers are the results of a collaboration between the OECD Centre for Skills and the European Commission - Joint Research Centre (Unit B4) on students’ environmental sustainability competence. The second paper is titled: ‘The environmental sustainability competence toolbox: From leaving a better planet to our children to leaving better children for our planet’.

The paper is the second in a series of two papers mapping young people’s environmental sustainability competence in EU and OECD countries that were prepared as background for the forthcoming OECD Skills Outlook 2023 publication. The papers are the results of a collaboration between the OECD Centre for Skills and the European Commission - Joint Research Centre (Unit B4) on students’ environmental sustainability competence. The first paper is titled ‘Young people’s environmental sustainability competence: Emotional, cognitive, behavioural and attitudinal dimensions in EU and OECD countries.

Income inequality is low in Belgium, and intergenerational income mobility is on par with the average OECD economy. However, as in other OECD countries, there is scope to improve equal access to opportunities across the population. Poverty risks are high for the unemployed and the low-skilled. Vulnerable socio-demographics, in particular the low educated, single mothers and people with a migrant background and with disabilities have persistently low incomes. Moreover, low-income households are overburdened by housing costs. To foster upward income mobility, employment should be increased among vulnerable groups by enhancing skills through life-long learning, effective career guidance and continuing to strengthen work incentives. To prevent the transmission of disadvantages across generations, social segregation in compulsory education should be addressed, in particular through better-designed school choice policies, higher mobility between general and vocational tracks, and stronger incentives and training for teachers. Promoting quality and affordable housing is also necessary to reduce spatial segregation and mitigate barriers to opportunity.

This paper provides new evidence on the effect of the 2012 reform on flows from UB to employment. The reform increased the steepness of the time profile of unemployment benefits by raising the initial benefit, lowering its long-term level and increasing the number of steps in-between. The analysis finds no indication that the 2012 reform of the Belgian UB system led to an increase in flows towards employment or inactivity either in the aggregate or when comparing groups of workers whose benefits were affected to different extents. While the results of this paper and recent literature provide little ground in favour of a further accentuation of the steepness of the time profile of UB in Belgium, the system could likely benefit from a simplification of the rules that would enhance its readability for workers and facilitate its administration and evaluation.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) regularly conducts in-depth peer reviews of the energy policies of its member countries. This process supports energy policy development and encourages the exchange of international best practices and experiences to help drive secure, affordable and clean energy transitions.Belgium’s energy and climate policies push for energy transition through expanding renewable electricity generation and electrifying energy demand, especially for transport. Policies focus on maintaining affordable access to energy with the double aim of protecting vulnerable consumers and ensuring industrial competitiveness. Belgium has made notable progress on deploying offshore wind and increasing the share of electric vehicles. However, fossil fuels still dominate the country’s energy mix, a dependence that is expected to increase. All sectors have considerable work ahead of them to meet Belgium’s targets for increasing the share of renewables, lowering energy demand and reducing emissions.The IEA provides a range of energy policy recommendations in this report to help Belgium smoothly manage the transition to an efficient and flexible carbon-neutral energy system.

This OECD Skills Strategy Implementation Guidance report presents a model for the segmentation of the adult learning population in Flanders, which resulted in the identification of nine representative learner profiles. These profiles provide unique insights into the diversity of factors that affect decisions to participate in learning, including motivation, obstacles to learning, socio-demographic characteristics, and labour market characteristics. These profiles will assist Flanders’ reflections on how to target and tailor existing and new lifelong learning policies to the needs of learners.

The German-speaking Community of Belgium is in the process of developing an overall vision for its education system (the 'Gesamtvision Bildung') to guide reforms across the education sector for greater quality and equity. To support this process, the OECD review offers an independent analysis of the German-speaking Community’s school system and assesses the system’s strengths and challenges from an international perspective. It provides a description of the system’s policies in international comparison and proposes options for future reforms, covering pre-primary to upper secondary education. The analysis addresses the funding and governance of school education, policies to support equity and inclusion, the evaluation system, school leadership and the development of the teaching profession. The report aims to highlight opportunities for the German-speaking Community to build on the strengths of its school system, enhance the effectiveness of its resource use and ensure that the system delivers the best outcomes for all students.