МИНИСТЕРСТВО ОБРАЗОВАНИЯ И НАУКИ

НАЦИОНАЛЬНЫЙ ТЕХНИЧЕСКИЙ УНИВЕРСИТЕТ УКРАИНЫ

Реферат
По предмету «Основы устойчивого развития»
на тему «Социальные индикаторы OECD»

Выполнила струдентка гр ИС-31 ФИВТ

До Тху Линь

Принял: Медведев Р.Б

Киев 2008

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 Table of contents
1. About OECD 3
2. Measuring Well-Being: What Role for Social Indicators ?
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3. OECD Social indicators 4
3.1 General context indicators 4
3.2 Self-Sufficiency indicators 4
3.3 Equity indicators 5
3.4 Health indicators 5
3.5 Social cohesion indicators 6
4. Literature 6

1. About OECD
OECD brings together the governments of countries committed to democracy and the
market economy from around the world to:
• Support sustainable economic growth
• Boost employment
• Raise living standards
• Maintain financial stability
• Assist other countries' economic development
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 • Contribute to growth in world trade
OECD also shares expertise and exchanges views with more than 100 other countries
and economies, from Brazil, China, and Russia to the least developed countries in Africa.
Fast facts:
Established: 1961
Location: Paris, France
Membership: 30 countries
Budget: EUR 342.9 million (2008)
Secretariat staff: 2 500
Secretary-General: Angel Gurría
Publications: 250 new titles/year
Official languages: English/French

Monitoring, analyzing and forecasting

For more than 40 years, OECD has been one of the world's largest and most reliable
sources of comparable statistics, and economic and social data. As well as collecting data,
OECD monitors trends, analyses and forecasts economic developments and researches social
changes or evolving patterns in trade, environment, agriculture, technology, taxation and
more.
The Organization provides a setting where governments compare policy experiences,
seek answers to common problems, identify good practice and coordinate domestic and
international policies.
Enlargement and enhanced engagement
In May 2007, OECD countries agreed to invite Chile, Estonia, Israel, Russia and Slovenia to
open discussions for membership of the Organization and offered enhanced engagement, with
a view to possible membership, to Brazil, China, India, Indonesia and South Africa. The
approval of so-called "road maps" in last December marks the start of accession talks with
Chile, Estonia, Israel, Russia and Slovenia.

2. Measuring Well-Being: What Role for Social Indicators ?

2.1 The goals of social indicators

• What progress have OECD countries achieved in terms of their social development?
• How effective have been the actions of society in furthering social development?
The first question requires indicators covering a broad range of social issues. As
social development requires health, education, economic resources and a stable
basis for social interactions, indicators need to inform on all these dimensions. The
second question is more challenging. Societies try to influence social outcomes,
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 usually through government policy, and the question is whether such policies are
effective in achieving their aims. Indicators help in making that assessment. A first
step is to compare the changes in social outcomes that social policies try to influence
with the scale of the resources that are used to that effect.

2.2 The framework of OECD social indicators

While the structure applied in this volume falls short of being a full-scale
framework for social statistics, it is nevertheless more than a one-dimensional listing.
This structure has been in form on by experiences in other parts of the OECD on how
to assess the policies and the outcomes that they try to influence in a variety of fie
Ids. This structure draws, in particular on the OECD experience with environmental
indicators. These indicators are organized in a framework known as "Pressure-State-
Response" (PSK). In this framework human activities exert pressures on the
environment, which affect natural resources and environmental conditions (state),
and which prompt society to respond to these changes through various policies
(societal response). The PSR framework allows highlighting these links, and helps
decision-makers and the general public see the interconnection between
environmental and other issues. It relates indicators of what government and society
do (response indicators) to indicators of what they are trying to influence (state and
pressure indicators).

3. OECD Social indicators

3.1 Context indicators (GE)

When comparing social status and societal response indicators, it is easy to

make statements that one country is doing badly relative to other countries, or that
another is spending a lot of money on a specific policy target compared with others.
It is important to put such statements into a broader context. For example, national
income levels vary across OBCD countries. If there is any link between income and
health, richer countries might be expected to have belter health conditions than poor
ones, irrespectively of societal responses. If the demand for health care services
increases with income (as appears to be the case), rich countries might be expected
to spend more on health care (as a percentage of national income) than poorer
countries. This does not mean that the indicators of health status and health
spending are m is lea ding: it does mean, however, that the general context behind
the data should be borne in mind when considering the implications of indicators.
Another characteristic of most context indicators is that it is not possible to a priori
say whether a higher value is good or bad.

Many context indicators are of relevance in interpreting several indicators. This

is true of national income per capita (GE1) which has implications for the quality,
quantity and nature of the social protection that society can afford to provide but
also of age-dependency ratios (GE2), fertility rates (GE 3), migration (GE4) and
marriage and divorce (GE5). As noted earlier, context indicators are not categorized
as falling in any of the four fields of social policy - equity, self-sufficiency, health or
cohesion.
GE1. National Income per Capita
GE2. Age-Dependency Rates
GE3. Fertility Rates
GE4. Migration
GE5. Marriage and Divorce

3.2 Self-sufficiency indicators (SS)

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 For most people in the population of working age paid employment (SSI) is the
means through which they gain economic resources, identity, social interaction and
status. In addition almost all social security system s rely for their funding on the
contributions by people in work. Hence, promoting higher employment is a priority
for all OECD countries.

Nevertheless, unemployment (SS2) often implies that providing the means to

support oneself and ones dependants through work is sometimes not a reality. Access
to paid jobs is often especially difficult for mothers of young children (SS3), often
reflecting high costs of formal child care <SS4). Because labour market disadvantage
is often concentrated among low-skilled workers, differences in students'
performance at the end of compulsory schooling can have lasting consequences on
their chances of a successful transition to working life (SS7).

The societal response to these problems has traditionally combined provision of

cash benefits to individuals unable to support themselves and interventions aimed at
overcoming obstacles to work and facilitate integration into the labour market.
However, when poorly designed, these two set of measures may pull in opposite
directions. In particular, benefits provided by the social protection systems to
unemployed persons may inadvertently reduce financial incentives to take up work
(SS6) as well as firm demand for labour (SS5).

3.3 Equity indicators (EQ)

Equity has many dimensions, including access to social service and outcomes. Opinions
as to what exactly entails a fair redistribution of resources or what establishes a just
distribution of opportunities vary widely with in and between countries. As it is hard to obtain
information on all aspects of equity, most of the social Status indicators that are relevant for
assessing equity outcomes arc limited to inequality in financial resources and, much more
rarely, in consumption patterns.

While poverty is most assessed in terms of financial resources, it can also be measured
by looking at the extent of material deprivation in different countries (EQ1). The effects of
poverty depend on the extent to which it persists over time (EQ7) and compromises
opportunities for mobility (EQ4K Poverty has often its roots in wider earnings inequality (EQ2)
and gender wage gaps (EQ3) while its financial consequences may be heightened by high
housing costs (EQ9).

Social protection systems are the main tool through which policy makers have responded
to these equity concern s. All OECD countries have developed (or are developing) social
protection systems that, to a varying extent redistribute resources within societies and insure
individuals against various contingencies. These interventions take the form of social benefits
provided by the social security system (LQ5) or through a combination of tax expenditures
and private spending (EQ6). In most OECD countries, the largest large share of these
resources is devoted to providing income following retirement, and indicators of the
replacement rate provided by old-age pensions (EQ8> show the long-term impact of existing
pension rules and parameters for tomorrow s retirees.

Equity indicators cannot be disentangled easily from self-sufficiency indicators. Taken

together, they reveal how national social protection systems grapple with a recurrent policy
dilemma: how to balance adequacy of provisions with sustainability of the system and
promotion of self-sufficiency of individuals.

3.4 Health indicators (HE)

The links between social and health conditions are strong. Indeed, growth in
living standards, accompanied by better access to health care and continuing
progress in medical technology, has contributed to significant improvement in
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health status, as measured, for example by life expectancy To a significant extent,
these improvements have reflected lower infant mortality and improvements in
other indicators of child health (such as the prevalence of low birth weight, HE4).
However, difficult challenges remain. Disparities in health conditions remain large
not only between countries hut also within them (HR6), and they often reflect a
tendency for people with lower education income and social status to die younger.
Poor health conditions have a direct impact on economic outcomes when they lead
to high sick-re la ted absences from work (III54).
Health care expenditure (HE2) is part of the policy response of health care
systems to concerns about health conditions in general and for specific groups.
Another manifestation of this response has taken the form of the increasing number of
frail elderly that arc receiving different form s of long-term care cither in institutions or
more often in a home selling (HE5. Nevertheless, health problems have sometimes
their root in interrelated social conditions - such as unemployment poverty, and
inadequate housing -that are outside the reach of health policies. Moreover, m ore than
spending levels per $ the effectiveness of health interventions often depends on other
characteristics of the health care system, such as low coverage of medical insurance or
co-payments, which may act as barriers to seeking medical help. A much broader
range of indicators on health conditions and interventions is provided in OECO Heath
Data.

3.5 Social cohesion indicators

Promoting social cohesion is a central goal for social policy in many OECD
countries. However, because of the lack of a commonly-accepted definition of the term,
identifying suitable indicators is especially difficult-The approach taken in this volume is
to assess social cohesion through indicators that describe both the extent to which
citizens participate in societal life and derive satisfaction from their daily activities; and
those informing about various pathologies and conditions that put affected individuals
at risk of exclusion from m a in stream society, or that reveal the extent of social strife
in a country,

Participation in voting (COI) and the extent of trust that citizens have in the
political institutions of their community (C06) are two important dimensions of the
extent to which individuals are well integrated and taking part in social life. Survey
data on subjective life satisfaction (C07) are also important "direct" measures of the
well-being of individuals and of the cohesion in society as a whole.

Conversely, indicators providing evidence not just of personal difficulties but also
of a deeper in functioning of society as a whole include measures of the prevalence of
suicides (C03) and prisoners (C02). Indicators of strikes (COS) provide information
about the consensual nature of the industrial relations system, while high levels of
work accidents (C04) often reflect a m a functioning of the safeguards that apply to
workers.

Beyond these indicators of social status, context indicators may also help to
highlight the existence of different groups and households within society that are
exposed to special risk of social exclusion [e.g. persons living alone). Finally, it shouId
be noted that it is much more difficult to identify relevant response indicators.
Conversely, all of the policies that are relevant to other dimensions of social policy
(self-sufficiency, equity and health) also influence social cohesion.

Literature
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1. Society at a Glance – 2006 edition (www.oecd.org)
2. Lection of course “Sustainable development” – Medvedev R.B

A)

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