Italy’s Universal Civil Service (UCS) engages young people in volunteering activities that enhance practical skill development for employability, active citizenship, and personal growth. Through a joint project between the OECD, the European Commission, and the Department for Youth Policies, Italy aims to improve the design and implementation of the UCS. As part of the project, this report analyses the current monitoring and evaluation framework of the UCS and provides guidance for the development of a robust results-based Monitoring and Evaluation system to improve the system’s ability to track progress and demonstrate impact.

An effective state is essential to achieving socio-economic and sustainable development. With the advent of globalization, there are growing pressures on governments and organizations around the world to be more responsive to the demands of internal and external stakeholders for good governance, accountability and transparency, greater development effectiveness, and delivery of tangible results. Governments, parliaments, citizens, the private sector, NGOs, civil society, international organizations and donors are among the stakeholders interested in better performance. As demands for greater accountability and real results have increased, there is an attendant need for enhanced results-based monitoring and evaluation of policies, programs, and projects. This Handbook provides a comprehensive ten-step model that will help guide development practitioners through the process of designing and building a results-based monitoring and evaluation system. These steps begin with a OC Readiness AssessmentOCO and take the practitioner through the design, management, and importantly, the sustainability of such systems. The Handbook describes each step in detail, the tasks needed to complete each one, and the tools available to help along the way."

A growing number of governments are working to improve their performance by creating systems to measure and help them understand their performance. These systems for monitoring and evaluation (M & E) are used to measure the quantity, quality, and targeting of the goods and services--the outputs--that the state provides and to measure the outcomes and impacts resulting from these outputs. These systems are also a vehicle to facilitate understanding of the causes of good and poor performance.

This report looks at the capacity and capabilities of civil servants of OECD countries and suggests approaches for addressing skills gaps through recruitment, development and workforce management

What are public health services? Countries across Europe understand what they are or what they should include differently. This study describes the experiences of nine countries detailing the ways they have opted to organize and finance public health services and train and employ their public health workforce. It covers England France Germany Italy the Netherlands Slovenia Sweden Poland and the Republic of Moldova and aims to give insights into current practice that will support decision-makers in their efforts to strengthen public health capacities and services. Each country chapter captures the historical background of public health services and the context in which they operate; sets out the main organizational structures; assesses the sources of public health financing and how it is allocated; explains the training and employment of the public health workforce; and analyses existing frameworks for quality and performance assessment. The study reveals a wide range of experience and variation across Europe and clearly illustrates two fundamentally different approaches to public health services: integration with curative health services (as in Slovenia or Sweden) or organization and provision through a separate parallel structure (Republic of Moldova). The case studies explore the context that explain this divergence and its implications. This study is the result of close collaboration between the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies and the WHO Regional Office for Europe Division of Health Systems and Public Health. It accompanies two other Observatory publications Organization and financing of public health services in Europe and The role of public health organizations in addressing public health problems in Europe: the case of obesity alcohol and antimicrobial resistance (both forthcoming).

At present, the intensification of global climate and environmental change has led to frequent occurrence of natural hazards. Various types of natural hazards always overlap and interact, or occur in a chain reaction, with a wide range of impacts and a long period of time, resulting in serious disaster losses. Typically, major earthquakes and geological hazards, extreme meteorological hazards, large-scale floods and droughts, marine disasters, and forest and grassland fires, as well as their compound and chained hazards are among the key factors affecting human life safety and world economic development. To better our understanding of disaster prevention, mitigation, and relief, it is thus pivotal to facilitate advanced perception, intelligent early warning, accurate prevention, and efficient rescue of natural hazards. This Research Topic aims to collect both Original Research and Review articles addressing the state-of-the-art advances of theories and methodologies in all types of natural hazards. Studies underlining the compound and chained relationship between different hazards are in particular welcomed. Potential themes include, but are not limited to: • Mechanisms of formation, evolution, and disaster process of multiple natural hazards as well as their compound and chained natural hazards • Model and scenario development regarding whole process control, chain breaking of key nodes, and precise prevention of major natural hazard chains • Methods and applications on detection, identification, database establishment, and spatiotemporal evolution law analysis of natural hazard sources • Technologies on intelligent early warning and refined risk assessment of compound and chained natural hazards. • Rescue equipment and investigation of post-disaster community reconstruction

This 2017 OECD Economic Survey of Portugal examines recent economic developments, policies and prospects. The special chapters cover raising investment and raising skills.

Formed of papers originating from the 9th International Conference on Safety and Security Engineering, this book highlights research and industrial developments in the theoretical and practical aspects of safety and security engineering. Safety and Security Engineering, due to its special nature, is an interdisciplinary area of research and application that brings together, in a systematic way, many disciplines of engineering from the traditional to the most technologically advanced. This volume covers topics such as crisis management, security engineering, natural disasters and emergencies, terrorism, IT security, man-made hazards, risk management, control, protection and mitigation issues. The meeting aims to attract papers in all related fields, in addition to those listed under the Conference Topics, as well as case studies describing practical experiences. Due to the multitude and variety of topics included, the list is only indicative of the themes of the expected papers. Authors are encouraged to submit abstracts in all areas of Safety and Security, with particular attention to integrated and interdisciplinary aspects. Specific themes include: Risk analysis and assessment; Safety engineering; Accident monitoring and management; Information and communication security; Protection of personal information; Fire safety; Disaster and emergency management; Critical infrastructure; Counter-terrorism; Occupational health; Transportation safety and security; Earthquakes and natural hazards; Surveillance systems; Safety standards and regulations; Cybersecurity / e-security; Safety and security culture; Border security; Disaster recovery.