Member of the European Parliament for Bulgaria
2007 - 2009
(first direct EP elections in Bulgaria);
LEED to OECD partner (Nanotech)
People power: Collective intelligence in the new era of international co-operation*
We live in stark times: times when the values of openness, collaboration and global integration are being questioned; times when the notion of citizenship and engagement are being reframed; times when information sharing, meaning and truth take on a new dimension, in a digital, direct and fast paced 21st century. As an Organisation emerging from the rubble of the Second World War, we know only too well that peace cannot be taken for granted. On a daily basis, we live and breathe how dialogue and co-operation can help strengthen a peaceful world and improve people’s lives.
Today, we are communicating in an environment where public opinion is divided based on very different experiences of life. If we want to get through to people, we need to speak a language that resonates with their experiences…
The 10th anniversary of the global financial crisis provides us all with the opportunity to pause and reflect on the distance between classical economic thinking, and the models it was based on, and the reality of people’s everyday lives — lives that are still feeling the effects of the Global Financial Crisis a decade later.
Please follow the article here: https://www.oecd-forum.org/users/40211-anthony-gooch/posts/40876-people-power-collective-intelligence-in-the-new-era-of-international-co-operation.
The changing landscape requires us to broaden the spectrum of our engagement, acknowledging, once and for all, that, in a multifaceted and multistakeholder world, policy making is no longer the sole remit of governments. A plethora of influential voices are rising to the fore, whether organised civil society or spontaneous citizen movements, joining forces to spark creativity, inject disruption and instill sustained change. Such voices are not only helping in designing and implementing global solutions: they play a key role in adapting them locally so they have real impact on people’s lives.
*OECD, Anthony Gooch
Going up?*
“All human beings are born equal. But on the following day, they no longer are,” said French author Jean Renard in 1907. This is because sticky floors and ceilings–or rags to rags and riches to riches–define the bottom and top income distributions. Today, it takes four to five generations, on average, for children from the poorest 10% of the population to reach median income levels. Meanwhile, about 50% of children of wealthy parents will themselves remain rich in countries like Germany and the US.
Worse, every four years, a fifth of the middle class’ poorest fall down to the bottom of the income distribution while its upper half enjoys much greater security, as shown in A Broken Social Elevator? How to Promote Social Mobility.
What’s more, in countries like Brazil and South Africa where income inequality is high, there is a state of “permanent inequality”, with an underlying feeling that social mobility is but a broken promise. Indeed, low upward mobility increases people’s sense that their voices do not matter and that the system is neither fair nor meritocratic.
Still, mobility is not all about money. It can range from jobs to education and health, and it changes when viewed through each of these lenses. These distortions create unique situations within each country: in places like Japan and Korea, educational mobility is higher than income mobility, but it’s the other way around in Norway and Spain. In the US, job mobility is higher than earnings mobility, while in Finland it’s the reverse, with lower educational mobility on top.
Yet there is nothing inevitable about socio-economic status being passed down between generations. Equal access to quality education is one way to enhance social mobility: countries that spend more on public education tend to achieve higher educational mobility. The same goes for health. Moreover, progressive taxation on wealth, inheritance and combatting tax avoidance leads to less sticky ceilings, while money transfers or benefits to low-income families and improving the school-to-work transition unsticks the floors. And as the report shows, policies that address the likes of residential segregation and sudden unemployment, or aim to improve the work-home balance can enhance social mobility across the board.
*The OECD Observer
53 developing nations promised to increase spending
Positive news: “The emerging story from a major education summit in Senegal is about developing countries investing even more in education. Donors such as the UK, US, France and Canada pledged $2.3 billion to help the Global Partnership for Education’s work over the next three years. On the same stage in Dakar, 53 developing nations promised to increase spending on their own school systems by a total of $110 billion. And Senegal became the first African country to become a donor to other developing nations.” (theirworld.org, February’18)
Mohamed Sidibay for Theirworld and Global Partnership for Education’s conference in Senegal,
Dear Mariela,
A few days ago, I asked you: what is the one question you want me to ask world leaders?
It was a few hours before a key moment for the campaign to fund education – the Global Partnership for Education’s replenishment conference in Dakar, Senegal, where I was going to deliver the keynote speech.
And you were clear that the biggest question of the moment was: what will you do to turn the decline in education financing around and ensure that every child can realise their right to education?
To be honest, when I sent you that email, I was feeling a bit sceptical. For years aid to education has been stagnating or going down. I’ve spoken at big events before.
What was going to change this time? And why now? Continue reading
How Immigrants Contribute to Developing Countries’ Economies*
Link to How Immigrants Contribute to Developing Countries’ Economies
*OECD Development Centre
Key Facts on Education (OECD)
Key Facts on Education (OECD)
A portrait of family migration*
Migration is all over the news in Europe, North America and Australia. When people think about migration, they tend to picture either refugees driven to undertake dangerous journeys in order to escape threatening situations or people coming to a new country to pursue studies or work. Yet there is a large category of migrants all too often overlooked: family migrants. Such migrants accounted for 40% of migration to the OECD area in 2015 and they typically make up 25-50% of an OECD country’s foreign-born population – and as much as 70% in the United States.
Why is family migration receiving so little attention? Continue reading
