OECD OECD

Young entrepreneurs have a huge role to play as slow productivity growth, climate change, demographic change and the digital transition come together in a perfect storm for many economies. The new OECD-EU “Missing Entrepreneurs” report finds that if youth (18-29 years old) participated in early-stage entrepreneurship at the same rate as “core age” men (30-49 years old), there would be an additional 3.6 million “missing youth entrepreneurs” in OECD countries. This accounts for about 11% of the total number of “missing entrepreneurs” in the OECD as young people face a range of barriers to success. David Halabisky from the OECD and Anita Tiessen, the CEO of Youth Business International, unwrap issues around money, mindset and motivation for young people in the world of business.

Guest: Anita Tiessen, CEO of Youth Business International
Host: David Halabisky

According to the UN Refugee Agency, more than 100 million people were forcibly displaced in 2022. With Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine, Europe has seen the biggest refugee crisis since the Second World War with more than 6 million people fleeing Ukraine. This is a big challenge for refugee protection and reception systems. Clearly something public services cannot stem on their own. This is where the social and solidarity economy steps in and steps up to both support governments and fill gaps and public support. This podcast discusses how the social and solidarity economy can fast track the labour-market integration of refugees and migrants.

Guests: Anne Kjaer-Bathel: Co-founder and CEO of ReDI School of Digital Integration, Berlin
Thomas Liebig, Principal Administrator, OECD Directorate for Employment, Labour and Social Affairs
Host: Christine Langenbucher

Digitalisation in procurement comes with a variety of opportunities, but also challenges. Can digital resources such as artificial intelligence, e-procurement and data systems improve the ways governments obtain services and goods? This podcast is the third and final episode of a series in collaboration with the MAPS Initiative, Methodology for Assessing Procurement Systems. Edwin Lau, OECD, Head of Division of Infrastructure and Public Procurement and Hunt La Cascia, Senior Public Sector Specialist at the World Bank, speak with us to help us understand the world of procurement digitalisation.

Guests: Edwin Lau, OECD, Head of Division of Infrastructure and Public Procurement and Hunt La Cascia, Senior Public Sector Specialist at the World Bank
Host: Robin Allison Davis
Producer: Samia Basille

As urban heat waves become more frequent and severe, meet the leaders on the frontlines of responding to extreme heat in cities. The Chief Heat Officers for Santiago, Chile, and Athens, Greece, discuss their innovative strategies to spread awareness of the dangers of heat, keep vulnerable residents safe in scorching temperatures, and create more green spaces to cool their cities down.

Guests: Cristina Huidobro, Chief Heat Officer for Santiago, Chile, and Elissavet Bargianni, Chief Heat Officer for Athens, Greece
Host: Jessica Voorhees

Learn more about OECD’s work on cities: https://www.oecd.org/cfe/cities/

Extreme heat is creating major challenges for cities. The urban “heat island” effect traps cities in a bubble of scorching temperatures, which endangers lives and puts pressure on emergency services and infrastructure. Often the poorest neighbourhoods bear the worst consequences of rising heat waves. Andrew Lombardi discusses how heat exacerbates inequalities in cities and breaks down what cities can do to save lives now and enhance heat resilience through better policies and practices.

Guest: Andrew Lombardi, OECD Policy Analyst
Host: Jessica Voorhees

Learn more about OECD’s work on cities: https://www.oecd.org/cfe/cities/

In 2015, the United Nations released the Sustainable Development Goals to help create a more sustainable and equitable world. The 17 goals included procurement systems, calling governments to procure in a more sustainable manner. But how does this actually work? How can governments include sustainability in their procurement systems? And can sustainable public procurement help mitigate the climate crisis? Steven Schooner, Professor of Government Procurement Law at George Washington University, helps us to answer these questions and more on this podcast. This is the second episode in the series with MAPS.

Guest: Steven Schooner, Professor of Government Procurement Law at George Washington University
Host: Robin Allison Davis
Producer: Samia Basille

To learn more about the MAPS Initiative, go to MAPSinitiative.org.