Secretariat structure
OECD Secretariat staff (in Paris) conduct research and prepare analytical materials at the request of 30 OECD member countries.
The representatives of the member countries meet and exchange information through committees dealing with key issues. The decision-making authority is vested in the OECD Council.
Development Cooperation Directorate
Directorate of Employment, Labor and Social Affairs
Center for Entrepreneurship, SME and Local Development
Directorate for Environmental Protection
Directorate of Finance and Entrepreneurship
Center for Cooperation with Non-OECD Countries
Directorate of Public Relations and the Media
Directorate of Public Sector Management and Territorial Development
Directorate of Science, Technology and Industry
Directorate of Statistics
Center for Tax Policy and Management
Committees
Representatives of 30 OECD member countries meet at relevant committees meetings to promote their ideas and analyze policy results in such specific areas as, for example, economics, trade, science, employment, education and financial markets. Th.organization has about 200 committees, working and expert groups in general.
About 40,000 senior officials participate in OECD committee meetings each year for asking questions, conduct business analysis, and contribute to the work of the OECD secretariat. Thanks to electronic communications, after returning to their countries, senior officials have the ability to remotely access OECD documents and exchange information through special OECD data networks.
Council
The OECD Council is empowered to make decisions. It includes one representative from each member country of the Organization, as well as a representative of the European Commission. The Council holds permanent meetings of member countries representatives on a regular basis, Organization's activity general directions are developed at these meetings. Once a year, meetings of the Council are held at the level of heads of ministries, which raise the most important issues and establish priorities for OECD activities for the coming year. The work plan adopted by the Council is being implemented by the OECD Secretariat.
OECD Secretariat
About 2,000 Secretariat staff in Paris support the work of OECD committees. About 700 economists, lawyers, researchers and representatives of other professions who are employees of the respective directorates carry out research and analytical activities.
The Secretariat is led by the OECD Secretary General and his four Deputies. The Secretary General also presides over Council meetings, being the most important link between the national missions to the OECD and the Secretariat.
The official languages of the OECD are English and French. OECD employs citizens of the Organization member countries, who for the time are being considered international servants and do not represent the interests of the respective states. When hiring employees, the OECD does not apply any national quotas; the Organization’s personnel policy is - hiring people with high qualifications in relevant areas on equal terms, taking into account work experience and nationality.
Financing
The OECD is funded by 30 of its member countries. The annual contribution of Member States is calculated according to a specific formula based on the respective economic indicators of each country. The United States is the largest payer, accounting for approximately 25 percent of the OECD budget, Japan is the second largest contributor. With the Council approval, member countries are entitled to provide additional funding for certain programs that are not funded from the core budget.
Currently the annual budget is equal to approximately 336 million euros per year, the themes of OECD programs are determined by member states at Council meetings.
OECD work
The OECD serves as a forum for developing and discussing new ideas based on research and analysis of socio-economic policies with the aim of assisting national governments in developing common policies that facilitate formal agreements between OECD countries or that are carried out both in internal affairs and in other international forums. Unlike the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, the OECD does not distribute funds.
OECD activities are a highly efficient process that begins with data collection and includes both the analysis stage and the collective discussion stage of various policy areas and ends with the decision of its implementation. National governments of different countries joint study, multilateral monitoring and expert advice on the need for policy reform are at the core of the OECD's effective work in areas such as, for example, the Convention for the Suppression of Corruption in International Transactions.
OECD analyzes the information technology revolution impact on economic development. It helps national governments developing economic policies; studies on the causes of rising unemployment and measures identification to ensure employment provided the impetus that led governments to develop appropriate measures to reduce unemployment. The important OECD analytical work and its efforts to reach consensus on trade in services has contributed to the successful conclusion of international trade negotiations.
Most of the materials collected and analyzed within the OECD are published in a wide range of print media and electronic media: from press releases and regularly published collections of data and forecasts to one-off publications or monographs on specific issues; from economic surveys for each of the OECD member countries to regularly published surveys on education, science and policy issues in technology, environmental protection. A wide range of information, analytical materials and data is publicly available on the OECD website.
How does the Secretariat work?
The Secretariat activitie.organized in accordance with the committees’ structure, where each directorate of the Secretariat serves one or more committees, as well as their working groups and subgroups. Nevertheless, it should be noted that the OECD work is increasingly being built on the basis of interdisciplinary research.
For example, in the framework of the OECD's work on sustainable development, and its ‘International Future’ program, aimed at proactively identifying new problems in the field of socio-economic policy, a wide range of scientific disciplines is involved. Experts in the field of taxation and business, work together with macroeconomists on the problems of population aging, as well as health, employment market and social policy.
