Higher education in Asian countries and the role of international ...

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5.2 Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)
5.2.1 What is OECD?
The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is an intergovernmental
organization but it is different from the others IGOs in many ways due to its unique
characteristics: it has no supranational legal powers like the European Union (EU), nor does it
control any purse strings to enforce a particular course of action like the World Bank, and nor
does it have the broad political agenda like that of United Nations (Brosius & Garner, 1997).
OECD‟s purpose is to provide a forum for its member governments and partners to study and
formulate the best policies for promoting economic and social development. Having no means to
coerce and force its members, this organization relies on voluntary cooperation and trust. Like
other IGOs, the OECD also sees a value in disseminating the information generated by its work.
A large part of the activities of this organization consists of gathering, analyzing, and
disseminating information.
The OECD is an intergovernmental organization that acts as a forum where governments,
institutions and organizations share their experiences and work together to find solutions to
common problems faced by the society. The forty member countries of the Organization,
including enhance engagement economies, account 80% of the world trade and investment and
more than half of the world population. This gives the OECD an important place in the world for
this reason this organization is considered as one of the key facilitator in bringing socio-
economic development in the member and non-member states. Being a multi-function IGO, the
OECD is active in diverse fields in its member and non-member countries. OECD provides a
platform to:
Find innovative solutions to universal problems
Support and organize policies and to compare policy experiences
Monitor and forecast economic trends
Collect, analyze and disseminate data and statistics
Conduct peer reviews studies of member state performance
Provides technical assistance through expertise and ideas
Promotes innovative philosophy of “Think global, act local”