Demographic change and efficient provision of public services across territories

On June 30th, from 15:00 to 16:30 CET, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) will host a launch event to present the joint report "Access and Cost of Education and Health Services: Preparing Regions for Demographic Change" with the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC).

Details and full programme can be found online

At the event, Stephen Quest, JRC Director General, and Nadim Ahmad, Deputy Director, Centre for Entrepreneurship, SMEs, Regions and Cities, OECD will give some introductory remarks.

In the second part of the event, the authors of the joint report will present the main findings and launch a new interactive data tool.

Next to this, experts from Chile, Estonia and Sweden will discuss efficient and equitable service provision in rural regions on a policy panel. Concluding remarks will be delivered by Sabrina Lucatelli, Vice-Chair, Working Party of Rural Policy, OECD, and Lewis Dijkstra, Head, Economic Analysis Sector, Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy, at the Commission.

The report analyses how demographic change can widen differences among regions in their access to health and education, and tighten the trade-off between the costs for these public services in rural areas.

Policies need to be efficient, equitable while balancing accessibility and cost-efficiency. The report puts forward new policy insights that will be discussed during the event.

Background

To facilitate development in sparsely populated regions, the Commission deploys the European Structural and Investment Funds.

The OECD has started a new work-stream Preparing Regions for Demographic Change to guide governments in their mandate to deliver services, raise the well-being of all communities, and bridge gaps with a place-based approach.

The Joint Research Centre - the Commission's science and knowledge service - is at the forefront of the production and analysis of territorial and demographic data that have a high spatial resolution and European coverage with the JRC LUISA Territorial Modelling Platform. These data and related indicators are made available to citizens, researchers and policy-makers in the Urban Data Platform Plus (a tool of the Knowledge Centre for territorial Policies).

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Webinar Registration

Programme (PDF)