The OECD at 50: Past Achievements, Present Challenges and Future Directions
| Date | 01 October 2011 |
| Published date | 01 October 2011 |
| Author | Angel Gurría |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1758-5899.2011.00101.x |
The OECD at 50: Past
Achievements, Present Challenges
and Future Directions
Angel Gurría
Secretary General, Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development
Nobody has yet succeeded in convincing me
that all we do now is good and useful. Much of
it is a hang-over from our past, and we all know
that countries and organisations who cannot
escape from their pasts are doomed, one day,
to die. This is the inevitable fate of human
beings, but it need not be the fate of organisa-
tions, provided they are sufficiently adept at
adapting themselves to changed circumstances.
These were the words Flinth Cahan, Deputy Secretary
General of the Organisation for European Economic
Cooperation (OEEC) used in a speech he gave to mark
the conversion of the OEEC into the Organisation for
Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in
1960, with a mandate to help its member countries
to raise their living standards across a wide range of
economic and social dimensions.
The OECD is now celebrating its 50th anniversary, and
as with our own lives, this milestone is an opportunity
to reflect on our past achievements. There have been
many successes and in this article I will highlight some
of them and the impact they have had on our member
and partner countries. The account of our achievements
must, however, go hand in hand with a reflection on the
challenges that the OECD will be facing in the years to
come.
The past half-century is a period in which the pace of
change in the global economy has never been so rapid;
the world economy today is unrecognisable from what it
was when the OECD was established. Technological
innovations and their rapid diffusion, such as the Inter-
net, communication and transportation technologies
have changed our daily lives, enhancing further the phe-
nomenon of mutual and multilayered relations between
countries and other agents which the scholars Robert
Keohane and Joseph Nye (2001) referred to in their
classic work as ‘complex interdependence’. Together
with economic policy reforms, such as lower trade barri-
ers and greater competition in product markets, innova-
tions have helped boost living standards and brought
economies closer together through trade, investment
and financial linkages. At the same time, the centre of
economic gravity is moving from west to east, from the
industrialised economies to the large developing econo-
mies, particularly China and India.
These changes have proved the core OECD doctrine
to be largely right. But they are also creating the context
in which Flinth Cahan described the OEEC 50 years ago,
which is relevant to the OECD and other international
organisations today. For this reason, this article also
reflects on the current challenges the Organisation faces
and considers the implications of a rapidly evolving
global economy for the future direction and role of the
OECD in the world’s economic governance architecture.
It is especially timely because the financial and economic
crisis has cast doubts on the prevailing economic para-
digm that the OECD, in the eyes of many, has steadfastly
championed.
The principles that presided over the creation of the
OEEC in 1948, which was subsequently transformed into
the OECD (in 1960), continue to shape the doctrine of
the Organisation and to drive its activities. They have led
to economic policies that have been instrumental in the
success of OECD member economies since the Second
World War.
The first of these principles is the belief that coopera-
tion among OECD and non-OECD countries is key to
fostering global and domestic growth and prosperity
and to avoiding the implementation of noncooperative
policies. This conviction is consistent with the original
rationale behind the launch of the Marshall Plan and the
inception of the OEEC, the OECD’s distant ancestor.
The Organisation was initially established in 1948
under the auspices of the OEEC to operationalise the
US-sponsored Marshall Plan. The OEEC worked with its
member countries to develop concrete, explicit develop-
ment plans whereby the European economies were able
Global Policy Volume 2 . Issue 3 . October 2011
ª2011 London School of Economics and Political Science and John Wiley & Sons Ltd. Global Policy (2011) 2:3 doi: 10.1111/j.1758-5899.2011.00101.x
Practitioner Commentary (special section)
318
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