THE POWER OF PEOPLE, PLACES & FIRMS
Reading Time: 3 minutesWhen people talk about “the cloud”, it sounds weightless, something almost magical floating in the sky. Except that it isn’t. It lives on the ground, in data centres filled with servers that store, process and move staggering amounts of information every second. These data centres consume energy, occupy land, use metals and minerals from global supply chains – and they need vast amounts of water for cooling.
Reading Time: 4 minutesWhen fans travel to Northern Ireland to experience landscapes made famous by Game of Thrones, they are doing more than chasing a fantasy, they are fuelling a regional economy. Although the television series concluded in 2019, it still draws around 350 000 visitors each year, representing around one in six visitors from outside Northern Ireland. How can more regions reel in the benefits of movie stardom?
Reading Time: 6 minutesEn el imaginario colectivo, las regiones rurales suelen evocar imágenes de abandono y decadencia. Sin embargo, esto está lejos de reflejar la realidad. Las zonas rurales albergan al 30% de la población de la OCDE y, en algunos casos, están creciendo más rápido que las ciudades en términos de desarrollo, productividad e innovación. Entonces, ¿por qué las narrativas obsoletas sobre el declive rural siguen eclipsando sus contribuciones? Ha llegado el momento de desmontar los mitos que frenan a estas regiones.
Reading Time: 3 minutesHypervoisins demonstrates how community-based initiatives can enhance social cohesion and mitigate loneliness in urban settings. Through structured neighbourhood activities, shared spaces and peer support, residents develop stronger social networks and improve collective wellbeing. Could this model provide a scalable approach for other cities seeking to address social isolation and strengthen local community ties?
Reading Time: 11 minutesImagine a world where rural and tropical regions aren’t struggling backwaters, but breeding ground for fresh ideas, new jobs and sustainable growth.
In this episode of our #FromtheGroundUp series, Betty-Ann Bryce (OECD) sits down with Ingo Plöger (CEAL), for a conversation to explore how tropical regions, with abundant natural resources, rich biodiversity and favourable climate, can become engines of sustainable growth, innovation and resilient rural development.
Reading Time: 10 minutesThe 2025 OECD Report Reinforcing Rural Resilience reveals that OECD regions have seen a significant loss of forests, with approximately 10% of their forest cover disappearing between 2000 and 2020. To discuss solution-based approaches to this issue, we do not need to necessarily turn to new innovations or technologies, but rather we can look to past wisdom of indigenous knowledge in how to care for nature in a long-sustaining manner.
Reading Time: 10 minutesIn 11 of the 29 OECD countries included in the OECD Reinforcing Rural Resilience report, rural populations are declining. Discussing all things decentralisation, digitalisation and democracy in Kazakhstan, Shayne MacLachlan from the OECD has a conversation with Zhanerke Kochiigit. This conversation took place at the 2025 OECD Latin American Rural Development Conference, Rural-Urban Connections: Pathways to Sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Have a listen.
Reading Time: 3 minutesWhilst the strong emotional attachment to one’s home can be leveraged to bring back migrants that tackle skills gaps, diaspora populations that remain abroad can bring other benefits back home too. Engaging the diaspora should be understood as more than an effort to entice people to return home. Strong local identities endure long after migration, and policymakers can harness this attachment to mobilise skills, knowledge and investment from afar.