“A beacon for globalisation” is how Secretary-General Angel Gurría described the role of the OECD in his address to the Foreign Relations Commission in Rome on 22 February. In this, his first official visit to Italy since becoming secretary-general in 2006, Mr Gurría met with President Giorgio Napolitano and Prime Minister Romano Prodi (on the right in photo), as well as other officials in Rome and Milan. He addressed the Foreign Relations Commission and spoke at a dinner hosted by the Italian minister of foreign affairs. With globalisation and the necessity for reforms as the focus of his talks, Mr Gurría emphasised that “globalisation has not been an inclusive process. We have to produce the instruments to make it so”.

The global crisis and how to get growth and development back on track led the agenda as ministers from MENA and OECD countries gathered at Marrakech in Morocco on 23 November 2009. In our ninth OECD Observer ministers' roundtable, we asked representatives from four MENA countries-Morocco (as hosts of the ministerial meeting), Bahrain, Egypt and Yemen-and from three OECD members-Italy, Korea and Spain: "What action is your government taking to help improve development prospects in the MENA region?"

Climate change is a pressing challenge, requiring leadership and determined action. At the same time, people are concerned that policies do not put them at an economic disadvantage or unnecessarily undermine their welfare.

Can governments balance these concerns? The OECD’s Environment Policy Committee meets at ministerial level on 28-29 April 2008 under the theme of global competitiveness. Some non-OECD developing countries will also participate, as will stakeholders from business, labour and civil society.

Both the size and the relative incidence or frequency of the foreign-born population have increased in all OECD countries since 1995. So while there have been large increases in traditional migration countries such as the US and New Zealand, there have also been sharp rises in Denmark, Korea, Ireland, Italy, Norway and Spain, where inward migration has recently taken off.