OECD KOREA Policy Centre

Health And Social Policy Programme

History: OECD's proposal to the Korean Ministry of Health and Welfare of establishing a Joint Korea/OECD Regional Centre on Health and Social Policy or holding a regular policy meeting (March, 2004); Exchange of a Letter of Intent between the OECD and the Korean Ministry of Health and Welfare to establish a Joint Korea/OECD Regional Centre on Health and Social Policy (May 13, 2004); Conclusion of MOU between the OECD and the Korean Ministry of Health and Welfare to establish the Centre (March 31, 2005); Enactment of rules on establishment and management of a Joint Korea/OECD Regional Centre on Health and Social Policy (Ordinance No 163, Korean Ministry of Health and Welfare) (July 4, 2005); Opening of a Joint Korea/OECD Regional Centre on Health and Social Policy (September 9, 2005); Integrated into the OECD/KOREA Policy Centre (February 1, 2007)

Major Functions: Operation of educational programmes on Social Health and Policy for public officials and private experts to enhance health and welfare systems in the Asian region; Research on major issues related to social policy sectors as agreed by both the OECD and the Korean Ministry of Health and Welfare; Translation of OECD publications; Construction of intellectual infrastructure on social policy sectors in the Asian region through computation and accumulation of statistical data on health and welfare; Provision of policy dialogue between the OECD and Asian countries through advisory meetings, seminars, and workshops on social policy

Business Important

　Health Statistics

Health Care Quality Improvement Project

The Centre’s new work on health field focuses on improving quaulity of care in in the Asian/Pacific Region.
This work involves collaboration with the WHO.

FacilitatingOECD activities related to quality of care in Asia and Pacific region

Health Care Quality Indicator work and Research on quality of care in the region

Health Statistics

The Centre’s work on health statistics focuses on developing health accounting systems to track health expenditures and financing flows in the Asian/Pacific Region. This work involves collaboration with the Asia-Pacific National Health Accounts Network.

Health expenditure data, which provide detailed and relevant information on "Who gets what, where, and how", are especially important to meet the needs of health policy-makers and researchers. To respond to these needs, the OECD manual, A System of Health Accounts(SHA) provides a standard framework for producing a set of comprehensive, consistent and internationally comparable accounts.

Since the publication of the SHA Manual in 2000 by the OECD and the subsequent Producers Guide(WHO, World Bank and USAID, 2003), a number of OECD and non-OECD countries have undergone the implementation of SHA systems and produced SHA Tables.

An Outline of SHA Implementation Projects

Since 2005, the Health Programme of the OECD/Korea Policy Centre has hosted annual Health Accounts Expert Meetings and engaged in several projects involving SHA data collection and the production of SHA Green Papers. The Centre has published 17 Green Papers on Bangladesh, Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong SAR, Mongolia, Korea, Thailand, Sri Lanka, China, Malaysia, India, Fiji, FSM, Indonesian and Comparative report.
　Social Policies
Introduction

In recent years, Asian countries have experienced drastic changes in social structure due to rapid economic development. This has led to growing needs for social policies that are responsive to those changes. In order to formulate and design such social policies, it is essential that data relevant to policy-making be available. The Health and Social Policy Programme of OECD/Korea Policy Centre has set up a project to develop and disseminate social indicators on Asian/Pacific economies.
Goal
- To promote overall economic and social growths in Asian/Pacific region.
Objectives
- Collect, accumulate, and share social data.
- Provide training to the experts of Asian/Pacific countries on the production and use of social policy statistics.
International Conference and Workshops

The goal of the international conferences and workshops is to help other Asian/Pacific countries build data collection capability,share data, and analyse social policies.

We hope to play an important part in achieving our goal of promoting economic growths and social welfare by hosting these events.
Related Information
Social Expenditure Database (SOCX)
- The OECD SOCX is a database that includes reliable and internationally comparable statistics on public and private social expenditure at programme level. SOCX provides a unique tool for monitoring trends in aggregate social expenditure and analysing changes in its composition.
- Other relevant statistics are the Social Security Inquiry (SSI) of International Labour Organization(ILO)and Social Protection Index (SPI) of Asian Development Bank(ADB).
Society at a Glance (SaG)
- SaG provides an overview of social trends and policies in 5 sets of indicators: General Context Indicators (GE), Self-sufficiency Indicators (SS), Equity Indicators (EQ), Health Indicators (HE), and Social Cohesion Indicators (CO).
- These social indicators provide a broad perspective needed for any international comparison a nd assessment of social trends, outcomes,and related policies.
　Pensions Analysis Project
Pension Policy Analysis Project
The OECD developed a method of Analysis of Pension Entitlements across Countries (APEX) and produced three international pension policy comparison reports on OECD countries:
- Pensions at a Glance
The OECD Social Policy Division has researched pension schemes in the Asia-Pacific countries in collaboration with the World Bank. The results were published in "Pensions at a Glance: ASIA PACIFIC" report.

We hold a pension experts' meeting every year, where international pension experts primarily from Asian-Pacific economies discuss and compare their countries' experiences and analyse their pension systems using the APEX method.