The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), with a central location in Paris, acts as an intergovernmental forum on economic development. Within this forum Member States (29 in all) seek, discuss, and compare solutions to the many issues surrounding economic development including: the environment, sustainable development, tourism, developing nations, etc. The forum both advises its members on certain policies to adopt and helps to set international agreements and legal codes surrounding economic development. The main aims of the OECD include: the promotion and achievement of sustainable economic growth within its member’s states while also aiding in world economic development; promotion of economic expansion in Member and Non-member states; and contributing to the expansion of world trade on a multi-lateral, non-discriminatory basis.
The forum was founded after W.W.II as the Organisation for European Economic Co-operation (OEEC). It was established as a result of the US Marshall plan that was instituted in order to help reconstruct the economies in Western Europe after the war. In 1961, the US and Canada joined and, in turn, the forum became the OECD. Since the addition of these North American countries a series of members from Eastern Europe, Scandinavia, Australia, New Zealand, and Central America have joined; thus further internationalising the ‘new’ economies of Western Europe.
Project focuses of the OECD consist of, but are not limited to: tourism, education, sustainable development, strategies for developing nations, etc. Current projects of the OECD on the subject of sustainable development are concentrating on research in the specific areas of climate change, technological development, environmental impact of subsidies, etc. This is all being done in preparation for a Ministerial Council meeting in 2001.