Community Portal November 2010

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Community Portal from the month of November 2010. See this months news and events in the up-to-date Community Portal

Contents

In the Spotlight: Human Development Report 2010

Human Development Report 2010 —20th Anniversary Edition The Real Wealth of Nations: Pathways to Human Development

See more on the HDR 2010 including links to the full report and news coverage.


Community notice board 

The community notice board is a place for the community to interact. Feel free to post questions and comments here.


Media

See in the section below contains news articles and blogs that have been released this month.


Special Media Reviews

Pages dedicated to media reviews on particular topics or important events in the measuring progress community. From this month:


Progress in the News (November 2010)

We’ve all heard that money can’t buy you love. Now comes the news that once you reach a certain level, it can’t even buy you happiness.


Economic Life: One point often made is that US income per head has risen over the past couple of generations but people are not getting any happier as a result



Measured a different way, the correlation between money and happiness is surprisingly strong


The two congressional districts that represent Aldine ranked below the state and national averages in a recent study designed to measure overall well-being and opportunity, with one of the districts coming in dead last in Texas.


The old adage about money not buying happiness might be right. A sweeping study of Canadians has found other factors, like mental and physical health, stress levels, and a sense of belonging to a community, are more important determinants of happiness than income.


China Youth Daily recently conducted a survey among 2,633 people through www.minyi.net.cn and news.sohu.com. The survey shows that nearly 96 percent of respondents believe the public happiness index is relevant to local government actions and nearly 69 percent of respondents believe local government actions have much to do with the public happiness index.


More than 95 percent of Chinese believe that governmental performance impacts directly on their happiness and close to 90 percent agreed that people's happiness index should be one of the criteria of assessment for government officials' performances, according to an online poll.


British Premier David Cameron has announced a happiness index to measure the country’s state of wellbeing. The promotion of happiness as the goal of policy-making is by no means new; Bhutan created a Gross National Happiness Index and banned wrestling shows and MTV.


The "happiness index" has increasingly shifted from a psychological topic to the center theme of the governments' administrative guidelines. The phrase now frequently appears in government reports from the UK to China's local governments.


China, like most other countries, has been using GDP to measure its economic development. But the United Kingdom has decided to use gross national happiness (GNH), which is supposed to make people's welfare the real goal of a country, says an article in Beijing News.


Reading about British Prime Minister David Cameron’s plans to start measuring happiness reminded me of that old Star Trek phrase: Live long and prosper. It was Dr. Spock, the very logical Vulcan, who used it. Most of us remember the accompanying hand sign but I loved the phrase, it encompasses so much in four words. In fact prosper is a really good word, but what exactly does it mean?


Sen. Loren Legarda has suggested that the Philippine government use a “happiness index” apart from the gross national product to measure the country’s economic growth.


Happiness is...a national index of joy? (The Indian Times 21.11.2010)
The happiest thing about constructing a happiness index is absolute liberation from the miserable thought of reaching journey's end. Prime Minister David Cameron's decision to start measuring recession-hit Britain's happiness in order to steer government policy is likely to make at least the following four groups very happy: a shuffle of bureaucrats; a scum of politicians; a confusion of economists and a variance of statisticians.


As a Briton who visits America regularly, I generally expect to have my spirits lifted. The anything-is-possible attitude for which the New World is famous shames the habitual Old World weariness I have left behind. As I sit writing this in San Francisco, the sun is indeed shining, but that familiar sentiment seems to be missing. At the moment, America sees its glass as half empty.


China ranks 125th on the Forbes' gross national happiness (GNH) index, though its GDP is now the second largest in the world. This does not surprise us, because 35.97 million people in China still live in extreme poverty.


Are you satisfied? Britain is set to ask its citizens that question in household surveys seeking to measure "emotional prosperity". In fact, the UK could soon be one of the few countries to officially gauge general psychological well-being. The Brits didn't think of it first. Bhutan has long championed the promotion of "gross national happiness" (GNH). France too wants to measure "quality of life". Like laughter, the "science of happiness" bug is infectious. So, it's catching on. Not least because surveys in Europe suggest deeper pockets don't always mean deeper contentment. Even America, described in a John Updike novel as the "happiest" country on earth, isn't immune. A US economist has said rich countries are happier than poor ones, but their north-bound economic growth doesn't cause a corresponding rise in general happiness.



Singaporeans have been hailed as having the best quality of life in Asia and eighth-best in the world, according a recent research study.


Western leaders are looking beyond traditional indexes of economic and social well-being and turning to ways of measuring national happiness. Philip Johnston wonders how such a scheme might work.


It’s been a rough few weeks for social researchers in the aftermath of the Spending Review and as the reality of austerity sinks in. But here’s something to smile about: Prime Minister David Cameron wants to commission a new ongoing survey of how happy people are.


So it's official. Stiff-upper-lip-Brits have gone all touchy-feely. Today the Guardian Newspaper reported that "The UK government is poised to start measuring people's psychological and environmental wellbeing, bidding to be among the first countries to officially monitor happiness."


Governments are mulling the adoption of a happiness index to measure psychological and environmental well-being as one method of assessing a nation's economic progress and guiding national policies, but analysts are split over the viability of the indicator.


Britain is poised to start measuring people's psychological and environmental well-being, making it one of the first countries to officially monitor happiness. Bhutan has had a happiness index since the 1970s.


The UK government is poised to start measuring people’s psychological and environmental wellbeing, bidding to be among the first countries to officially monitor happiness.


The UK government is to start monitoring our happiness, with the stated aim of making wellbeing a starting point for policy. In advance of this, we thought we'd do our own informal survey. So, are you happy?


How happy is the UK? The Government wants to know, and is drawing up a list of questions to ask the public. But what do you think they should be asking? Channel 4 News finds out.


Politicians often think they instinctively know what makes us happy. David Cameron is right to turn to statistics


The British government plans to follow through on Prime Minister David Cameron's campaign pledge to gauge national happiness and use the findings to help shape policy.


Europeans are becoming less "emotionally prosperous" despite the continuing rise in living standards, according to research that questions why the public are so badly misjudging what makes them happy.


Despite 'nervousness', David Cameron wants measure of wellbeing to steer government policy


To take stock of progress and identify problems and solutions towards achieving the overall objective of reducing poverty to 15 percent by 2013, planners and implementers met yesterday in Thimphu for the mid term review of the 10th Plan.


As you might expect from Switzerland, Geneva is living proof that quality of life doesn’t come cheap. While it has an almost permanent presence in the world’s top five most attractive cities, you’ll usually find it in the top five most expensive as well.


MomIndex falls to a C grade in overall life satisfaction due to notable drops in Money and World categories


Seoul 11 November 2010 -Representatives of more than fifty organisations, who participated in a dialogue session last month with G20 negotiators, have offered twenty ways for the G20 to ensure that empoverished communities benefit from the financial and economic policies that will be endorsed in Seoul this week. Recommendations include a focus on decent work for the tens of millions of people who lost their jobs as the result of an economic crisis.


HEALTH Minister, Professor Onyebuchi Chukwu said although Nigeria has made notable progress on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) on several fronts, very attempt to measure progress made has in itself remained extremely problematic.


Amazing Thailand, really ! Barely six months after the bloodshed, curfew, gunshots and arsonists going wild in Bangkok, the kingdom is parading on top of HSBC’s latest report Expat Experience 2010. Apparently civil war and dead bodies rolling in the gutter is part of the fun.


Measured Progress has greatly enhanced its assessment and data management capabilities with the recent acquisition of Datawise, Inc. Datawise provides support for all aspects of assessment automation and data management.


Here's a new map of well-being for America's 350-plus metro areas. It's based on surveys with more than one million Americans from data from the Gallup-Heathways Well-Being Index. Well-being follows the same basic bi-coastal pattern as income, human capital, and the creative class, being higher on the coasts than in the Midwest and Sunbelt.


Ten years after all ASEAN Leaders and international organisations signed the United Nations Millennium Declaration on 8 September 2000, a workshop was recently held at the ASEAN Secretariat to discuss the advantages of a regular statistical report on ASEAN’s progress towards the Millennium Development Goals.



The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) says the people of Mozambique have a better quality of life and education, since civil war ended in 1992.

Malta climbed five places in a year in a UN quality of life report which highlighted major concerns about air quality in the country.


The quality of life in Zimbabwe has plunged to a 40-year low, according to the 2010 United Nations Human Development Report published last week.


The International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission has informed the country’s economic managers that only visible progress on agreed performance benchmarks would lead to completion of the fifth review after which an Executive Board meeting would be convened to consider Pakistan’s case for release of next tranche of $1.7 billion, official sources said on Friday.


African countries scatter the rankings, Ethiopia climbs to the top while Zimbabwe hits rock bottom


The latest United Nations Human Development index declares Zimbabwe has the worst quality of life in the world.


New York, NY, United States (AHN) – Norway topped the United Nations’ 2010 Quality of Life Index released Thursday. Norway was followed by Australia, New Zealand, United States and Ireland.


Britain has slipped so far down a league table grading the quality of life in countries around the world that it sits below debt-plagued Greece.


New York, Nov 4 (DPA) 'Substantial progress' has been made by many countries, including India, in recent years in boosting health, education and income for their people, the UN Development Programme (UNDP) said Thursday.


Since 1980 the country that has made the greatest strides in improving human development is Nepal, according to the UN’s annual Human Development Index (HDI). The index is a combination of three sub-indices covering wealth, health and education.


Rapid economic growth of the past decade has ensured India a place among the top 10 movers on GDP growth, but the country ranks a low 119 among 169 countries on the 2010 Human Development Index . China has been ranked much higher at 89 on the index published annually by the United Nations Development Programme.


Annual UN report concludes 'people today are generally healthier, wealthier and better educated than they were in 1970'



I was speaking last weekend at the Battle of Ideas conference in London on the theme of “Whose social justice is it anyway?”. My full speech is below. Its aim is to state principles of equality against the dominant “values” or beliefs that undermine economic and social progress. It was a useful debate.


New statistics and methods measuring the true level of development have to be built-upon to more accurately reflect human needs, a gathering of United Nations experts said Monday.


The clearest explanation yet of the forces that converged over the past three decades or so to undermine the economic well-being of ordinary Americans is contained in the new book, “Winner-Take-All Politics: How Washington Made the Rich Richer — and Turned Its Back on the Middle Class.”


Blogs on progress (November 2010)

David Cameron, the British prime minister, should look to Latin America for guidance on how to be happy

The UK government is poised to start measuring people’s psychological and environmental wellbeing, bidding to be among the first countries to officially monitor happiness.


David Cameron’s Politics Of The Wellbeing: Finally We Get To Put Them In The Stocks (Anorak 14.11.2010)
Can David Cameron, the marketing man-turned-political leader, think of a theme for his administration? Tony Blair had Cool Britannia. Well, here goes...


The UN Development Programme (UNDP) has for the last 20 years pioneered seemingly innovative approaches to development that have substantially redefined the terms on which development aid is conceived, offered and spent. The publishing of the first Human Development Report in 1990 was a bold move which made a case for measuring and judging countries’ developmental status in a way which focused on quality of life indicators as well as macro-economic statistics – an idea now which is completely mainstream and commonplace amongst donor governments and development practitioners.


The American Human Development Project (AHDP) released the results its 2010-2011 Measure of America survey of on Wednesday. Colorado's "Human Development Index," which seeks to quantify quality of life using government and other data, was #10 in the nation based on statistics for health, wealth and education.


Research into remittances shows that migrant workers and diaspora make significant contribution to the poorest countries


Measuring economic welfare is not an exact science. Often in economics we focus on GDP statistics (measuring national output). However, quality of life depends on many other factors apart from just GDP.


In recent years, the Gross National Happiness (GNH) has emerged as a contender to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the latter being a traditional measure of the country’s overall economic output. The issue with GDP is that it does not give a reflection of the standards of living. And it ignores the generation of diseconomies or negative externalities, otherwise known as negative environmental impacts such as air or noise pollution. Hence, the suggestion of Gross National Happiness as an alternative indicator, because it measures quality of life in holistic and psychological terms.


With progress on global warming stalled at the national and international levels, a new initiative aims to get the world's largest cities to report on their contributions to, and preparations for, climate change. CDP Cities allows for the reporting of quantitative data, such as greenhouse gas inventories, as well as the qualitative data that acknowledges the different characteristics of individual cities.


The election results are in with the tea party’s war cry still echoing in our heads: This administration and the outgoing Congress were hell-bent on imposing a welfare state on this great nation. In light of the gains the tea party made with that call to arms, let’s take a quick look at that welfare state to end all welfare states — Denmark — and ask the Danes, “How’s that welfare state thingy working out for you?”


Every day, millions of people around the world share how they feel about the people and things which matter the most in their lives through status updates on Facebook, which is now the most popular social networking website in cyberspace. Status updates are little windows for us to take a peek into seeing what our friends or contacts are doing. They tell you what is going on next month, next week, this week and even now..this very moment. In real-time.


ICT is expected to promote four pillars of GNH
By 2020 Bhutan expects to achieve gross national happiness (GNH) through Information and Communication Technology (ICT) by nurturing an information society bonded by shared national consciousness promoting the four pillars of GNH.


Progress papers and reports released this month

Call for papers

Call for Abstracts - You are cordially invited to submit abstracts for papers to be presented at the 3rd International Conference of the International Society for Child Indicators to be held at the University of York, UK 27-29 July 2011.


Over 800 delegates from all over the world will convene in York, United Kingdom for the EADI / DSA conference. Delegates will represent development research institutes, international organisations, the European Commission and bilateral donor organisations. These thinkers, leaders and decision-makers will exchange ideas about new values, voices and alliances for increased resilience.





Debates

Ideas Economy: Human Potential 2010 (The Economist 15-16th September)

Debate hosted by the Economist Ideas Economy- Human Potential 2010

'Today, humanity is on track to advance physically, economically, and intellectually more than ever before. But there are still serious challenges ahead. For instance, how do we educate billions of new people in the coming decades—and manage their successful entry into the global economy—in an age of high unemployment and aging demographics? It is this kind of global challenge that can only be resolved by bringing together the smartest minds from government, academia and business—including education, human resources, healthcare, design, policy, science and technology—to debate tough issues and collaborate on practical solutions. With a new workforce that will be unlike any ever seen—a generation of young workers demanding entirely new work environments, and an aging population that requires heavy resources—the nature of work and talent development must evolve dramatically. The Ideas Economy: Human Potential event is an opportunity to understand these important issues from every perspective—and meet the leaders who can help optimise human potential, for individuals, companies, and society at large in the decades to come.


The Multidimensional Poverty Index

This is more of a back and forth than a debate. The subject is the recently launched Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI). Duncan Green, renowned blogger for the Oxfam blog From Poverty to Power, gives a brief overview of the new index. World Bank research director, Martin Ravallion criticizes the MPI for two key reasons, firstly the aggregation of indicators to a single index and secondly the choice of weights for the index. Finally Sabina Alkire, director of the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) and co-creator of the Index, defends her work and responds to both previous posts. For further background information, see Multidimensional Poverty Index


Background and introduction to the debate: The Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) has been working for years to try and develop such metrics, and they recently launched the ‘Multidimensional Poverty Index’ (MPI), which will feature in this year’s UNDP Human Development Report, celebrating its 20th anniversary. I’ll briefly summarize it here, before unleashing an exchange of guest blogs between the World Bank and OPHI.


Martin Ravallion is Director of the World Bank’s research department, the Development Research Group. 


Sabina Alkire responds to the previous posts by Martin Ravallion and Duncan Green. 


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