June 2012 eBrief

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Wikiprogress: June 2012

The Wikiprogress Team reports on the latest activity from our network!

Wikiprogress highlights

This month Wikiprogress released a summary report of the May 2012 Online Discussion "Leading Change - The Canadian Index of Wellbeing" (CIW). Twenty-seven detailed discussion posts provided an interesting insight into the key issues raised by the CIW. In responding to specific questions, certain themes and trends became evident. As we move into what many refer to as the ‘second wave’ of well-being measurement, this discussion helped develop the discourse around the application of new measures of progress to policy.

We are pleased to announce the launch of the European Network on Measuring Progress which aims to foster the on-going debate on the measurement of well-being and the progress of societies among all relevant stakeholders and the ‘Wikiprogress Europe’ platform that will strive to facilitate that knowledge sharing and discussion as part of the eFrame Project. The Network was launched at the European Conference on Measuring Well-Being and Fostering the Progress of Societies, 26-28 June 2012, Paris, France

The summary conclusions of the discussions held during of the African Conference on Measuring Well-Being and Fostering the Progress of Societies, 19-21 April 2012 are now available. Note that the final text will be the African contribution to the 4th OECD World Forum.

ASCD conducted its second annual Whole Child Virtual Conference from May 3–11, 2012. This free online event explored what outstanding schools, communities, and individuals have done as they move along the continuum of the whole child approach from implementation to sustainability to culture. All 24 sessions are being archived and are free, viewable and sharable.

Reports and indicators released this month

The Happy Planet Index (HPI) - 2012 Report, new economics foundation (nef): the HPI is a measure of sustainable well-being: the extent to which countries deliver long, happy, sustainable lives for the people that live in them. Whilst Costa Rica tops the ranking for the second time, no country achieves success on all three component indicators showing we are still not living on a happy planet. The Happy Planet Charter, which has been launched alongside the results, calls on governments and the UN to develop better measures of national progress, and has wide support from across civil society.
Global Peace Index (GPI) Report 2012, Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP): the GPI ranks 158 nations using 23 qualitative and quantitative indicators which gauge ongoing domestic and international conflict, safety and security in society and militarization. The sixth edition of the Index has found that the world, for the first time since 2009, is slightly more peaceful.
Global Environmental Outlook 5, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP): The fifth edition of the Global Environmental Outlook (GEO-5), launched on the eve of the Rio+20 Summit, assessed 90 of the most-important environmental goals and objectives and found that significant progress had only been made in four
Cnel and Istat have just published their list of the identified indicators for measuring well-being in Italy. There are 134 indicators grouped into 12 domains. The final report of the initiative, including the results emerging from the analysis of all the measures, will be available by the end of 2012.
“What Makes for A Better Life?”, OECD Statistics Working Paper : This paper uses data from the Gallup World Poll to explore the determinants of subjective well-being in OECD Countries.

The latest contributions

Japan “Measuring National Well-Being, Proposed Well-Being Indicators” report was released by the Commission on Measuring Well-Being on 5 December 2011 in Tokyo at the “Asia-Pacific Conference on Measuring Well-Being and Fostering the Progress of Societies”.
The UNESCO E-ATLAS Series: To what extent is China investing in experimental research? In which African countries are the numbers of out-of-school children rising? How have graduation rates for girls in Latin America changed over time? A new series of online interactive eAtlases launched by UNESCO provides users with a free and powerful tool to map and graph data and indicators on these and other critical policy issues in the field of education, science and technology.

A Smarter GDP, Wealth Accounting and the Valuation of Ecosystem Services: this report shows that 24 countries are already using natural capital accounting in their economic decision making. By fully accounting for fisheries, water, and forests, countries can provide more accurate information to their policy makers.
The System of Community Accounts is a standardised, centralised, integrated source of social and economic data built for the use of government departments, organisations, and citizens. It brings together administrative and survey data from a variety of community, provincial, national, and international sources and is organised under a well-being framework.

Wikigender highlights from the gender equality and progress community:

Wikigender released the Summary Report of the Wikigender Online Discussion "How can gender equality be better integrated into climate change policies and programmes in order to ensure sustainable development?". The summary captures the rich exchange of views and examples on the interlinkages between gender equality and climate change and identifies proposals to better integrate the gender dimension into climate change policies and programmes in order to ensure sustainable development.

Wikigender's Community Portal Special Focus is on Women and sustainable development at the Rio+20 UN Conference. See how the media have been covering the event!

Wikichild highlights from the child well-being and progress community:

Child well-being was an important topic in the news this month. World Against Child Labour Day on June 12 and the Rio+20 conference drew attention to factors impacting on both current and future child well-being. In addition to reviewing global media and blogging about these issues, six new articles on publications relevant to child labour, sustainable development and child well-being have been added to the portal.

UNICEF Report Card 10: Measuring child poverty This UNICEF report examines progress made by the world's wealthiest countries in reducing child poverty and deprivation through analysis of the latest internationally comparable data on these two measures.

A Global Compact on Learning, Brookings Institution: Taking Action on Education in Developing Countries While recognizing the positive impact of the Education for All and the Millennium Development Goals, the Brookings Institution calls for a new goal of 'learning for all’ as the minimum threshold to which the international community must aspire.

Disaster Risk Reduction and Young Children, Asia Pacific Regional Network for Early Childhood (ARNEC): Children aged 0-8 represent the highest percentage of affected populations global emergencies. This ARNEC guidebook, sets out processes for assessing community capacity and needs to improve Early Childhood Development in Disaster Risk Reduction.

Investing in Every Child: An economic study of the costs and benefits of eliminating child labour, International Labour Organisation.

A guide to measuring children’s well-being by the new economics foundation (nef), offers an explanation of how, why and what role children have in the measurement of their own well-being.

Children, young people and Agenda 21 covers the two fundamental programme areas for the involvement of children and young people in decision making processes relating to the environment.

Latin America Network blog highlights from this month: