Americans’ emotional health is at its highest level since an ongoing study started measuring it four years ago, according to a Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index.
Australia is living up to its nickname of 'the lucky country,' with a new survey marking it as the happiest industrialized nation in the world based on criteria such as jobs, income and health.
Nunavut ranks below Estonia and Cyprus when it comes to socio-economic well-being, according to a study by the Ottawa-based Centre for the Study of Living Standards.
April 2012 Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index(R) Shows Increases in Emotional Health, Healthy Behaviors, Access to Basic Necessities and Life Evaluation
Business leaders from India, Sub-Saharan Africa and the United States have joined forces to tackle a wide range of global health issues in the developing world and accelerate the translation of research into life-saving products.
United Nations senior officials today stressed the importance of establishing a new paradigm for growth that ensures social inclusiveness, job opportunities for all, and more accountability from the financial sector to tackle the ongoing global economic crisis.
The 2012 UN Human Development Report for Africa has asked African states to institute measures to lower people and communities' vulnerability to natural disasters, civil conflicts and seasonal or volatile changes in food prices and climate change.
Speech by Helen Clark, Administrator of UNDP on the occasion of the launch of the UNDP Africa Human Development Report 2012 "Towards a Food Secure Future"
In what may be another hit for the current state of economic affairs of the country, the recently released Gallup research at the Behaviour Economics Forum in the Capital shows that nearly 240 million people, or 31 per cent of Indians, are "suffering."
I've written about Richard Easterlin here before. He's a noted economist and professor at the University of Southern California who's often credited with pioneering "happiness" as a worthy subject for economists to study
African countries need more support from the private sector in order to meet the United Nations Millennium Development Goals by 2015, which include important development targets like poverty reduction, and improved health and education.
Inequality isn’t only plaguing America—the Arab Spring flowered because international capitalism is broken. In From Cairo to Wall Street: Voices from the Global Spring, edited by Anya Schiffrin and Eamon Kircher-Allen, Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz says the world is finally rising up and demanding a democracy where people, not dollars, matter—the best government that money can buy just isn’t good enough.
"What you measure is what you get,” said Nobel prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz. Soon Vermont may measure its economic well-being somewhat differently.
If a fairy godmother were to wave a magic wand to satisfy our every wish, what would we ask for? An end to poverty, disease, violence and environmental degradation?
United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon who is on an India trip Friday met Meira Kumar during which the Lok Sabha speaker asked him to involve developing countries in the consultation process with regard to the millennium development goals.
Aside from tiny Bhutan and their pursuit of Gross National Happiness, every country bases economic policy on the pursuit of endless GDP growth, and companies are right there with them. But common sense tells us that nothing can grow forever, and thus national and corporate-level goals alike have a sizeable blind spot.
A recent World Bank report has revealed that economic growth in sub-Saharan Africa remains strong and is poised for a lift-off after growing at 4.9 percent in 2011, just shy of the pre-crisis average of 5 percent.
When Kenya’s newly announced geothermal power generation project comes online, it will turn the East African country into an economic powerhouse in the region.
While many African countries have registered significant advances during the past decade, overall the continent will miss 2015 goals by a wide margin at the current rate.
UNDP economic advisor Roberto Tibana says Luapula Province is not doing well and is least in human development compared to other provinces in the country.
The suffering index measures respondents' perceptions of where they stand on a ladder scale with steps numbered from 0 to 10, where "0" represents the worst possible life.
As one of the few students among the bevy of diplomats and world leaders attending the United Nation's high-level meeting on wellness and happiness last Monday, I wasn't sure how I or my fellow peers fit into the discussion.
Despite many successes in creating a more integrated and stable global economy, a new report by the United Nations Secretary-General’s High-Level Panel on Global Sustainability – Resilient People, Resilient Planet: A Future Worth Choosing – recognizes the current global order’s failure, even inability, to implement the drastic changes needed for true “sustainability.”
Economists and development experts are meeting at the United Nations in New York to discuss whether improving happiness is just as important as increasing gross national product (GNP) for developing countries.
If happiness could be measured the way a country's economic performance is measured in terms of gross national product or gross domestic product, then Malaysia would be the world's 51st happiest country.
Despite many successes in creating a more integrated and stable global economy, a new report by the United Nations Secretary-General’s High-Level Panel on Global Sustainability – Resilient People, Resilient Planet: A Future Worth Choosing – recognizes the current global order’s failure, even inability, to implement the drastic changes needed for true “sustainability.”
Bhutan, the tiny Himalayan nation which tops Asia in the United Nations' First World Happiness Report, convened the meeting seeking to develop a new economic model based on principles of happiness and well being.
As Ryback explains, the meeting was approved in a UN resolution last year recognizing that “the pursuit of happiness is a fundamental human goal” and “the gross domestic product [GDP] does not adequately reflect the happiness and well-being of peopl.
The feelgood factor has not yet reached the leader of Bhutan, the country that brought the world the National Happiness Index. But the Himalayan kingdom's campaign to put gross national happiness alongside gross domestic product is starting to sway ...
Happiness research is now one of the hottest fields in development economics, thanks to Bhutan's Gross National Happiness Index (GNH), which replaces the traditional Gross National Product (GDP) as gauge of national progress.
On Monday at the UN, the Prime Minister of Bhutan is convening a summit titled Wellbeing and Happiness: Defining a New Economic Paradigm. The idea is to advance a movement to get the world's leaders to think differently about how they measure success.
With the anaemic levels of GDP growth in developed countries, focusing on other indicators like happiness might look like a not-so-subtle way of trying to change the music.
Next week Bhutan will host host a high level conference at the United Nations in New York with the hope of placing happiness, rather than growth, at the heart of the economy
The pressing need for a global "new deal" to foster sustainable development and reduce inequalities was the conclusion of the 2012 Global Human Development Forum, a new initiative by the United Nations, held in Istanbul from Mar. 22-23.
Two economists envision a scary -- and scarily realistic -- future where the working population expands slower and slower, and jobless recoveries are the only recoveries we know
Who are the happiest people? According to a new report from Gallup, it's those who regularly go to a place of worship, whether it be a church, mosque or synagogue.
The international community must “reset the global development agenda” and strengthen its commitment to sustainable development, a United Nations-backed conference in Istanbul heard today.
Quite a few of the 10 provincial regions that did most in improving residents' average income in 2011 are from China's relatively backward western regions, which included Guizhou, Yunnan and Chongqing, according to the latest 2011 Gross Domestic Product quality rankings recently published by the Beijing-based China Economy Research Institute, a think-tank of China Economic Weekly under People's Daily News Group.
Regardless of our attaining a seven per cent GDP growth rate in the ... something which cannot make anyone with the nation's well-being in mind, happy.
A group of independent United Nations experts today urged States to include universally agreed international human rights norms and standards, as well as accountability mechanisms, in the goals that will emerge from a UN sustainable development forum in June.
African negotiators to the forthcoming Rio+20 conference on sustainable development, to be held in June, gathered in New York last week for a training session on negotiation techniques. The African Development Bank (AfDB) supports six of the negotiators from its African member states.
It’s 40 years since the publication of The Limits to Growth. In Europe and in China, writes Patrick Schroeder, a new wave of thinkers and decision-makers are beginning to revisit its core message.
It’s been a good few days for Millennium Development Goals. Not one but two targets were reported as met last week, which means that we have reason to celebrate.
Japan's landscape was a surreal sight to behold one year ago: Flipped cars, ships on top of buildings, completely dismantled homes. As victims of the destruction walked through wreckage in disbelief, or paddled down flooded streets in boats, the rest of the world processed the imagery from afar.
Ban calls for more global partnership to checkmate extreme poverty. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Friday stressed that focused financing and partnerships for development have resulted in great strides in the global efforts to combat extreme poverty and facilitate social development, noting that the number of impoverished people is declining across the world.
It's a long time now since my first visit to Uluru, the stupendous sandstone formation in Australia's Red Center that European settlers called Ayers Rock, but which has now officially reverted to the name by which it was always known to the Pitjantjatjara Aboriginal people.
A team from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, or O.E.C.D., has just come out with a fascinating little study mapping the correlation between performance on the Program for International Student Assessment, or PISA, exam — which every two years tests math, science and reading comprehension skills of 15-year-olds in 65 countries — and the total earnings on natural resources as a percentage of G.D.P. for each participating country.
Joseph Stiglitz, a Nobel Prize-winning economist, offered a sobering outlook this week on Europe's debt crisis, predicting the euro in its current form was unlikely to survive.
Happiness is an elusive thing for many Americans, according to a Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index that found Hawaii to be the best off state in the country, and West Virginia, the worst, when it comes to achieving a happy lifestyle.
A report commissioned by Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, from Joseph Stiglitz and Amartya Sen, the Nobel laureate economists, was the inspiration for the Office for National Statistics’ work on measuring national well-being,
In the report, EPHA highlights the growing body of evidence that GDP alone cannot measure all aspects of human development, does not account for social costs.
Nobel Prize winner Joseph Stiglitz suggested that Gross Domestic Product – the method with which we measure national wealth – is an inadequate measure and recommended new indicators to assess sustainability in ways that complement traditional measures of growth
It is easy to misunderstand my position on the grim report of the National Bureau of Statistics on the deteriorating standards of living in Nigeria. I must therefore state it clearly that there is indeed unjustified abject poverty in Nigeria.
If region's economic and social woes aren't competently dealt with, desired democratic transition in Arab world will fail, warns new report by UN Development Programme (UNDP)
The Asia-Pacific region has made big gains in reducing poverty and is moving fast towards other development goals, but still has high levels of hunger as well as child and maternal mortality, said a new report released here today.
Gross National Happiness or happiness interwoven with balanced economic development was a concept introduced by Bhutan's King in 1972, as an alternative to Gross Domestic Product, said Bhutan's National Assembly member Dupthob at the start of a four-day visit to Arunachal Pradesh as the leader of a five-member team.
Living in the midst of floods, wars and earthquakes, you wonder if the world is a happy place to live in. But it seems there are happy places throughout the world. Take a look.
The aspirational Indian argues that happiness is now within the reach of each one of us... provided we are not tight-fisted and give in to the urge to splurge
The United States National Medal of Arts and Humanities awarded Monday to Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen — the first non-American to be conferred the rare honour — speaks to the universalism of his contributions in economics and philosophy over the past five decades
Authorities in south China's Guangdong province have released the region's first official happiness index report, with the city of Guangzhou topping the list, followed by Dongguan and Zhuhai, the New Express Daily reports.
Zurich has become the world’s most expensive city to live in, according to the latest Worldwide Cost of Living Survey from the Economist Intelligence Unit, our sister company.
Community participation will be the key to the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), Community Development, Mother and Child Health Minister Joseph Katema has said.
US president Barack Obama on Monday will award the National Medals of Arts and Humanities to Indian economist Amartya Sen who won his Nobel Prize for Economics in 1998 for his studies of the roots of poverty.
The announcement by President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration last week that it would create a national happiness index and make Taiwanese wealthier marks an important task for the Cabinet led by Premier Sean Chen (陳冲).
With bated breath, the world’s markets recently waited for the announcement of the U.S. fourth-quarter gross domestic product growth rate – a potential bellwether for the global economy. It turned out to be 2.8 percent.
The current environmental scenarios suggest that by 2050 human development index will have a considerable reduction, said Barbara Pesce-Monteiro, permanent representative in Cuba of the UN Program for Development.
The country will begin quantifying GNH by measuring what GDP leaves out, such as its natural wealth including human, social and culture ones like GDP does ...
Anja has been scrubbing floors and washing dishes for two euros an hour over the past six years. She is bewildered when she sees newspapers hailing Germany's "job miracle."
In the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson called the pursuit of happiness an unalienable right. This was a radical idea. For most of history, most people didn’t think much about pursuing happiness. They were too busy just trying to survive.
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2012/02/08/what-really-makes-people-happy/#ixzz1ls7N9Ilk
China will carry out a comprehensive survey of urban and rural salaries that may help better gauge its income gap, the China Daily reported today, citing Xie Hongguang, a deputy head of the National Bureau of Statistics.
Taiwan will establish an index of well-being and release the results as early as next year, according to the Cabinet-level Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics Feb 6.
The miracle of the Chinese economy is based on the premise that speed over rides and dilutes everything else. However, it's now the time now for us to step back from the frenetic pace of "Beijing Time" and slow down, for the sake of both our dignity and happiness.
India's excellent economic growth has had little impact on its social indicators, and India is likely to miss achieving the Millennium Development Goals in respect of poverty reduction, health, nutrition, sanitation and gender.
A report by a top-level political panel has endorsed calls for greater integration of science into all levels of policymaking on sustainable development.
Prof. Sachs began his address by emphasizing the role that technology and technological change can play in sustainable development and said it is the need of the hour to overcome deep structural challenges that limit diffusion of technology for sustainable development. He presented the challenges and the need for information revolution for sustainable development.
Migrants seeking permission to enter Britain must prove they will ‘add to the quality of life’ and not become ‘dependent’ on state support, a minister said today.
As election season follows, people frequent a talk of “welfare” and “free”. Lately, once hotly debated issue “free school meals“ finally elected a new Seoul major. And the newly elected leader of the Democratic Party Han Myeong-sook expressed her strong will to extend social welfare by taking over the political spirit of former president Roh Moo-hyun’s era.
Poverty eradication, youth unemployment and socially inclusive policies will be the main focus of the 50th session of the United Nations Commission for Social Development, which kicked off today at UN Headquarters in New York.
When it comes to progress in Human Development Index, Assam has done far better in the last decade than most major states in India, achieving 32.1 per cent progress for the period 1999-2008, as reported in India Human Development Report 2011.
The Republic should devise its own index that measures the quality of life, as many of such indices available are culturally specific and may not adequately capture the happiness and well-being of Singaporeans, according to Professor Lily Kong, a vice-president at the National University of Singapore.
Residents of Northern Ireland have higher overall wellbeing than those in England, Scotland, or Wales, according to Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index data from 2011. Wales had the lowest overall wellbeing score.
A high-profile panel of the United Nation Secretary General (UNSG) on Global Sustainability has recommended that the world adopt sustainable development targets. The move has been opposed by India and several other developing countries as creating a backdoor for caps on emissions and green targets, while breaching the firewall between developing and rich countries that is enshrined in the Rio declaration and the UN convention on climate change.
A high-level United Nations panel on global sustainability formed by Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, in its final report said "the world is still not on the path of sustainable development," even though real progress has been made on some issues.
Seoul’s population has seen a landmark reversal with the flow of residents leaving the city exceeding the influx of new citizens for the first time in 40 years. Experts are predicting that a slow exodus from the capital region may continue.
The world is running out of time to make sure there is enough food, water and energy to meet the needs of a rapidly growing population and to avoid sending up to 3 billion people into poverty, a U.N. report warned on Monday.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today urged African countries to entrench civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights to boost stability and development in the continent.
Qatar’s third National Human Development Report, addressing key issues affecting Qatari youth, was launched on Thursday by the General Secretariat for Development Planning.
The Greek philosopher Diogenes is said to have lived in a tub. But far from being dismissed as a crank, he was the only thinker whom Alexander the Great went to see – the others had to come to him.
In his response to the Institute of Economic Affairs' report on wellbeing and the role of government, Dr Mark Williamson, director of Action for Happiness, said it was clear that some policy decisions that were good for growth were often bad for wellbeing.
There used to be a ladder to success. It was the college→good job→marriage→house→family→cushy retirement. Sure, not everyone made it, there were a few broken rungs near the bottom but that was the guiding light to the good life and enough people made it that it seemed within reach
Aims of national human development reports are to achieve national consensus on the fundamentals of the issue and to increase transparency indicators in the country, said Kuwait's minister of commerce and industry on Monday.
The citizenry must have gotten accustomed to this kind of sad news. In fact, it is no longer news that Nigeria is consistently at the bottom of the rung among the poor countries of the world.
As economic contagion continues in Europe, and with the future of the euro imperiled, Newsweek asked eight economists to describe the origin of the problem facing the single currency and what would happen if the euro were abolished.
Statistics does not seem to feature very much in Africa’s socio-economic development agenda, despite its importance and the fact that the use of good quality data has the ability to impact on development outcomes.
It may seem intuitive that states that invest more in public services are better places for children to grow up, but the Foundation for Child Development now has the numbers to prove it. The foundation is out with a new study that confirms the “strong relationship” between higher state taxes and children’s health.
A new report commissioned by the Marin Community Foundation illustrates the stark contrasts in health, life expectancy, education and recreation between Marin's wealthiest residents and those living in the county's low-income and minority neighborhoods.
In the precarious and uneven recovery from the worst global financial and economic crisis in decades, the expanding role of governments in combating it has become increasingly controversial from the perspective of economic freedom.
The East End school on David Street, just off the Gallowgate, punches well above its weight in terms of achievement in education, singing and parental involvement, despite the fact that its pupils often come with the “baggage” of a chaotic upbringing.
US ambassador to Ethiopia Donald E. Booth said ongoing development efforts of Ethiopia would enable the country to attain the Millennium Development Goals.
What we really need, as Nobel Prize-winning economists Paul Krugman and Joseph Stiglitz point out in recent columns, is to get over the current obsession with debt reduction and instead focus on investing in our material and human infrastructure.
As the International Year of Sustainable Energy for All kicked off today, United Nations officials called on governments, the private sector and civil society to help expand energy access, improve efficiency and increase the use of renewables.
More people lived in China's cities than in the countryside last year for the first time in history, a milestone that also points to labour supply strains in the world's No. 2 economy that could redraw the global manufacturing landscape.
The Federal Government intends to spend N10billion training teachers under the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) project this year, according to estimates from the Ministry of Education sub-budget.
Modern macroeconomics often seems to treat rapid and stable economic growth as the be-all and end-all of policy. That message is echoed in political debates, central-bank boardrooms, and front-page headlines. But does it really make sense to take growth as the main social objective in perpetuity, as economics textbooks implicitly assume?
When it comes to happiness, myths abound. For centuries we have hotly debated what makes a good life, where satisfaction ultimately comes from and fundamentally how we can be happy.
Ghana is one of Africa's great successes – a stable and thriving country that is testament to the impact of aid. As pressure on these budgets grows, Observer editor John Mulholland travels to the country to assess its progress
What we really need, as Nobel Prize-winning economists Paul Krugman and Joseph Stiglitz point out in recent columns, is to get over the current obsession with debt reduction and instead focus on investing in our material and human infrastructure.
Homicide, other violent crimes, incarceration, policing, and guns are costing this country hundreds of billions of dollars, and millions of jobs, every year. According to conservative estimates by the Institute for Economics and Peace, if the United States were on par with Canada on all five of those fronts, it could save $361 billion a year and add 2.7 million jobs. Given America's high debt and unemployment, it could certainly benefit from both.
David Cameron a while ago took to riffing about the state of our national happiness, telling us - co-incidentally enough just as the economy was going down the Swanney - that it was time 'we admitted that there's more to life than money, and it's time we focused not just on GDP but on GWB – general wellbeing'.
India's move to recognise the right to food as a basic human right would lead to the implementation of the world's largest social protection programme against hunger and will set an example for the world to follow, said Prof Joseph E. Stiglitz of Columbia University and Nobel Laureate.
Noted economist Joseph Stiglitz on Wednesday praised the Indian economy’s performance, saying the country had been doing a good job when institutions in the US and several other countries faltered. India is doing a good job and has been pursuing a balanced and cautious policy, he said.
To help measure the general well-being of Filipinos, Sen. Loren Legarda filed Senate Resolution 672, urging the National Economic and Development Authority to develop new indicators that will reflect the happiness and well-being of Filipinos.
On Wednesday, a Washington-based group that seeks to reduce global threats from nuclear weapons released a first-ever scorecard on the security of nuclear materials worldwide, ranking 32 countries on criteria such as their commitments to global norms, known security measures and other factors including corruption and government instability.
An increasing number of African countries are beginning to step away from aid dependency, as the domestic private sector becomes the engine of growth across much of Africa.
The head of the United Nations agency tasked with promoting education today underscored the role that information and communications technologies can play in ensuring quality education and equal opportunities to learning even in countries that lag behind because of limited resources.
As the World Bank goes from open data to open knowledge, a free software program created by Bank researchers is offering staff and policy makers around the world a helping hand in evidence-based decision making.
A survey conducted in 30 countries by Philips shows that when asked to assess their wellbeing, people mainly rely on health, standard of living and relations with family and friends.
A statistical analysis of attitudes in the US reveals the main determinants of happiness but also suggests that interpreting the data is fraught with danger
If the crowning achievement of 20th-century economics was constructing a national income statement, the crowning achievement of 21st-century economics should be a national balance sheet
Throughout 2011, news media have charted the fractional rises in gross domestic product growth with the fevered intensity of gamblers clutching at their last betting slip.
Last week Forbes Magazine, in its list of the happiest and saddest countries in the world, disclosed that we are one of three saddest nations in the world.
The key message from a Cambridge University study about a countrys happiness is that the UK government, like many around the world, now recognises that economic measures such as GDP do not provide adequate information about a societys progress.
The key message from a Cambridge University study about a country's happiness is that the UK government, like many around the world, now recognises that economic measures such as GDP do not provide adequate information about a society's progress.
If you work in the Government, it is very easy to fall into the trap of thinking in terms of numbers and forget that behind every statistic there is a human story.
A new economic order is taking shape before our eyes, and it is one that includes accelerated convergence between the old Western powers and the emerging world’s major new players.
The United Nations human rights chief today called on Bahraini authorities to address the “deepening mistrust” between the Government and civil society, including by releasing those detained for participating in peaceful protests.
The internationally stated goal of improving access to safe drinking water across the globe is likely to be achieved well ahead of the 2015 deadline, but large numbers of people in the world's least developed regions will still not benefit, according to a U.N. report released Wednesday
Bhutan's Prime Minister Jigmi Y. Thinley Tuesday said that happiness is the purpose and ultimate desire of every human being and for real sustainable growth, the needs of body and mind have to be attended to equally.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today lavished praises on his Bhutanese counterpart Jigmi Y Thinley saying he gave "practical meaning" to the Gross National Happiness concept of the Kingdom in the functioning of his government and wanted India to learn from it.
Some economists have questioned the National Economic and Development Authority’s forecast that the Philippines has a “good chance” of meeting its 4.5 to 5.5 percent economic growth target for 2011 and its 5 to 6 percent aim for 2012.
It seems that the current political developments which are capricious have overshadowed the findings of the recently released UNDP report on the Human Development Index
With the EU battling against failing economies and a faltering single currency, world leaders are embroiled in a worrying and traumatic financial crisis this winter
The Australian Bureau of Statistics has been measuring social progress since 2002, writes Imogen Wall, project leader of the Bureau's Measures of Australia's Progress 2.0 consultation process.
With a final score of 5-4, UNDP won the 2011 Match Against Poverty against HSV in Hamburg, Germany, on 13 December, 2011 before more than 24,000 spectators. The match was broadcast live in more than 25 countries.
Dr Grace Bediako, Government Statistician, has said an African Gender Statistic Group will soon be launched to help with the mainstreaming of gender into national and international statistics programmes.
A Mongolian environment science professor notes that per capita carbon emissions are a simple, available and quantifiable indicator, which is seen to be positively and strongly correlated with income and not at all with health and education
The Rule of Law and Anti-Corruption Centre was launched in Qatar yesterday with a call by the United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to fight corruption and promote human rights to achieve all the Millennium Development Goals.
With prices of foods skyrocketing, more hard times await Nigerian children as statistics available have shown that two out of every five Nigerian children are chronically malnourished.
Despite the recent spate of murders, robberies, attacks on women and petty thefts here, Mumbai in general perception remains among the safest cities in the country
The figures for the growth in gross domestic product were out again this week, but for some time I have been concerned about our national fixation on GDP.
The Herald - Lateral Economics Index of Australia's Well-being adjusts GDP to take into account the changes in value of the nation's stock of physical, environmental and human capital. It also adjusts for changes in health, inequality and job satisfaction to provide a better measure of national wellbeing than traditional economic measures.
What is happiness? Charles Schulz, the creator of Peanuts, wrote, “Happiness is a warm puppy.” John Lennon had a different take: “Happiness is a warm gun.”
Two United Nations officials called today for developed countries to fulfil their aid pledges for developing countries, stressing that without aid, they run the risk of falling behind as the global economic crisis spreads to their nations.
Announced at the opening of an Asia-Pacific forum on well-being held in Tokyo, the statistics are designed to gauge happiness based on three major factors — socioeconomic conditions, physical and mental health, and relationships.
Some breathed a sigh of relief last month when Occupy movement protests against economic inequality across the continent were evicted – be it by fire code and injunction, as in Vancouver, or police spies and massive tactical team raids as in parts of the U.S.
India has become "less equal over time" and earnings inequality in the country has increased significantly since the early 1990s, Paris-based think tank OECD said today.
Researchers, advocates, development partners, business people and policymakers gathered this weekend for Agriculture and Rural Development Day 3 and Forest Day 5.
Women have made huge progress in the workplace, says Barbara Beck, Special reports editor of The Economist, and the author of our special report on the subject.
The gap between rich and poor in OECD countries has reached its highest level for over over 30 years, and governments must act quickly to tackle inequality, according to a new OECD report.
Are First Nations reserves in trouble? The recent coverage of northern Ontario's Attawapiskat reserve and its squalid conditions suggest the answer is yes. So, too, Ottawa's decision to put Attawapiskat band finances under third-party control.
A recent report says many countries in Africa are not on track to meet adequate sanitation and clean water standards pledged for the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
We're in the grip of an economic disaster, with people in fear for their jobs and financial security - but a new survey claims we are still a happy bunch.
China and India have agreed to join a global partnership on aid effectiveness but on vague terms that cast doubt on their willingness to stick by principles set by traditional donors.
Community notice board
The community notice board is a place for the community to interact. Feel free to post questions and comments here.
A new OpenSource project is trying a strategy to prevent researcher bias arising from the weighting of indicators for composite indices (alias 'mashup indices'). It is called Yourtopia and would be very grateful for your critiques, suggestions and participation.
ESDS International has made the World Bank World Development Indicators (DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5257/wb/wdi/2011-10) available as Resource Description Framework (RDF) flat files. RDF is one of the key ingredients of Linked Data providing a generic graph-based data model for describing things, including their relationships with other things. This Linked Data is freely available and we'd be interested to hear from anyone who has/intends to make use of this resource - see http://www.esds.ac.uk/international/news/news.asp#17jan12.
