Progress in the news - January 2012

Share/Save/Bookmark

From Wikiprogress.org

Jump to:navigation, search
CP-left.gif   CP-home.gif CP-MR.gif CP-BR.gif CP-Spot.gif CP-Papers.gif CP-Apps.gif
 

In the News

Progress in the news · Community Portal ·
Progress in the news - November 2011
Progress in the news - October 2011 ·
Progress in the news - September 2011 ·
Progress in the news - August 2011 ·

Progress in the news January

If Canada is to morph into a knowledge-based economy, its citizens need better access to reliable, unbiased information.

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.


The outline of a sustainable development system to empower villagers.


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.

'Genuine Progress Indicator' takes more factors into account than GDP


UN panel calls for sustainable development indicators that factor in poverty, inequality, science and gender equality


The stage is set for a different kind of evolution, so surrender, says guest editor Deepak Chopra


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.


African countries are making “slow and generally insufficient” progress toward meeting the United Nations Millennium Development goals.

GDP measures economic growth, but is it an accurate measure of progress?


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


The presenter of Desert Island Discs has caused a stir by saying she doesn’t want her children to be happy.


Once-airy talk of replacing GDP with metrics of happiness is gaining credibility in important circles


New Data Reveals Improvements in Americans' Emotional Health and Life Evaluation


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.


It's not the Government's business to make us happy - it should be focusing on getting the country working, writes Rachel Salvidge.


Collecting data on individual students over time may give educators the insight they need to fix America's schools.


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.



Tens of thousands of lives could have been spared if agencies and governments had heeded the warnings, a report says

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?


People in Britain are enduring what is meant to be the most miserable day of the year.


If your policy is one of austerity it is advisable to use something other than economic growth as a measure of your success


Yes, money can buy you happiness, says a study, finally putting an end to the age-old debate.


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.


Tanzanians are least satisfied with their lives in the region, a global report says.


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


Tanzanians are concurrently the happiest but least optimistic people in East Africa.


</bullet_feed>

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.


Statistics that measure how content we all are might not be as silly as they sound, argues sociologist William Davies


On Saturday 9 July 2011 South Sudan celebrated its independence day. How did the current nation states emerge from colonisation?


All-out efforts are required to achieve the objective of Millennium Development Goals till 2015.


Life ratings improved in November and December compared with July to October


There's been a bit of froth and bubble about the term social inclusion this summer.


The Children's Society report that one in 11 kids are not happy isn't surprising. But treating their suffering separately is pointless


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.


Fifty-five percent of upper-income Americans say their standard of living is "getting better"


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.

Survey of 30,000 children aged eight to 16 pinpoints family relationships and 'materialistic traps' behind low well-being


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.

A senator wants the government to come up with new growth indicators that would measure Filipinos’ “gross happiness.”


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.


No fewer than 1,000 women and girls die daily in Nigeria


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.


More Iraqis experiencing negative emotions daily, as U.S. withdraws forces

That a 200,000 lift in US payrolls failed to enthuse the market on Friday night should give us a feel for what will drive action in the near-term.


The World Bank has said that it will be difficult for Pakistan to meet the Millennium Development Goals targets on health and education by 2015.


A greener, more equitable and wellbeing-orientated form of globalisation could be on the horizon says Dax Lovegrove


Historically, forecasts accompany the new year the way happiness accompanies a couple on their wedding day.


A roundup of economic news from around the Web.


One great way to start a bar fight during an American Economic Association conference is to claim that the U.S. economy is preferable to Europe’s.


A roundup of economic news from around the Web.


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.


Modern macroeconomics often seems to treat rapid and stable economic growth as the be-all and end-all of policy.


Modern macroeconomics often seems to treat rapid and stable economic growth as the be-all and end-all of policy.


UNDP has made significant criteria to evaluate how happy the masses are in different corners of the world. 


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.


Retrieved from "http://www.wikiprogress.org/index.php/Progress_in_the_news_-_January_2012"
Related Categories

Article Information
Navigation
Toolbox
Print/export