Progress in the news - May 2011

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Progress in the news

Black Americans, those with low incomes are the least satisfied


The past few months have made it difficult to be happy.


A so-called “happiness index” to measure well-being and perceptions of living conditions came into life at the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development on Tuesday.


Visualisation is the name of the game. It is the art of bringing life to boring statistics, getting them to jump off dense grey text into colourful graphics that will actually make sense.


While all culture is good for our health, those that focus on just the 'doing' are missing out, writes Emer O'Kelly


Jigmi Yoeser Thinley, the 58-year old prime minister of Bhutan, says he was rebellious when he was young with “hair below my shoulders”.


India looks upon Africa as a new growth pole for the world economy and its progress could help resolve problems relating to food and natural resources, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has said.


Critics of foreign aid to Africa say that much of the assistance goes to waste. But author and economist Charles Kenny sees things differently.


Observers say the Singapore government is in a position to strengthen its efforts to look beyond economic growth as a measure of success.


Living in paradise evidently has its advantages -- for the third year in a row, Hawaii is considered the least stressed state, a U.S. poll indicates.


The accumulation of a nation's wealth bears little relation to the happiness of its citizens, so why measure GDP growth?


The West's economics think tank has branched out into the field of happiness and wellbeing, setting up a new method of measuring progress that goes beyond the calculation of national output.


The last few years have actually been really wonderful for Africa and actually it's hard to come up with a thing to be negative about. The Aids crisis continues, although thankfully it appears to be peaking.


The world became slightly less peaceful over the last year. That's according to the new Global Peace Index, which attempts to rank 153 countries.


The world became slightly less peaceful in the past year, punctuated by violent uprisings in North Africa and the Middle East, but also marked by successes in countries like Slovenia and Georgia.


New Zealand has been ousted by Iceland as the most peaceful nation in the world.


The Global Peace Index (GPI) report published yesterday by the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP) puts the Sultanate of Oman on fourth position in the Arab region and 41st among the 153 world countries.


Taiwan is ranked 27th in the 2011 Global Peace Index (GPI) released Wednesday, up eight notches from last year.


New Zealand is the second most peaceful place to live on the planet, according to a new global survey. Photo / Thinkstock New Zealand has been named the second most peaceful nation in the world.


Money can’t buy you happiness. Or so goes the saying. And now we have hard numbers to prove it.


I expected to hate the "Better Life Index" issued by the OECD this week to help celebrate the organization's 50th birthday. First there's the clumsy ambiguity in the name: Does "better" modify "life" or "index"?


Korean people work 2256 hours on average per year, and 79 percent of the adults have at least high school diplomas.


Life's good. And if you don't believe me, check out the OECD's new Better Life Initiative, an interactive web page (accessible here) that lets you not only compare the quality of life in the organization's 34 ...


As usual in reporting such general indices as the OECD's Better Life Initiative rankings, problem areas in various countries get covered up by the overall scores. Many people will likely be surprised that Canada ranks only 14th out of the 34 OECD countries.


OECD's Better Life Index puts Israel near member states' average, shows strengths in education, weakness in workforce participation. In a new index released this week by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development


hroughout history, all around the globe, humankind has been on a quest. A quest whose completion is as elusive as the Loch Ness monster, yet as easy to attain as looking in the mirror, that quest being the pursuit of happiness.


Visiting health workers in Ethiopia today, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon spotlighted the progress made in improving the health of women and children, while also stressing the need to do more to avoid needless deaths.


A new approach is being taken to measure social progress with the launch of the OECD Better Life Initiative, which kicked off the OECD's 50th Anniversary Week on Tuesday.


From health and wealth to working hours, a study finds life in Britain not so bad after all


A correlation between well-being and wealth


How would you measure progress in development? Dollars per day? Access to nutrition, education, health? What about rights?


We Canadians, for the most part, understand that we are fortunate.


Shrugging off worries over the rising cost of living and a two-speed economy, Australia ranks among the top nations in the world for lifestyle and well-being, with its people working less and getting paid more than 33 other nations measured by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, or OECD, in its new Better Life index.


For several decades, economists have been dancing around the idea that economic growth doesn't equal happiness.


A new survey of living standards across the leading 34 industrial nations finds Australia at or near the top on almost every measure, but towards the bottom on the question of free time.


A so-called "happiness index" to measure well-being and perceptions of living conditions came into life at the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development on Tuesday.


I wasn’t a memorable economics student at varsity. In fact I nearly failed the subject in my first year, partly because I’d spent too much time helping to stick and paste the student newspaper together, but mostly because I found the “social science” of economics counterintuitive


All in all, Canadians are a pretty comfortable and happy lot. The country ranks at or near the top in many of 11 well-being indicators in a new quality of life index, unveiled Tuesday by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. Only Australia topped Canada.


A so-called "happiness index" to measure well-being and perceptions of living conditions came into life at the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) today.


An international agency known for its number crunching is offering a new way to measure how good life in your country is compared with others.


It may come as a surprise to many, but living in the UK makes you one of the happiest people in Europe.


Britons are fatter and more scared than people in other European countries - but we work shorter hours and earn more, it emerged today.


From post-war reconstruction in Europe to the next age of globalisation, the OECD has been both navigator and pilot of vast economic change which it celebrates with a 50th birthday this week.


It is time to move beyond gross domestic product when measuring the success of societies, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, has concluded in a change of mission for the international organisation.


Hard on the heels of a national health survey showing Dunedin residents feel among the healthiest in the country, comes a further fillip to the city's residents.


My brother David and I have long supported the principles that help societies prosper. I have actively done so for nearly 50 years, as has my brother for more than 40.


The New York Times columnist adds some intellectual heft to the life manual genre


Throughout the world, systems of social stratification are gendered, based on differential evaluation of males and females. Social and Economic indicators for developing countries consistently show that women bear the brunt of hardship in poor communities.


The second anniversary of defeating the LTTE is being celebrated with quintessentially Rajapaksa pomp and pageantry.


Is happiness overrated? Martin Seligman now thinks so, which may seem like an odd position for the founder of the positive psychology movement.


The Scottish Government has been urged to spend less time measuring the nation's economic production and more time examining people's emotional well-being.


As the Inland Empire grapples with a dismal economic climate, a local economist urged regional leaders Thursday to work together to improve education, employment, local control of public funds and quality of life.


It takes guts to take on the Twitter community. It takes bigger guts to start a discussion around the hashtag #TwitterMakesYouStupid…on Twitter.


You may have cried a little when Prince William and Kate Middleton got married, but you may not be innocent enough to believe they will live happily ever after.


The South Bay, much like the rest of California, is starkly divided into the "haves" and the "have-nots," a new report released this week shows.


After three decades of pushing ever-higher growth rates and exhorting their countrymen that to get rich is glorious, China's Communist Party rulers have recently introduced a new economic mantra: be happy.


In June, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) will hold its first-ever forum on innovative business models designed to unleash the potential of the 360 million people who make up the social and economic base of the pyramid in Latin America and the Caribbean.


When children in Kerri Lynch's preschool class get angry, they shake their "mind jars," homemade snow globes filled with water and glitter.


A new report ranking the quality of life in California, based partly on health and living standards, divides the state in five different categories -- basically the differences between the haves, the have lesses and the have nots.


The poverty line for a given individual can be defined as the money the individual needs to achieve the minimum level of ‘welfare’ to not be deemed ‘poor,’ given its circumstances.”


Human development statistics on Google’s Public Data Explorer lets web users visualize the latest HDI data for all UN member-states


Progress has been made on key MDG health targets, but non-infectious diseases have spread to developing countries


A Newport Beach resident can expect to live 88.1 years. Less than 40 miles north in Watts, life expectancy drops to 72.8 years – the lowest in California.


In a move to provide greater global access to key human development indicators for all countries, Google’s innovative Public Data Explorer will now feature the latest Human Development Index (HDI) figures and direct links to the extensive Human Development Report database of international development statistics.


Martin Seligman now thinks so, which may seem like an odd position for the founder of the positive psychology movement.


The Commonwealth Ombudsman has promoted ‘happiness’ as a measuring tool for the success of Government policies and programs.


This month we’ve been experimenting with a new “Multimedia of the Week” feature, and today we have a second installment.


An average Indian (factoring in both genders) lived eight years longer in 2009, compared to two decades ago. However, that figure was still three years less than the global average life expectancy (LE).


Mission not accomplished. This is in three words what more than 200 eminent speakers and panelists from over 70 participating countries in effect told their peers, the media and delegates who attended the U.N. Least Developed Countries (LDCs) Fourth Conference May 9-13 in Istanbul.


The close cooperation in evidence at the UN conference means that the south will have more bargaining power in future


High pay commission forecasts top earners' slice of national income will rise from current 5% to 14% by 2030


After three decades of pushing ever-higher growth rates and exhorting their countrymen that “to get rich is glorious,” China’s Communist Party rulers have recently rolled out a new economic mantra: be happy.


South Koreans’ average life expectancy is now at 80, the 20th highest among 193 countries monitored by the World Health Organization (WHO).


Wellbeing expert Richard Layard isn't entirely happy with the latest book from the guru of positive psychology…


The Cold War witnessed a space race and an arms race between the United States and the Soviet Union. In our own era, the great competition may be the growth race between China and India.


India has admitted at a UN conference that high economic growth has benefited the rich more than the poor to oppose a proposal of introducing the concept of 'emerging' economies between developed and developing countries.


Springfield has been ranked the third worst city in a national survey released last year that calculates the population’s health and wellbeing.


As leaders including the Dalai Lama gather in Newark, N.J., to discuss ways to cultivate peace-building, a new Gallup analysis finds countries with the highest wellbeing tend to be the most peaceful countries in the world and those with the lowest wellbeing are the least likely to be peaceful


In a time of vicious budget debates on Capitol Hill, a new study finds that the path to happiness might be through big government.


1,000 people nationwide were interviewed every day, nearly 350 days a year, all to figure out what state ranks the best when it comes to your overall health and well-being.


A new discipline moves to centre-stage


As politicians make worthy speeches about improving the lot of the poor, people from developing countries are busy making useful business connections


Istanbul (ABC Live): Broad agreement emerged today during the Fourth United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries concerning the responsibility of the world’s poorest countries for their own development and the need for those recipient Governments to optimize international assistance, as the meeting continued into its third day.


The WBI composite score of 66.2 remains relatively low and unchanged from March's score of 66.3. This is the eighth consecutive month that the score has remained between 66.0 and 66.7, showing little movement in the overall well-being of the nation.


Employee engagement enhances personal wellbeing, according to a global study


Measuring impact has taken off but without addressing structural problems in the sector and a shared methodology, results-based funding won't work, says Tris Lumley


Eight thousand delegates attended the conference on Monday. The five-day conference opened with dire warnings to the poor about the threat of rising food and fuel prices, and climate change


Nearly a third of New Zealanders believe the quality of their lives has improved over the past year, according to the results of a new survey.


The UN chief and other world leaders gathered here on Monday for a conference, calling for a new vision to reverse the profound poverty in 48 poorest countries and trying to lay a firm foundation for their integration into the world economy.


Greater cross-border investments within Africa and more policies that serve the interests of the poor could boost the continent’s overall standard of living by as much as 10 per cent by the end of the decade, according to a United Nations report released today.


According to the deputy prime minister of Somalia, Turkey can play a mentor role as 'least developed countries need a guide, a mentor, a patron that speaks on their behalf and Turkey is taking that role.'


New Private Sector Track at UN Conference on the Least Developed Countries underscores growing importance of business contribution to development


A major United Nations conference aimed at devising a new strategy to help the world’s poorest countries unlock their economic potential and accelerate development opened today in Turkey, where of heads of State and senior officials from international organizations are among 7,000 participants in attendance.


The income gap between the relatively rich and the relatively poor has always been a controversial economic, ethical, political and social issue.


Last year, I had the opportunity to visit Bhutan, a remote and isolated country in the eastern region of the Himalayas.


An international survey on global wellbeing in 2010 carried out by influential polling firm, Gallup has found that only 5% of Sri Lankans are “thriving.”


The dominant approaches to development have failed the world’s poorest citizens and now the paradigm must change. This is the strong message coming from over 2,000 non-governmental organisations gathered at the civil society forum for the Fourth U.N. Conference on the Least Developed Countries (LDC-IV) in Istanbul, Turkey.


On the day we publish our annual Happy List, our writer considers what makes us contented, and how to recognise the signs


Buddhist economist Sulak Sivaraksa has advice for Western capitalist societies. Sholto Byrnes slows down and listens


35 years ago Ivory Coast and Egypt had the same GDP/capita and the same Life Expectancy. In this year of revolution Egyptians have 4 fold better GDP/capita and live more than 10 years longer than Ivorians.


If you're looking for another reason to hate on France, you might check out the latest report from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.


A "happiness gene" which has a strong influence on how satisfied people are with their lives, has been discovered.


When it comes to development policies, alongside all the statistics of hunger and need, and the totals of dollars spent, it must be remembered that what matters most is that the neediest individuals urgently find tangible, sustainable solutions.


Report says Africa’s vigorous economic growth in the past year was not matched by improvements in democratic governance.


The Gallup survey of 124 countries sought to categorise people into three groups — those who were thriving, struggling or suffering.


"DON'T worry. Be happy. Ain't got no cash . . . but don't worry be happy . . . Put a smile on your face." Bobby McFerrin's pop classic is the new theme song of euro-zone policymakers.


Foggy Bottom has a plan to jump-start a venture-capital approach to the field of humanitarian tech.


Sweden is the best country in the world for children's well-being, according to Save the Children


The considerable body of research on happiness often uses economics as its starting point: GDP and inflation are the variables used to explain differences in life satisfaction between countries.


In 2011, the focus of the celebration is on the potential of the Internet and digital platforms as well as the more established forms of journalism in contributing to freedom of expression, democratic governance, and sustainable development.


Six out of 1,000 British children will die before their fifth birthday and only four in five attend pre-school, says Save the Children


Officials in Somerville have added the question, "How happy do you feel right now?" to the city's census forms, becoming the first in the U.S. to systematically track people's happiness.



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