Measuring the Progress of Societies
Newsletter #1
June 2006
   
How can society better measure its progress or its failings? This question lies at the heart of a new long-term OECD project to give governments and citizens the tools to transform statistics into a reliable and coherent body of knowledge about the way our societies are developing.
 
This newsletter is the first in a regular series of e-mail alerts that will be sent over the coming months. It contains information on meetings and other events related to the long-term OECD project "Measuring the Progress of Societies". This project will be built around a series of bi- or triennial World Forums and will also encompass associated work within and outside of the OECD. The project will create a global community who come together, both virtually and at meetings, to learn from one another about how best to define, measure and achieve societal progress.
What is the OECD Global Project on "Measuring the Progress of Societies"?
 
In 2004, the OECD organised a first World Forum on "Statistics, Knowledge and Policy" in Palermo, Italy. The OECD has committed to build on the success of this first conference and develop a long-term world forum project.
In March 2006, a select group of leaders gathered at the Rockefeller Foundation's Study and Conference Centre in Bellagio, Italy, to design the next stage of the project.
 
Istanbul to host the second OECD World Forum on "Statistics, Knowledge and Policy", 27-30 June 2007
 
 
The OECD is pleased to announce that the second World Forum on "Statistics, Knowledge and Policy" will be held in Istanbul from 27 to 30 June 2007. This event will be organised in cooperation with the State Planning Organization of Turkey (SPO) and Turkstat.
 

Preparatory conference: Workshop on Measuring Well-Being and Societal Progress, 19-21 June 2006, Milan, Italy

 
The OECD and the Centre for Research on Lifelong Learning (CRELL) are hosting a workshop on "Measuring Well-Being and Societal Progress" from 19-21 June 2006 at the University Cattolica in Milan, with the participation of the Universities of Bocconi and Bicocca. Tony Atkinson (Nuffield College, Oxford University) will chair the workshop. This workshop is one of several events the OECD is co-ordinating as part of a OECD global project on "Measuring the Progress of Societies".
 
More information on the OECD World Forum Website

Available on line: The proceedings of the first World Forum on "Statistics, Knowledge and Policy" held in Palermo in 2004; more about preparatory meetings, workshops and regional events; information for media; a knowledge base about initiatives around the world on measures of Progress; information about OECD initiatives and publications based on key indicators; the OECD Factbook which contains more than 100 indicators of economic, social and environmental phenomena; and more ...

The online knowledge base contains hundreds of documents on measures of progress around the World (or sustainability, wellbeing or quality of life – all terms closely linked to progress). We are gathering documents that should be included. If you would like to submit a document (papers, website, e-book), click here.

Latest additions:


United Nations - Millennium Development Goals (MDG)
"... MDGs form a set of simple but powerful objectives that every man and woman in the street, from New York to Nairobi to New Delhi, can easily support and understand. Since their adoption, the Goals have galvanized unprecedented efforts to meet the needs of the world’s poorest. [...]

This progress report is the most comprehensive accounting to date on how far we have come, and how far we have to go, in each of the world’s regions. It reflects a collaborative effort among a large number of agencies and organizations..."

Kofi A. Annan
United Nations Secretary-General

European Union - Sustainable Development indicators
In 1992 in Rio de Janeiro, the “Earth Summit” adopted Agenda 21, a plan of action to stimulate progress towards sustainable development (SD). Chapter eight of Agenda 21 recommends that governments draw up national sustainable development strategies (NSDS). The 1997 Special Session of the UN General Assembly set a target date of 2002 for their elaboration. In 2002, the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) reiterated this recommendation: the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation urges countries to make progress in the formulation and elaboration of NSDS and begin their implementation by 2005.

The European Council agreed on a strategy for sustainable development, based on the principle that the economic, social and environmental effects of all policies should be examined in a coordinated way and taken into account in decision-making. In order to evaluate implementation and progress, the Sustainable Development Strategy foresees the development of a set of sustainable development indicators.


OECD - Going for Growth 2006
Chapter 6 "Alternative Measures of Well-being" assesses if GDP per capita can serve as a reasonable proxy of overall well-being. Illustrative calculations to “extend” GDP to include leisure time, the sharing of income within households and distributional concerns suggest that cross-country ranking based on these indicators and GDP per capita are generally similar. However, survey-based data on happiness and life satisfaction across OECD countries are only weakly related to levels of GDP per capita. Overall, GDP per capita remains critical for any assessment of well-being but needs to be complemented with other measures to get a comprehensive picture of well-being.

Growth doesn’t make people happy: But do the economists know that?
Despite continuous economic growth, recent surveys have shown that "life satisfaction" in Western Countries is not growing. Why is wellbeing not improving (or not improving anymore) with increased income?

Regards Economiques
Université Catholique de Louvain (Belgium)
March 2006 - N°38
Isabelle Cassiers and Catherine Delain
(French version only)

The Economist (print Edition) - Feb 9th 2006
Grossly distorted picture
"... It's high time that economists looked at more than just GDP.
[...] The OECD is to be congratulated for being the first mainstream organisation to challenge the conventional GDP numbers... "


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