Training Course Preparation Booklet, July 14th to 17th 2009, Florence (Italy)

Day 1 will be an introductory half day. A chance for us all to meet and get to know each other and to explore what the ‘Global Project on Measuring the Progess of Societies’ is about.  There will be a session on Understanding Social Change, a look at the link between wealth and happiness and some group work.

“The project challenges the common belief that progress and economic growth are one and the same. The aim is to lay the statistical groundwork - through a set of Progress Measures - for policies which value economic, social and environmental welfare, going beyond mere output.  The ultimate goal is to foster the improved functioning of democracies in the information age by creating a higher level of “customer satisfaction” with democracy.”
- Angel Gurría, OECD Secretary-General, - Speech given at 2nd OECD World Forum (2007)

The Istanbul Movie, “Measuring and Fostering the Progress of Societies”

Day 2 will cover the pragmatic aspects of measuring progress. We will consider the main approaches to measurements of progress and wellbeing, how to define dimensions and form a ‘Taxonomy of Progress’, how to select the indicators and more. We will look at the state of the art in indicator research and tie it all together with some group work.

“Our gross national product counts air pollution and cigarette advertising, and ambulances to clear our highways of carnage. It counts special locks for our doors and the jails for those who break them. It counts napalm and the cost of a nuclear warhead, and armored cars for police who fight riots in our streets… Yet the gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education, or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages; the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. It measures neither our wit nor our courage; neither our wisdom nor our learning; neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country; it measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile.”

- Robert F. Kennedy, former US President - speech given at the University of Kansas, 1968

“If you want to know how production is growing or whether spending on goods and services is up or down, then GDP provides a good starting point… But there are more fundamental problems. For instance, GDP does not take depletion of natural resources or environmental damage into account any more than it takes account of capital depreciation.”

- Joseph Stiglitz, University of Columbia Professor - article ‘Progress, What Progress’?

Day 3 is  a chance to consolidate what has been learned so far and to discover how to put what you have learned into practice. We will cover the basic principles of communication and look at what ICT tools are now available to better disseminate statistics and information more generally.

“Only very few musicians can read the notes and say: ‘Oh, this is beautiful music!’And I think this is often how we are. We that love and work with statistics, often we show the notes, we don’t play the music.”

- Hans Rosling,  ‘Director of the Gapminder Foundation’-speech given at 2nd OECD World Forum (2007)

Day 4 we will conclude by taking an indepth look at a successful measuring progress initiatives in action. We will see the kinds of things that do and don’t work, and discuss how what you have learned can be taken forward when you return to work.

Measuring a nation’s progress – providing information about whether life is getting better – is one of the most important tasks that a statistical agency can take on. But it is far from straightforward. In 2002 the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) released Measuring Australia’s Progress (Australian Bureau of Statistics 2002), a publication built around a set of headline indicators that spanned economic, social and environmental concerns. Different projects from around the world have used different ways of addressing what is essentially the same question: Is life getting better? Each agency has followed its own route. But along the way, each agency has faced the same core set of key decisions.

- Jon Hall, Statistician – An Australian Travelogue, Journal of Official Statistics, Vol.21, N.4, 2005.

“We urge statistical offices, public and private organisations, and academic experts to work alongside representatives of their communities to produce high-quality, facts-based information that can be used by all of society to form a shared view of societal well-being and its evolution over time”

- Istanbul Declaration, taken at the 2nd OECD World Forum in Istanbul, June 2007