Is life getting better? Are our societies making progress? Indeed, what does “progress” mean to the world’s citizens? There can be few questions of greater importance in today’s rapidly changing world.  And yet how many of us have the evidence to answer these questions?

The Global Project on "Measuring the Progress of Societies"- hosted by the OECD and run in collaboration with other international and regional partners - it seeks to become the world wide reference point for those who wish to measure, and assess the progress of their societies. Read more about -  What we are doing

Wikiprogress was launched at the 3rd OECD World Foum 2009 (Korea). The site is now live and seeking contributions from the progress community.  Find it now!

The OECD is pleased to announce the OECD RoadMap, an ambitious agenda showing OECD policy, strategy and commitments to measure and foster well-being and progress.

The Measuring the Progress of Societies: An Introduction and Practical Guide (DRAFT: NOT FOR CITATION) - Handbook is the new working document on measures of progress.

Gurría calls for ‘new generation’ of statistics to reinforce public confidence in government  OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurría has warned that unless a new generation of statistics is developed to measure social progress and well-being, people may lose confidence in institutions and in the capacity of governments to address their problems.

Find more articles and videos in the Background Documents -3rd OECD World Forum

Newsletter Issue 6 - September 2009   In this issue: Ecological Footprint Accounting; Measuring the Progress of Communities; Switzerland moves on!; The Global Social Change Research Project; Superme Audit Institutions application of progress measurement Key National Indicators; Liveability audit in regional Queensland, Australia. Highlights: 3rd OECD World Forum, Busan, Korea - 27-30 October 2009. Global Project on "Measuring the Progress of Societies".

In remarks prepared for the workshop on the findings of the Commission on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress set up by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Mr Gurría noted that the OECD is well placed to lead international cooperation on harmonising concepts and methodologies  Read more.

Speech given by the OECD Secretary-General (in French)
OECD statistics on measuring economic performance and social progress

More newsroom articles

2009 annual conference of the Statistics User Forum - Thursday, 19 November 2009 - This major conference in London, sponsored by the Royal Statistical Society's Statistics User Forum, will bring together leading players, from the UK and overseas, to discuss "The measurement of progress". http://www.rss.org.uk/sufconference

The North West Wellbeing Conference, incorporating the 6th annual North West Public Health Conference and the 17th annual Conference of the WHO Regions for Health Network will be placed on November 9 -10, 2009 in Manchester. Read the program

Fao, IFAD, IAI and PAM are pleased to announce the 4th Annual Conference of the GARNET Network of Excellence (Global Governance, Regionalisation and Regulation: The Role of the EU) on the ‘Food Security and Sustainable Development: Challenges for the Governance of International Relations‘. It will be placed in the Research Centre of International Economics (CIDEI) of Sapienza University of Rome (Italy), November 11-13, 2009.

• BellagioSTAMP - SusTainability Assessment and Measurement Principles. A new set of guiding principles used to measure and assess progress towards sustainability. They were written by a group of international experts meeting in Bellagio, Italy, organized by IISD and the OECD's Measuring the Progress of Societies initiative.

• The Foro Consultivo Cientifico y Tecnológico has published "Measuring the progress of societies. Reflections from Mexico", a book concerning the theme of progress, which set of new indicators ought to be used in order to measure the progress of societies and also aims to promote a general and desirable reflection in Mexico. 

• The Community Indicators Declaration from the Community Indicators Summit in Brisbane, Australia July 2009, has now been finalised. The Declaration, endorsed collectively by delegates at the Summit, is available on www.nss.gov.au

• e-Learning Course on " Statistics, Knowledge and Policy: Understanding Societal Change" from March 1st to April 2nd, 2010. Read more

Contact us:  progress@oecd.org         This site: www.oecd.org/progress