Transcript What is Progress

Measuring Progress:
Democracy in the
Information Age
Jon Hall & Barbara Iasiello
Global Project, OECD
Global Project on Measuring the
Progress of Societies
We have to start measuring welfare, not
just output
– Angel Gurria, OECD Secretary General, 2007
Today we are bombarded by information
– Jean Claude Trichet, President of the European Central Bank,
2005
• An understanding of the limits of GDP is not
new. Robert Kennedy spoke eloquently about
this in the 1960s
Global Project on Measuring the
Progress of Societies
• A new approach
– From output to welfare
– From “information providers” to “knowledge builders”
– From top-down to bottom-up
• Four pillars
– Statistical research
– Development of ICT tools to help in transforming statistics into
knowledge
– Advocacy and institutional building
– Development of a global infrastructure about progress
• Time frame: 2007 - 2011
Number of users
Building knowledge
Using ICT & Civil
society networks to
produce and diffuse
knowledge
A minority
Experts
Information about societal progress
The Istanbul Declaration, 2007
•
A culture of evidence-based decision making has
to be promoted at all levels of government
•
We affirm our commitment to measuring and
fostering the progress of societies in all their
dimensions and to supporting initiatives at the country
level.
•
We urge statistical offices, public and private
organisations, and academic experts to work
alongside representatives of their communities to
produce high-quality, fact-based information that can be
used by all of society to form a shared view of societal
well-being and its evolution over time.
Implementation 2008-2009
• Official launch of the Global Project
• Implementation of programmes of work and production
of expected deliverables
• Meeting of regional and thematic working groups
• Establishments of national roundtables on measuring
progress
• Establish criteria for approving sets of measures of
progress
• 3RD OECD WORLD FORUM CHARTING PROGRESS,
BUILDING VISIONS, IMPROVING LIFE(October 2009)
Key Outputs 2008-2009
•
Develop best practices to measure progress
-Taxonomy of societal progress dimensions
- Handbook on Measuring Progress
- Guidelines on how to measure particular dimensions of progress
- Launch the Journal of the Progress of Societies
• Promote the establishment of national
roundtables for measuring progress
-Global Project web site and development of the other
communication tools
- Promote regional working groups
-Regional and thematic conferences with experts, policy makers,
civil society, etc
- Guidelines on how to build progress roundtables at local and
national levels
Key Outputs 2008-2009 (cont'd)
• Provide assistance on initiatives to
measure progress
Training materials and courses
Report on what makes a set of key indicators
successful
Release and promotion of ICT tools to
communicate data and indicators
Best practice for developing data
visualisation tools
Expected Impacts
• Improving statistical capacity
A better measurement of economic, social and
environmental
outcomes, of their interrelation and
shared data to advocate
necessary reforms and
evaluate their impact on societal welfare
• Improvement of citizen's numeracy
Improve citizens knowledge giving them the opportunity
to improve their decision making processes and to become
more
aware of the risks and challenges of today`s world
• Improving policy making
Through greater accountability and more joined-up
government
• Better assessment of societal progress not simply based
on the economic point of view, but with the appropriate
emphasis on social, cultural an environmental dimensions
The OECD’s Istanbul World
Forum
• 1200 people from 130 countries
• Presidents, ministers, leading academics and
civil societarians, private sector and media
• What is Progress?
• What information do we need to assess
progress in key global concerns?
• From outputs to outcomes - how can we get
measures used by a broad audience?
11
Istanbul World Forum
• Istanbul Video
Measuring Progress in Practice
What is Progress?
• The word progress (Latin: pro-gredi)
refers to improvements, to move forward,
to gain
• We can speak about economic progress,
social progress, scientific progress but
above all we can talk about human
progress
What is Progress?
• Many views …
“Is life getting
better?”
What is Progress?
• Many views …
• But what is clear to me is
A. Progress is multidimensional
B. Progress means different things to
different people
What is Progress?
Dimensions of Progress
Human system
Culture
Human
wellbeing
Economy
Resource
demand
Ecosystem
condition
Ecosystem
Source: Robert Prescott-Allen,
2008
Governance
Human System: Human
Well-being
Human System: Culture
Human System: Economy and
Governance
Ecosystem: Ecosystem
Condition
How to Measure Progress
Three Approaches
1. The Accounting Framework Approach
Extension of traditional economic accounts based
on GDP, to capture the environment or social
concerns
SESAME Approach
• The SESAME can be defined as a detailed
and integrated statistical information
system in matrix format, from which a set
of core (macro-)indicators for different
aspects of well-being can be derived
(Keuning, 1997)
• Usually it includes many indicators as:
GDP, population size, (un)employment,
inequality,
education,
environmental
indicators, etc.
Paid employment and self employed
persons
Male
Female
Total
GDP
Low
education
High
education
Low
education
High
education
Total
employm.
Agriculture, forestry and fishing
…
…
…
…
…
…
Mining and manufacturing
…
…
…
…
…
…
Electricity, gas and water supply
…
…
…
…
…
…
Construction
…
…
…
…
…
…
Trade, hotels, restaurants and repair
…
…
…
…
…
…
Transport, storage and communication
…
…
…
…
…
…
Finance and business services
…
…
…
…
…
…
Other commercial services
…
…
…
…
…
…
General government
…
…
…
…
…
…
Care and other service activities
…
…
…
…
…
…
Total
…
…
…
…
…
…
Source: Keuning, S., Verbruggen, M., European Structural Indicators – a Way Forward. June 2003.
Strengths & Weaknesses
 Very powerful tool for analysis
 Investment in terms of the amount of
data to be collected and the resources
needed
How to Measure Progress
Three Approaches
2.The One-Number Approach
Development of composite indicators of
progress
that
combine
detailed
information into a single measure
The GPI
GDP
Genuine
Progress
Indicator
Subtract “real” costs
(eg defensive expenditure, social cost)
Add uncounted benefits (eg
Unpaid work, parenting)
Strengths & Weaknesses
 Powerful tool for advocacy
 Difficulty in aggregating units measured
in different ways – adding apples and
oranges, or valuing things like “parenting”
in $s
 Difficult to interpret the results without
stepping back to investigate the
components
How to Measure Well-being
Three Approaches
3. The Suite of Indicator Approach
Identification of a set of key indicators
covering
economic,
social
and
environmental domains
Strengths & Weaknesses
 It has the advantage of covering a wide
range of topics, without the need of
estimating individual weights.
 Can be difficult to interpret
 Can include too much information
Indicators
• Measures should be “unambiguous" that is
have a clear good/bad direction of
movement
• Important to focus on the big picture
• Important to discuss the links between
indicators ….. trade-offs and
reinforcements
Progress and Regress
Progress and Progress
Progress: Objective and
Subjective Components
•
Objective
components
income, air quality
–
The stuff we can measure exactly
longevity,
Progress: Objective and
Subjective Components
•
Subjective components –
happiness, life satisfaction
Must ask people how they feel
fear,
trust,
Business Confidence
Self assessed health
Objective and Subjective
Assessments Are Important
Level of
Subjective well-being
high
Objective living
conditions
low
high
well-being
dissonance
low
adaptation
deprivation
Measuring Subjective
Well-being
Arguments For
• Nice organising principle
• Public are interested – and a growing
demand
• Solid evidence that high subjective wellbeing
correlates with other “hard” aspects of
wellbeing e.g. health
Happiness and Health
The Nuns
39
Measuring Subjective
Well-being
Arguments Against
• Difficult to measure
• Difficult to find policy relevance for measures
(at least for generalised measures of life
satisfaction)
• Doesn’t appear to change a great deal over
time (though there is a life course effect)
• Not “appropriate” ground for a statistical
office
40
Measuring Progress to
Foster Progress
41
The benefits
• Help countries prioritize resource allocation
• Promote accountability and enhance citizen
engagement.
42
The benefits – for citizens
• Improve citizens knowledge giving them the
opportunity to improve their decision making
processes and to become more aware of the
risks and challenges of today’s world
43
The benefits – for policy makers
• Policy makers can better assess the current
situation, make more informed decisions, and
measure progress over time and relative to
other nations
• Better coordination in government
• Data to advocate necessary reforms and
evaluate their impact on societal welfare
44
The benefits – for countries
• By highlighting the issues that genuinely
matter to a society, a set of progress measures
can help a country best meet the needs of its
citizens by focussing attention on the key
outcomes
• ‘Sunshine is the best
disinfectant’….transparency has the ability to
reduce waste, prevent corruption, and shift
resources where they’re truly needed
45
Progress Measures Can Help…
•
•
•


Enhance democracy …
… enhance decision making …
… and so generate progress
Promote greater accountability
Enhance the quality of public debate
46
• “Measuring the Progress of Societies is one of
the most important roles the OECD can take on”
– Angel Gurria, OECD Secretary General
• "World GDP growth has been faster than it has
been for a very long time. But people are not
particularly happy"
– Kemal Dervis, Head of UNDP
• " Progress indicators are a way for people to
hold their government’s accountable "
– Francois Bourguignon, Chief Economist of the World
Bank
47
Thank you!