Key note Paper, Mr. Saamah Abdallah
Well-being – a new compass
By Saamah Abdallah, nef (the new economics foundation)
Lost at sea
Until a year ago, Europe and the Western World had enjoyed a steady period of economic growth and apparent prosperity. The total economy of current EU members, measured in terms of gross domestic product, more than doubled between 1994 and 2007. And yet, we have done little to address our social ills, including child poverty, mental health problems and inequality. No surprise then, that the 2006 European Social Survey found that 61 per cent of European citizens believed that life was getting worse for most people in their country. As for our environmental ills, things are only getting worse, with the suggestion that we have as little as seven more years before runaway climate change becomes irreversible.
All these problems had already gathered before the economic crisis that rocked the world just over a year ago, in no small part attributable to an economic system that has hit the limits of what it can reap from the planet’s finite natural resources and has turned to unstable assets such as housing to continue with its insistent growth model.
These are troubled times, and talk of economic recovery may be an illusion, given that, in many countries, unemployment continues to rise. Furthermore, our response to this debt-fuelled crisis appears to have been to build ever-greater debt, meaning that both the public and third sectors risk serious cuts over the coming years, and we may simply be creating another ‘bubble economy’.
The pursuit of never-ending economic growth has lead us astray, and continues to do so. We clearly need a new compass to help us get our bearings straight. But what might that be?
A new narrative of progress
Around the world, there is a growing realisation that GDP alone cannot define a nation’s success. Two key conferences took place in 2007 which have shaped a new agenda. Firstly, in Istanbul, the OECD hosted a conference on Measuring the Progress of Societies, launching their global programme on the matter. The conference lead to the signing of the Istanbul Declaration by several key inter-governmental bodies, including the United Nations, the European Commission and the World Bank, which calls for a commitment ‘to measuring and fostering the progress of societies in all their dimensions’. Shortly afterwards, the European Commission hosted its own conference in Brussels, entitled Beyond GDP which has recently lead to a communication calling for broader measurement of progress.
More recently, President Sarkozy of France fully endorsed a report produced by a Commission he set up to review measures of societal progress, which included figures such as Joseph Stiglitz, Amartya Sen and Lord Nicholas Stern. The report called for “new political narratives … to identify where our societies should go” and advocated “a shift of emphasis from a ‘production-oriented’ measurement system to one focused on the well-being of current and future generations.”
Understanding well-being
It is this idea of ‘well-being for current and future generations’ which best captures what we need to be aiming for. It clearly echoes the definition of sustainable development first proposed by the UN in the Brundtland Report in 1987. In the UK at least, well-being is gaining increasing interest in various areas of government policy, including sustainable development, children’s policy, and health. Indeed, in 2007, the UK Government produced a document stating that “the purpose of local government is to take responsibility for the well-being of an area and the people who live there.”
But what exactly is well-being? Far too often it is left ill-defined. In the simplest terms, well-being is an individual’s experience of their life. It is a dynamic process, emerging through the interaction between their circumstances, activities, and psychological resources. Aside from feeling ‘good’, it also incorporates a sense of individual vitality, opportunities to undertake meaningful, engaging activities which confer feelings of competence and autonomy and is also about feelings of relatedness to other people (see figure 1). Psychological research indicates that different cultures and indeed individuals have different ways of achieving well-being, but that there are some universal needs that all people share. Any complete measure of well-being needs to assess whether those needs are being met.
Figure 1. A dynamic model of well-being
National Accounts of Well-Being
nef (the new economics foundation) made a first step towards a full account of subjective well-being at the beginning of 2009, with the National Accounts of Well-Being (www.nationalaccountsofwellbeing.org). Using data from across Europe, the Accounts measure multiple aspects of well-being, including emotional well-being, vitality, resilience, functioning and social well-being. They reveal that, whilst Scandinavian countries top the list, Europe’s largest nations such as the UK, France and Germany perform poorly, particularly in terms of social well-being.
However, the Accounts are only a starting point. They only a measure people’s reported well-being, and it will be important to assess other things such as health objectively. More importantly, though, for a measure of well-being to be successful, it needs to represent the views of a broad section of society. We believe that it is vital to engage with community and voluntary organisations to develop the Accounts, as well as consulting with the public directly as to what counts for their well-being. In October this year we will be running our first workshop to explore the views of ordinary people on what they feel makes a successful society. Ultimately, we call for an international public debate on this topic.
Bringing in the environment
Lastly, high current (and of course equitable) well-being can only be considered a picture of success, if it is also sustainable – i.e. does not come at the expense of the well-being of future generations. Currently, it is clear that this is a criterion that we are not meeting in the West, given our rampant exploitation of finite resources, destruction of ecosystems and contribution to irreversible climate change. We need high-profile indicators which monitor environmental impact as well as well-being. But we also need to bring these two goals together in a way that allows the public and politicians to see whether we are moving towards true sustainable well-being. Some policies may both increase well-being and reduce environmental impact, but in many cases we will need to pit the two requirements against one another. To do this, nef created the Happy Planet Index (HPI, www.happyplanetindex.org) in 2006 which measures the environmental efficiency with which happy, healthy lives are achieved. The HPI made it clear (see figure 2) that, whilst we may have high well-being in the West, it comes at an unsustainable cost. The countries that are closest to achieving good lives that do not cost the Earth are, perhaps surprisingly, middle income countries such as Costa Rica. However, even these countries have shortcomings – the HPI points them in the direction they need to go.
Figure 2. HPI results around the world
