What would happen if we didn’t measure the 100-metre sprint by how quickly people ran; what if the measure was how nicely they ran or how good they looked when they were running? Because we choose to measure the success of the 100-metre sprint by time, we strive to be the fastest. What we choose to measure is what we end up defining as success. The same can be said of measuring national progress. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has been used as a benchmark of national success for some time now, but it fails to take into account the things that really matter, like our environment, education, health and happiness. In recent years there has been an explosion of activity with organisations from around the world developing new measures of progress and calling for indicators that look beyond economic growth in measuring wellbeing. The OECD, one of the leading organisations in this movement, has hosted three World Forums on Measuring Progress with a 4th OECD World Forum coming up in October 2012. Wikiprogress recognises that it is not just about developing progress indicators, but developing a collaborative community that works together to determine what and how we measure the well-being of societies. Such knowledge can not be determined by a single organisation or NSO, but by working with initiatives, governments, organisations and individuals all over the world. This echoes the concept put forward world-renowned economist and pioneer of the progress movement Joseph Stiglitz, who speaking at the Commission on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress called for a ‘global dialogue’ on measuring progress: ‘part of the objective of rethinking our measurement systems is to generate a national and global dialogue on what we care about.’ wikiprogress.org/index.php/Wikiprogress.org:About
Posted on: Sun, 25 Aug 2013 02:37:35 +0000
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