Are you aware of any country-level legislation that imposes a government to demonstrate the potential effects of a financial law or a policy on well-being indicators, social indicators or poverty-related indicators?
Or do you know any praxis of governments that take pre-determined wellbeing/social indicators seriously to plan or evaluate their policies (maybe in cooperation with the national institutes of statistics)?
Dear Burchi
You may see the allocation vs expenditure data for various welfare programmes. You may also check with number of beneficiaries with each government welfare prog.
Number of household cross the poverty line
Proportional increase in enrollment ratio
Proportional increase in maternal mortality
Proportional change in green cover
Proportional change in agriculture productivity
Proportional change in 'child death at zero age'
May be of some help.
May be the attachment help you indirectly.
Regards
Article Assessment of bio-physical, social and economic drivers for ...
Dear Rajiv,
thank you for your reply, but I don't think that data on expenditures or on the number of beneficiaries of welfare programmes are indicators of wellbeing.
What is more important is that, if you read the sub-questions, I am looking for countries where the legislation imposes the goernment to evaluate their policies or forecast the potential impact of their financial law on specific wellbeing/social indicators.
Best,
Francesco.
Improve mental wellbeing is one of Scotland Perform's 55 national indicators:
http://www.gov.scot/About/Performance/scotPerforms/indicator
They use the Warwick-Edinburgh scale to measure this over time (based on survey research):
http://www.gov.scot/About/Performance/scotPerforms/indicator/wellbeing
This kind of thinking is less well-established in the Republic of Ireland, but two reports by the National Economic and Social Council go into some depth on the idea:
http://files.nesc.ie/nesc_reports/en/NESC_119_vol_I_2009.pdf
http://files.nesc.ie/nesc_reports/en/NESC_119_vol_II_2009.pdf
And then there is Bhutan's Gross National Happiness index:
http://www.grossnationalhappiness.com
Dear Nat,
thank you very much for your references, particularly those related to Scotland. I read that with its new Economic Strategy, the government of Scotland "commits" to improve a number of indicators, including economic ones, wellbeing indicators including mental wellbeing. Are you also able to tell me whether there is any law or procedure according to which the govenment has, for example, to justify a yearly budget plan (or financial law) based on its expected effects on these indicators?
Thank you!
Francesco.
I doubt there is anything that specific. The set of Scottish National Performance Indicators are a largely political project, from what I can see (I'm not an expert in Scottish politics). However, there has been a movement within the civil service and public agencies to move from a focus on outputs to a focus on outcomes, which is still work in progress.
The Carnegie UK Trust advocates for a wellbeing approach, and they are both based in Scotland and well-networked with the Scottish administration. See for example: http://www.carnegieuktrust.org.uk/project/measuring-what-matters/
They should be able to give you more in-depth information about whether or not public finances have been linked to wellbeing measurement.
Francesco,
The Welsh Government have introduced an Act that will make the public bodies listed think more about the long term, work better with people and communities and each other, look to prevent problems and take a more joined-up approach. Info on the Act is here: http://gov.wales/topics/people-and-communities/people/future-generations-act/?lang=en
And info on indicators that are going to be used are here: http://gov.wales/topics/people-and-communities/people/future-generations-act/national-indicators/?lang=en
I hope that helps.
James
Dear Francesco
In 2011-2012 I chaired a national taskforce on measures of wellbeing in Australia (link to final report at http://www.globalaccesspartners.org/May2012_Progress_in_Society_Taskforce_Report_FINAL.pdf).
The national statistical bureau, Australian Bureau of Statistics, was represented on the taskforce. It was an interesting mix of private, community and government sector representation.
The prime example of the sort of thing you are looking for that we identified at the time was the Australian Treasury's wellbeing framework, which drew inspiration from among other things Amartya Sen's concepts of capabilities and his work on national wellbeing. This wellbeing framework was used by the Treasury, the peak central agency responsible for economic policy in Australia, to evaluate or assess policy measures.
The other key government wellbeing measurement tool was the Australian Bureau of Statistics annual report titled Measures of Australia's Progress MAP).
The wellbeing framework, although still available to refer to, is according to media reports no longer being used by Treasury. The MAP report was discontinued last year due to resource pressures. This is perhaps an indicator that wellbeing measures are not as valued by policy decision makers as researchers in this field might assume.
Stephen, this is the kind of initiative I was looking for. It is really a shame that it was discontnued. I will read the document, if you have any other sources please send them to me,
Thanks!
Francesco.
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