SOCIAL PROGRESS
A GLOBAL IMPERATIVE
"The welfare of a nation can scarcely be inferred from a measurement of national income" Simon Kuznets, Address to the U.S. Congress, 1934
"The Gross National Product counts air pollution and cigarette advertising, and ambulances to clear our highways of carnage. It counts special locks for our doors and the jails for the people who break them. It counts the destruction of the redwood and the loss of our natural wonder in chaotic sprawl. Yet the gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education or the joy of their play.” Robert F. Kennedy, Speech at the University of Kansas, 1968
"In an increasingly performance-oriented society, metrics matter. What we measure affects what we do. If we have the wrong metrics, we will strive for the wrong things. In the quest to increase GDP, we may end up with a society in which citizens are worse off.” Mismeasuring Our Lives, Joseph Stiglitz, Amartya Sen, and Jean-Paul Fitoussi, 2010
What is social progress?
Why measure social progress?
We define social progress holistically, as the capacity of a society to meet the basic human needs of its citizens, establish the building blocks that allow citizens and communities to enhance and sustain the quality of their lives, and create the conditions for all individuals to reach their full potential. This definition is derived from a broad literature review and synthesis of ideas in a variety of fields.
If you don’t measure, it is hard to make the most rapid progress. More and more people recognize that GDP alone is not an adequate guide for national development strategies. The Social Progress Index brings a new rigor to this effort, not by changing the way GDP is measured but by creating a complementary lens on national performance.
The first major effort of the Social Progress Imperative is the Social Progress Index, launched April 2013. Our goal is to measure social progress directly, rigorously, and comprehensively using 3 dimensions, 12 components and 52 social and environmental indicators. The first publication of the Social Progress Index quantifies levels of social progress for 50 countries. This sample is to be expanded to at least 100 countries in 2014. The Social Progress Index has the following five characteristics, which combine to distinguish it from previous efforts to measure wellbeing:
a) Based exclusively on non-economic indicators. b) Based exclusively on outcome indicators. c) Integrates a large number of indicators into an aggregate score of social progress. d) Model is structured to allow empirical investigation of relationships between dimensions,components and indicators. e) Breadth of indicators makes the model relevant for countries at all income levels.
GLOBAL
SOCIAL PROGRESS IMPERATIVE
Social Progress and Economic Development
SOCIAL PROGRESS INDEX
Suecia
Etiopía
GDP/capita ($)
What does the Social Progress Index tell us about economic development? The only way to rigorously understand the relationship betweene conomic development and social progress is to exclude economic indicators from the measure of social progress. The Social Progress Index can bring more empirical rigor to the debate about ‘pro-poor’ or ‘inclusive’ growth. The Social Progress Index will help us understand how social progress is not just a result of economic growth; social progress can equally be a cause of economic growth. “There is a wide range of performance on social progress in this world, and it is not completely explained by economic success. There are very high-income countries that are not doing very well on social progress. There are relatively low-income countries that are doing remarkably well on social progress.” – Michael E. Porter. As expected, there is a broad correlation between economic development and social progress: Sweden is on top and Ethiopia at the bottom of the rankings. However there are big differences in social progress at similar income levels.
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Mexico
Spain Spa
Spain
Tunisia
Morocco
Morocco Morocco
Senegal
Senegal Senegal
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Niger
Costa Rica Costa CostaRica Rica Colombia
Ghana
Colombia Colombia
Brazil Brazil Brazil
Peru Peru
Peru
Chile Chile Chile
Paraguay Paraguay Paraguay
South
ArgentinaArgentina Argentina
11 64.81 64.81 11 . South KoreaKorea 11 .. Sweden 64.81 1 . Sweden 11 .. South South Korea Sweden 63.41 63.41 63.41 12. 12. Costa Rica Rica 2. Kingdom 2. United Kingdom 12. Costa Costa Rica 2. United United Kingdom 63.28 13 13 . Poland 3. 3. Switzerland 13.. Poland Poland 3. Switzerland Switzerland 63.28 63.28 14 62.63 62.63 14 . Chile 4. 62.63 4. Canada 14.. Chile Chile 4. Canada Canada 62.47 15. 15. Argentina 5. 5. Germany 15. Argentina Argentina 5. Germany Germany 62.47 62.47 61.56 61.56 16. 61.56 16. Israel 6. States 6. United States 16. Israel Israel 6. United United States 17 17 . Bulgaria 7. 61.26 7. Australia 17 .. Bulgaria Bulgaria 7. Australia Australia 61.26 61.26 18 61.01 61.01 18 . Brazil 8. 61.01 8. Japan 18.. Brazil Brazil 8. Japan Japan 19. Arab 60.7 60.7 19. United Arab Emirates 9. 60.7 9. France 19. United United Arab Emirates Emirates 9. France France 20. 60.43 60.43 20. Turkey 10. 60.43 10. Spain 20. Turkey Turkey 10.Spain Spain
59.86 59.86 59.86 21. 21. Domin 21. D D 57.36 57.36 57.36 22. 22. Colom 22. C C 56.92 56.92 56.92 23. 23. Thailan 23. Th T 56.6 56.6 56.6 24. 24. Peru 24. Pe P 56.32 56.32 56.32 25. 25. Mexico 25. M M 54.79 54.79 54.79 26. 26. Philippi 26. Ph P 54.08 54.08 54.08 27. 27. Paragu 27. Pa P 52.27 52.27 52.27 28. 28. Tunisia 28. Tu T 50.89 50.89 50.89 29. 29. Georgia 29. G G 50.69 50.69 50.69 30. Vi 30. Viet 30.Na V
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Kazakhstan Kazakhstan Kazakhstan
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Japan Japan Japan
China China China
Jordan Jordan Israel Israel
South South Korea SouthKorea Korea
Egypt Egypt
India
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United United Arab Emirates UnitedArab ArabEmirates Emirates Bangladesh
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Thailand
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Philippines Philippines Philippines Ethiopia Ethiopia Ethiopia Kenya Kenya Kenya Uganda Uganda Uganda
Mozambique Mozambique Mozambique
Viet Nam
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AustraliaAustralia Australia
Botswana Botswana Botswana
50.52 50.52 31 50.52 47.9741 . Ghana 42.69 31 . Jordan 41 31.. Jordan Jordan 47.97 47.97 nican Republic Republic 41.. Ghana Ghana 42.69 42.69 nican Republic 47.9242. Bangladesh 32. 50.52 50.52 39.59 39.59 32. China 50.52 39.59 42. 32. China China 47.92 47.92 mbia 42. Bangladesh Bangladesh mbia 50.28 50.28 39.51 39.51 50.28 39.51 46.8943. India 33. 33. Russia 43. 33. Russia Russia 46.89 46.89 nd 43. India India nd 50 50 46.85 46.85 5034. Kazakhstan 39.3 46.8544. Senegal 34. 44. 34. Kazakhstan Kazakhstan 44. Senegal Senegal 39.3 39.3 45.61 45.61 45.6145. Kenya 49.73 49.73 35. 49.73 38.98 35. Botswana 45. 35. Botswana Botswana oo 45. Kenya Kenya 38.98 38.98 45.4746. Rwanda 49.41 49.41 Sri 49.41 36. Sri36. Lanka 46. 36. Sri Lanka Lanka45.47 45.47 ines 36.29 46. Rwanda Rwanda36.29 36.29 pines 49.24 49.24 49.24 45.2747. Mozambique 37. 37. Morocco 36.2 36.2 47. 37. Morocco Morocco45.27 45.27 36.2 uay 47. Mozambique Mozambique uay 45.24 45.24 45.2448. Uganda 38. 48.61 48.61 38. Indonesia 48.61 48. 38. Indonesia Indonesia 35.91 aa 48. Uganda Uganda 35.91 35.91 44.67 44.67 44.6749. Nigeria 48.56 48.56 39. 48.56 39. South AfricaAfrica 33.39 49. 39. South South Africa a 49. Nigeria Nigeria 33.39 33.39 ia 43.9450. Ethiopia 47.99 47.99 40. 32.13 47.99 40. Egypt 50. 40. Egypt Egypt 43.94 43.94 am 50. Ethiopia Ethiopia 32.13 32.13 am
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Social Progress and Human Development 70 Suecia
65
SOCIAL PROGRESS INDEX
Reino Unido
60 Costa Rica
Chile Argentina Bulgaria
55 Brasil
50 Vietnam Morocco
45
República Dominicana Tailandia Filipinas Paraguay China
Indonesia
Gana Bangladesh
40
Senegal Rwanda
Mozambique
35
Kenya
Botswana Sudáfrica
Turquía
Colombia
Suiza Alemania Canadá Estados Unidos Australia Francia Japón Japón República de Corea
Polonia Israel
Emiratos Árabes Unidos
México Túnez Georgia Jordania Kazajistán Rusia Sri Lanka
Egipto
India
Uganda Nigeria
Etiopía
30
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.9
1
HDI
What does the Social Progress Index tell us about other wellbeing indices? There are no other indices that measure social progress directly, independently of economic development, in a way that is both holistic and rigorous. Most wellbeing indices, such as the Human Development Index or the OECD Better Life Indicators, are still heavily reliant on GDP or other economic measures. “We are not just looking at social progress in poor countries, we want to look at social progress in some holistic sense because we want to understand the whole trajectory of development, and what we can learn from countries at all stages in that process”. – Michael E. Porter The correlation between human development and social progress is very high. However, though the HDI covers 187 countries, the limited range of indicators means that its descriptive and explanatory value is limited for upper middle and high income countries, while the granularity of SPI´s model highlights key challenges ahead for countries that score well. For example, Sweden and all rich countries, score poorly on environmental sustainability.
Building a Global Network for Social Progress An actionable framework to guide social investment The Social Progress Index will help improve the ability of leaders to focus their efforts and investments in the policy areas that will have the greatest contribution to sustainably improving lives. The Social Progress Imperative will measure its success by the extent to wich it can reach policy makers, business leaders, civil society, international development organizations, impact investors and philanthropists to faster more and better public policies, responsible business strategies, social entrepreneurship, development programs and philanthropy.
Promoting local interpretation and dissemination The Social Progress Imperative will provide globally comparable data to a network of local partners and will serve as the hub of a strong network of prominent institutions in each country. The countries that are the best positioned to offer real and sustainable improvements in the well-being of their populations are those where goverment, the private sector and civil society work together to find solutions to social and enviromental challenges.
From identifying challenges to sharing solutions In deph diagnostics will accompany the Social Progress Index to provide more detailed information on how to approach improving social outcomes. These will be related to specific results in the areas of health, security, education and opportunity as well as countries’ capacity to support and scale up social innovation. When combined, the measures will help a country determine its priority challenges, the root causes of those challenges and the strengths and limitations of a country’s institutions for addressing those challenges. These measures will provide a structure for capturing knowledge on promising innovations as well as how successful ideas may need to be adapted for different country contexts.
Social Progress Imperative THE SOCIAL PROGRESS IMPERATIVE IS A NON FOR PROFIT ORGANIZATION WHOSE GOAL IS TO ADVANCE GLOBAL HUMAN WELLBEING AND IMPROVE THE LIVES OF MILLIONS OF PEOPLE AROUND THE WORLD, BY HELPING DECISION-MAKERS IN GOVERNMENT, THE PRIVATE SECTOR AND CIVIL SOCIETY TO IDENTIFY PRESSING SOCIAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS AND TO COLLABORATE MORE EFFECTIVELY TO EFFECT LARGE SCALE CHANGE.
Advisory Board
Board of Directors
Michael E. Porter, Chair: Bishop William Lawrence Professor at Harvard Business School.
Brizio Biondi-Morra, Chair: Chair of Avina Americas, the sister organization of Fundación Avina in the United States.
Matthew Bishop: US Business Editor and New York Bureau Chief of The Economist.
Roberto Artavia Loría, Vice-Chair: President of VIVA Trust, Fundación Latinoamérica Posible, and President of INCAE Business School .
Hernando de Soto: President of the Institute for Liberty and Democracy in Lima, Peru.
Sally Osberg: President and Executive Director of the Skoll Foundation.
Judith Rodin: President of The Rockefeller Foundation.
Álvaro Rodríguez Arregui: Co-founder of IGNIA Partners, and Chair of Compartamos Banco.
Scott Stern: Chair of the Technological Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Strategic Management Group at the MIT Sloan School of Management.
Tae Yoo: Vice President of Corporate Affairs and steward of Cisco’s Corporate Social Responsibility vision.
Ngaire Woods: Dean of the new Blavatnik School of Government and Professor of Global Economic Governance at the University of Oxford.
Heather Hancock: Managing Director, Brand & Communications, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited.
Contact : www.socialprogressimperative.org
@socprogress #socialprogress partner@social-progress.org