AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT INDEX
The case for a Western Australian Development Index Presented by Fiona Stanley & Mike Salvaris Perth, WA - 17 December 2019
Acknowledgments
We would like first to acknowledge the traditional owners, the Nyoongar people, and their elders past, present and emerging, and our shared future. Our thanks too for organizing this workshop to Minister David Templeman, Director General Duncan Ord and especially to Jodie Holbrook, Liz Toohey and Yvette Peterson.
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Meet the Presenters Professor Fiona Stanley AC FAA is an Australian epidemiologist noted for her public health work and research into child and maternal health. She is the patron of the Telethon Kids Institute (and was Founding Director for 11 years), founder of the Australian Research Alliance for Children and Youth and a distinguished professorial fellow in the School of Paediatrics and Child Health at the University of Western Australia. Fiona is a UNICEF Child Ambassador, has been a member of the ABC Board and declared a ‘Living National Treasure”. She has been a Director of ANDI Limited and is now principal ‘ANDI Ambassador’.
Fiona Stanley Mike manages the ANDI Project, based at the Melbourne Graduate School of Education, University of Melbourne. With a background in democracy, human rights and community development, he has worked for over 20 years to develop new community, national and international social progress measures. Mike has held honorary professorial appointments at Victoria University, RMIT, Deakin University and Toulouse University (France). He has been consultant to the OECD, the UN Research Institute on Social Development, trade unions and local governments, and chief policy advisor to former Victorian Premier John Cain.
Mike Salvaris
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Presentation Flow Summary of the issues and the proposal The global movement to ‘redefine progress beyond GDP’ What is the ANDI project? Where we are now: lessons, leaders and best practice Why ANDI wants to work with WA What a WA ANDI project might look like over 5 years Benefits to Western Australia Possible next steps from here PAGE | 04
The Big Issues How we define and measure national (or State) progress is crucial for present and future wellbeing. GDP is a poor measure of societal progress and wellbeing. We need new measures of progress that reflect true progress – equitable and sustainable wellbeing. Defining new progress measures for a nation (or State) is a democratic issue and must engage citizens. There is a global movement to ‘redefine progress’ and we must all learn from it. A key lesson is the importance of building wellbeing goals and measures into government.
There are issues around which we want to build the presentation and our proposal for a Western Australia Development Index PAGE | 05
Proposal: a West Australian Development Index
Build an ongoing State Development Index Based on community participation, research and international best practice Giving Western Australia a special opportunity to be an early adaptor and a national leader of this global change process With long term benefits to the State
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The Victorian bushfires 2009: a $4 billion boost to ‘progress’?
In Victoria in 2009 the worst bushfires in the State's history took 173 lives and destroyed 11 townships. In human terms it was a calamity. But according to the way we currently measure progress, it was actually a positive for Victoria because the costs of compensation, and rebuilding added over $4 billion to GDP.
Black Saturday, 7 Feb 2009 A human catastrophe? 173 people died 7500 people homeless 2030 houses destroyed 78 towns damaged or destroyed 1 million animals died
Or a boost to progress (GDP growth $4 billion)? emergency worker overtime health and funeral costs legal costs new homes and cars rebuilding townships
REVELRY VILLAGE HOMES | 202
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GDP – gross domestic product – or the monetary value of a country’s total economic production - has been for over 60 years easily the most influential measure of national success. It measures the ‘progress’ of the whole world.
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Why GDP is not a good measure of society’s progress It counts all economic activity as a positive. It includes economic activities that reduce wellbeing (e.g. crime, prisons, tobacco, military weapons, pollutants). It ignores non-market production (e.g. unpaid domestic work). It ignores key factors of well-being (health, education, working conditions, equity, time use, social relations, citizenship, etc.). It ignores factors essential to sustain well-being (e.g., the stock of environmental, human and social capital).
But as a measure of society's progress and well-being, GDP's faults are many and now well documented, as in this international report PAGE | 10
The qualities that GDP misses "The gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages, the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. It measures neither our wit nor our courage, neither our wisdom nor our learning, neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country, it measures everything in short, except that which makes life worthwhile."
Senator Robert Kennedy, 1968
Robert Kennedy summed this up poetically over 50 years ago, just a few weeks before he was assassinated. ‘The gross national product, does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education, or the joy of their play”, he said. “It measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile’. PAGE | 11
Negative impacts on society of excessive focus on GDP Increasing inequalities (wealth, power) Over-consumption and unsustainable growth: climate change, waste, environmental degradation, unliveable cities, pollution Individualism and competitiveness reducing altruism and caring communities Push for short term profits Excessive influence of big business (including media) on political decision making Weakening of democracy
The price of putting such disproportionate policy emphasis on continuous economic growth is reflected in a series of growing social and environmental problems affecting our wellbeing and our values. PAGE | 12
And there is a credibility or trust problem: ordinary people are increasingly sceptical of politicians and economists telling them that the economy is flourishing when they see their own wages and their quality of life stagnating or going backwards, as OECD reports show. PAGE | 13
In the USA, for example, recent research by Nobel laureate Angus Deaton clearly links an outbreak of opiate addiction, suicide and depression among white workingclass Americans on low wages to the political obsession with GDP growth at all costs.
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We are 'mismeasuring' progress Human Advance is conditioned by our conception of progress... It is time to end the mismeasure of human progress by economic growth alone. The unavoidable conclusion is that, to be valuable and legitimate, development progress... must be people centred, equitably distributed, and environmentally and socially sustainable.
What do we conclude from this? This is what the UNDP - well ahead of its time - said 20 years ago. It recognised that it’s fundamental to human societies that they have some concept of progress, but the most valuable and legitimate form of progress – true progress - is that which is people centred equitably distributed and environmentally and socially sustainable. And it is time to stop measuring human progress by economic growth alone. These words were to prove prophetic: equitable and sustainable wellbeing is the precise formula adopted by the OECD and the UN and many countries as a better definition of true social progress than GDP.
(UNDP, 1996, Human Development Report) PAGE | 15
Aristotle on the limits of wealth
Wealth is evidently not the good we are seeking, for it is merely useful and for the sake of something else.
(Aristotle, 384 – 322 BC)
Finally, there are some compelling philosophical and ethical reasons why we should not regard the wealth of our economy as the supreme measure of the quality of our society or our lives. One such reason was spelt out by the Greek philosopher Aristotle over 2000 years ago PAGE | 16
Life = Shopping?
There is an even simpler way of putting this. When we think about our history and culture, and the richness and complexities of life, and all the possibilities that a fair and creative society can offer, to equate the overall progress of our society with the total amount of goods and services we buy and sell seems pathetically inadequate. If it were an algebraic equation it would be like saying: life equals shopping.
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So what does 'the progress of society' mean? How do we measure it? And why is it a democratic issue?
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"To develop social indicators that can evaluate the health of society, we are faced with the necessity of spelling out some more or less explicit working model of society". (Kenneth Land, US sociologist)
So how do we start? One fact is obvious: we can’t measure the good society we want unless we can first describe it. What does that society look like? There are simple ways to answer this question and more complicated ones. PAGE | 19
Holistic model of societal progress
Source: OECD, 2009, Measuring the Progress of Societies: An Introduction and Practical Guide, Paris, p. 83. www.oecd.org/progress
This is the OECD’s diagrammatic model – perfectly valid as a piece of systems analysis, of course, but somewhat complex and abstruse. But what it shows is that at a system level, individual and overall social wellbeing are ultimately the product of human institutions and our ecosystem conditions.
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How we are doing as a nation 8 simple questions
1. Are we better or worse off than our parents? 2. Are our communities safer and stronger? 3. Are we healthier and wiser? 4. Are our jobs and livelihoods more secure? 5. Are our air and water cleaner? 6. Are our natural resources healthier? 7. Are we a fairer society? 8. Are we leaving a better Australia for our children?
But if you were asking ordinary citizens, you might want to break this down into some simpler but practical questions, like these. How would you answer these questions in Australia today? PAGE | 21
Canada's Index of Wellbeing Based on values
When we in Canada first started talking – roughly a decade ago – about measuring and reporting on our progress as a society, we realized that it begged the fundamental question, “progress toward what?” We made a firm commitment that whatever we came up with, it would have to be rooted in Canadian experience and grounded in the values that have shaped our country – fairness, diversity, equity, inclusion, health, safety, economic security, democracy and sustainability.
But there’s another, more intangible, dimension we should consider in deciding if our society is making true progress: and that is, whether it is living up to its key values and aspirations – is it meeting the goals it sets itself? Canada started to think about this 20 years ago when developing its new Canadian Index of Wellbeing. Their first decision was that it must be ‘grounded in Canadian values’.
(Roy Romanow, Chairman, Canadian Index of Wellbeing, ‘The Canadian Index of Wellbeing: Its successes as a tool for planning, policymaking and nation building’, OECD 4th World Forum on Statistics, Knowledge and Policy, Delhi, 2012.)
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Defining and measuring progress is a democratic issue 5 Reasons 1.How a society defines its goals and key progress measures directly affects the life chances of its citizens. 2. A healthy democracy both improves progress and wellbeing generally and is itself a key element of society’s progress.
Finally, we must also keep in mind that the task of defining and measuring a nation’s goals and progress is ultimately a democratic issue, for at least five good reasons. The first reason is that the definition and measures of progress that a society adopts will directly affect the outcomes for the wellbeing and life chances of its people. If, for example, we say progress – and by extension government policy - is mainly about economic growth, we will get very different outcomes than if we say it is mainly about increasing human wellbeing.
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Defining and measuring progress is a democratic issue 3. Citizens need good information to make good democratic decisions. 4. Good progress measures make for more transparent and accountable government 5. Genuine engagement of citizens in the task of defining and measuring progress strengthens their democratic capacity and their trust in democracy.
There are also other important reasons: :full information makes for better citizen decision-making  and more accountable governments; and most importantly, involving citizens directly in defining national and community priorities strengthens their democratic skills and their trust in government. PAGE | 24
Australia's shrinking democracy: 10 warning signs 1. Low and declining public trust in government. 2. Decline in voting rate. 3. Less participation in political parties 4. Growth of corporate power & privatised (less accountable) government 5. Increase in corruption (gov’t advertising, political donations, cash for access, etc) 6. Greater inequality in wealth and opportunity 7. Weakening of civil rights and privacy (surveillance, terrorism laws etc) 8. Declining citizenship education levels in schools 9. Declining youth support for democracy 10. Declining youth voter enrolment
In fact, right now in Australia, and other Western democracies, we must take every opportunity we can to strengthen our democracy and renew citizen trust in government. In the past few decades, there has been a steady decline in some of the key signs of a healthy democracy. PAGE | 25
"The citizen can bring our political and governmental institutions back to life, make them responsive and accountable, and keep them honest. No one else can". JOHN W GARDNER, 1912-2000 US Activist and former Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare
The hard truth is that, when democracy is broken, only the citizens can mend it. PAGE | 26
The Global Movement to redefine progress 'beyond GDP'
On the global scene, these issues started to come together from many different sources more than 40 years ago.
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OECD - Bhutan - Canada The pioneers
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Bhutan's Gross National Happiness
The Bhutanese had the idea of making wellbeing the key goal and measure of national success ahead of GDP, long before the western world. In the 1970’s their King decreed that "Gross National Happiness is more important than Gross National Product” PAGE | 29
The Canadian Index of Wellbeing
Canada has been another world leader in this field. Work on what became the Canadian Index of Wellbeing began over 20 years ago, and from the start it was strongly focused on asking Canadians what mattered for their wellbeing. The first national wellbeing index was released in 2010 and what it showed was alarming: over the past 16 years, GDP had grown by a total of 29% but in the same period wellbeing for average Canadians had grown by only 6%. So where did all that extra wealth go?
Tracking the causes of changed wellbeing
The Canadians also developed an ingenious method showing how movements in different areas of life – education, health, the environment, leisure etc – were affecting the overall wellbeing result, whether positively or negatively, and thus where policy efforts needed to be directed. This table shows that growth in overall wellbeing in areas like education and living standards was offset by a declining health, over-work, reduced leisure and environmental damage
Italy's Equitable and Sustainable Wellbeing (BES) Framework
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Equitable and Sustainable Wellbeing
Italy’s BES framework was led by the OECD’s pioneering Director of Statistics, Enrico Giovannini. At the OECD, he took up the UNDP’s alternative definition of the progress of societies and made it widely accepted: that is, that true progress means an increase in equitable and sustainable wellbeing PAGE | 33
Wellbeing that matters to citizens
The Italian framework also includes another important innovation: weighting of different domains of wellbeing according to their importance to citizens. This table shows how Italians rate key domains of wellbeing, with health, the environment and education mattering most for the quality of life. These 12 Italian domains of wellbeing are now pretty similar across the world in most social progress measurement frameworks, including the OECD’s. PAGE | 34
The OECD Better Life Index
As a highly respected international policy think tank, the OECD has been an influential and long standing player in this field: Its earliest report was the OECD List of Social Concerns (1980s). It has had a critical role since then as the international convenor of the Global Project on Measuring the Progress of Societies and biennial World Forums (2004 to present). The Istanbul Declaration (2009) convened by the OECD was the first international convention setting out the key principles of new societal progress measurement. The OECD Better Life Index (shown here) is a simple and attractive tool that enables users in different countries to rate key wellbeing areas according to its importance to them. It also produces wellbeing indexes for regions, including WA. PAGE | 35
The United Nations Development Program
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We have already seen an example from 1996 of the UN Development Program’s early work on ‘the mismeasurement of progress’. Leading up to the Paris Summit on Sustainable Development in 2015, the UNDP developed a global survey called My World 2015. 8 million citizens around the world voted on their priorities for world development. This work has continued into a 2030 version. This slide shows the community-based process that is being used, and how it links into policy-making. The UNDP work is a very important model for ANDI … and maybe for WA?
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These were the UN’s 17 priorities for sustainable development that the world’s citizens voted on. ANDI is proposing to develop a national version of this interactive survey PAGE | 38
And here’s how the world voted in 2015 –education, health and job opportunities were miles ahead in almost every country, followed by honest government. In Australia and NZ a total of 77,000 voted. PAGE | 39
And this result in turn contributed to the UN Sustainable Development Goals, which have gained worldwide acceptance and provide international targets to aim for. PAGE | 40
Progress Beyond GDP: a global map So from so many different countries and sources – national and local – and from movements like the women's and environmental movements – there has gradually grown a global movement developing alternative models for defining and measuring societal progress, and more recently, for re-designing economies around people and wellbeing, as we will see.
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The global movement to redefine progress SIX KEY LESSONS A society’s progress is more than economic growth. It must include the social, cultural, environmental and democratic dimensions. Qualitative and subjective dimensions (people’s feelings and experiences), not just quantitative, must also be included. The problem we are facing is not just the wrong measures but the wrong model of societal progress. A better way to define true progress would be ‘increases in equitable and sustainable well-being’.
Looking back now over twenty years, these are the key lessons that have emerged from the experience and ideas of so many countries, communities and people. PAGE | 42
The global movement to redefine progress SIX KEY LESSONS Developing a new progress model and measures of progress is a political and democratic task, as much as a technical one. It needs the engagement of citizens, working with academics and policy-makers. We must now consider the implications of these new progress measures, and how they can be best put into practical application, use and understanding. New measures must be embedded in government if they are to lead to policy change.
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"We must rethink progress and build new visions for society". "We are facing both an opportunity and a duty to rethink what progress really means and to build a stronger and more inclusive visions for the future of our societies. Citizens are looking for new ways to improve their lives. We need committed citizens, scientists and well-informed leaders ready to engage the whole of society in an assessment of the challenges ahead. Adequate measurements are essential in helping our societies to define their goals; ensure that we design the right policies to achieve them; and tell us whether those policies are working." Today, in the early decades of the 21st century, as societies we face a huge range of challenges: climate change, the destructive effects of globalisation, growing inequalities, increased insecurity of employment, mass displacement of population and huge numbers of refugees - and at the same time, dramatically declining confidence in the capacity of government. As Angel Gurria says, it is clear that we must rethink what progress means and build new visions for our societies. And this is both an opportunity and a duty. But it can only be done in ways that involve citizens. Because, as we have seen, building a new model and new measures of society’s progress is not merely a technical or policymaking task, it is a democratic task.This, in short, is what the ANDI project is about.. ANGEL GURRIA Secretary General, OECD, 2009
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What is the ANDI Project?
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What is the Australian National Development Index ? A long-term community-research collaboration. Aimed to rethink our national model of progress from ‘increasing economic production’ to ‘increasing equitable and sustainable wellbeing’. By promoting a community debate on progress and our shared vision for Australia. And developing a new research and community based system of national measures of wellbeing and sustainability to show our progress towards those goals. PAGE | 46
Who is ANDI? ANDI is an incorporated not for profit company and also a major national coalition, with many Australian and overseas partners. Together they  represent a broad range of society from welfare, business and trade union interests to indigenous and  environmental groups, children and young people, churches, local governments, human rights and universities. The ANDI research project is currently hosted at the Graduate School of Education at the University of Melbourne PAGE | 47
ANDI progress domains Children and young people Environment and sustainability Community/regional development Fairness and justice Culture and leisure Health Democracy and good governance Indigenous wellbeing Economic life and prosperity Subjective wellbeing & satisfaction Education and creativity Work-life and employment
ANDI’s progress and wellbeing framework will measure progress in the 12 main domains of life illustrated, subject to community endorsement. In each of these domains, we will identify 12 key outcomes or goals, selected by citizens and policy experts, and measure progress in each of them against agreed targets PAGE | 48
These measures will then be combined into an overall index for that domain and the full results will be released each year in a different month in an attractive and accessible report. In this way, ANDI aims not only to provide rich and deep information about all aspects of wellbeing and progress in Australia. It will also function as a multi-purpose policy tool, and a platform to promote regular discussion on the kind of Australia we want. PAGE | 49
Over the past 2 years, we’ve created a 7-step pilot process to develop the indexes in two domains: Health and Education, shown in this slide (more detailed results later). The seven steps start by asking, in each domain of progress, what are the most important outcomes we need to achieve in this domain to promote equitable and sustainable wellbeing?
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ANDI National Survey 2018
In 2018 we carried out a national focus group and survey process to start the discussion about the key ideas, processes and values that should underpin new goals and measures for Australia’s progress. This slide shows a summary of the survey results.As you can see, there is strong community support for developing broader measures of Australia’s progress than GDP, and for including all of ANDI’s proposed progress domains in these wider measures. And very encouragingly, people are saying they would like to be involved in the process to develop these new progress measures. PAGE | 51
Pilot priorities for education index
This slide shows more detailed results in education. In our focus groups we had asked people in the community to identify what they saw as the most important education outcomes that we should achieve as a nation, if we are to maximise equitable and sustainable well-being. We then asked a panel of stakeholders and experts to review this list, before finally asking a representative sample of community members to vote on each of them on a scale of 0 to 10. As you can see, the greatest importance was given to "fair and affordable access to education”, but many other outcomes were highly rated, including maths and science abilities, educational opportunities for disabled people, high quality teachers, learning life skills and problem solving. These priority scores would then be used as weightings in the development of an overall index of ‘Education Progress’ and progress in each goal measured against a clear target, such as the OECD best practice. PAGE | 52
Pilot priorities for health index The same process was carried out in health and the results here were especially interesting. The most important of all health priorities in Australia today was seen to be “Good mental health", followed by equal and affordable access to healthcare, an emphasis on preventative health and promoting healthy living, and the provision of health services that are embedded in communities and linked across changes in peoples’ life-cycles.
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A national conversation with over 500,000 Australians How? Initially carried out over 2 years Website and online surveys Local governments networks Outreach of ANDI Partners (2 million members) across Australia Regional forums
Platforms Social Media School projects Media partners 12 research groups and 6 universities nationally UNDP type national survey (My Australia 2030)
In our pilot phase, we have designed a major national community engagement program aimed to directly involve half a million Australians all over the nation, answering these REVELRY VILLAGE HOMES | 202 central questions ‘What kind of Australia do we want?’ What would it look like? And how should we measure progress towards it?” This program will be carried out across many different platforms, forums and communication media, with many different partners taking it up with their own members, congregations and local constituents.
ANDI: three key national benefits A way to build a practical shared vision for a fairer, more sustainable society with greater general well-being An important tool that will increase transparency and clarity in policy making, planning and nation-building A way to re-engage citizens and strengthen democracy, transparency and confidence in the political process.
ANDI’s medium-term goal is to build a better definition and measures of national progress. But the longer-term goals and benefits go well beyond this. And the potential benefits for the nation if we do it right are significant. PAGE | 55
Where are we now? Lessons, leaders, best practices
We've looked at the lessons learnt and the challenges we face. So what is actually being done today, especially by the leading countries? And what is the best practice we can learn from? As we look at these examples, you will note that it is often the smaller countries that are doing the most.
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Wellbeing the key goal of government Our object in the construction of the state is the greatest happiness of the whole, and not that of any one class. (Plato, 429 – 347 BC) The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only object of good government. (Thomas Jefferson, 1743-1826, Third President of the USA)
77% of Australians believe that government’s chief objective should be to promote policies designed to maximise human happiness and wellbeing rather than greater wealth. (Ipsos Mackay poll, 2006)
From Ancient Greece, to revolutionary America, to contemporary Australia. The wellbeing of the people is the primary goal of government - and the most legitimate justification of political power. PAGE | 57
How wellbeing can be 'built in'
There are many ways wellbeing can be built into government, and it can be done at many levels, if we are committed to it. Here are some examples, most of them recent. All of them could be done in an Australian State government, such as WA’s
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Building wellbeing in: Case studies
In its role as the leading global policy think tank, the OECD recently published a detailed case study of countries that are leading the world in building new progress measurement frameworks into policy. PAGE | 59
Building wellbeing in: Budgets
And there are many interesting – and some quite unexpected examples. Some countries have introduced requirements for wellbeing measures to guide their budget process - and even in New Zealand’s case – to frame their whole budget. PAGE | 60
Building wellbeing in: Policy evaluation
Some have developed a wellbeing framework to evaluate policies and policy options – most notably, the quite encyclopaedic Treasury Green Book in the UK, and New Zealand Treasury’s Living Standard Framework PAGE | 61
Building wellbeing in: Community engagement
Quite a few countries have developed new ways to engage citizens in defining and measuring the kind of societies they want to live in. (Canada is not on this list because the examples here are of government projects, but over many years it has made the most sustained and inclusive attempts to engage citizens.) PAGE | 62
Building wellbeing in: Strategic priority setting
And finally there are a number of countries which have built wellbeing measures into the highest strategic levels of government: national planning, whole of government performance evaluation, and even the constitution. These countries are part of the leading group convened by the OECD. We will look at the case of Scotland in a little more detail in a moment. PAGE | 63
How wellbeing measures are being used in everyday policy-making PAGE | 64
Wellbeing impacts can and should provide an overarching tool or prism to plan and evaluate public policy, and to frame and shape public debate. This slide shows the ways in which a wellbeing approach can improve the policy-making process ‌ PAGE | 65
Wellbeing measures can and should be used at all stages of the policy cycle, from setting agendas and priorities right through to evaluation the success of the specific policies, according to the OECD. PAGE | 66
Using wellbeing as the key criterion can also create a deeper and more nuanced understanding of the different facets of social disadvantage – as in this illustration from the OECD, which shows that unequal wellbeing can be of three quite different kinds: 1.Between people at the top and the bottom of the ladder. 2.Between different social and demographic groups. 3.In terms of the proportion of people falling below a given standard of living PAGE | 67
Shown here is an ingenious tool combining different policy uses for a wellbeing measurement framework, in this case the OECD Better Life Index. The outer ring shows main domains of progress and wellbeing, the next ring the most important outcomes within each domain. The inner white ring shows the standard against which progress is measured (such as a specific target or the best performing OECD country). The coloured bar or spoke shows how far the given country has progressed (in this example, New Zealand) and how far it has to go. ANDI will develop an improved version of this for Australia. PAGE | 68
Measuring wellbeing "capital" This slide highlights an important innovation in measuring national wellbeing and progress. If we are serious about our country’s - or State's - progress and wellbeing, we must measure both the current account -current wellbeing - and the capital account - the wellbeing of future generations and the available resources and 'capital' on which both current and future wellbeing depend. These include natural capital, economic and financial capital, human capital and 'social capital’, as defined here. PAGE | 69
Running down capital reduces future wellbeing
The OECD and the UN, and among individual countries especially New Zealand and the Netherlands, have led the world in developing wellbeing capital measures. This slide shows how negative developments in all four wellbeing capitals can undermine more positive outcomes in current wellbeing. PAGE | 70
"Best Practice" models for WA: Scotland, Wales, New Zealand PAGE | 71
Scotland's integrated wellbeing government framework Humankind Index and community engagement program “What sort of Scotland do you want to live (grow up) in?” National values and outcomes-based planning and performance measurement framework Legislation for ‘community empowerment’ building national outcomes and values into government etc. Commission on the Future Delivery of Public Services Children’s rights and Children’s Parliament
Shown here are the five main elements of Scotland’s wellbeing government model, which combines community engagement, structural and public sector reform and long-term planning in one integrated package. In developing a long term national planning and performance framework for Scotland, the government and community organisations like Oxfam launched a community engagement program built around the central question’ What sort of Scotland do you want to live in?’. PAGE | 72
Values and purpose drive the priorities...
In the framework, the central values, purpose and goals (such as kindness, dignity, compassion) act as a kind of central cog driving the specific national outcomesto be achieved in each domain area. The next slide shows the full framework, including the key national outcomes to be achieved in each domain, the national indicators of success to be used and as well, a comparison with the relevant UN Sustainable Development Goals. Perhaps the most impressive feature of Scotland’s National Performance Framework is that it has bipartisan support and has been passed into law. The second impressive feature, for me, is the clarity and compression of its presentation, even if the print is rather small! PAGE | 73
... and the outcomes and progress measures
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Legislating community engagement
The Community Empowerment Act is an essential component of the national planning and performance framework. It requires the government to define a series of key national outcomes and engage citizens in reviewing them. More generally, it mandates community-based planning and establishes new platforms and processes for citizen engagement in decision-making, including in the management of public lands and facilities. In Canada, the British Columbia Citizens Charter has similar purposes. PAGE | 75
As part of its strong commitment to children and young people in the National Performance Framework, Scotland holds regular sittings of the Children’s Parliament...
… and periodically mounts national campaigns for children’s rights. In the one shown here, Scottish celebrities came forward to declare themselves public champions. ‘Unfeartie’ is Scots for ‘I’m not afraid’ (to speak out). The Chief Minister Nicola Sturgeon is shown second from the top left. Last year she gave an outstanding TED talk, explaining the Scottish wellbeing model : see https://www.ted.com/talks/nicola_sturgeo PAGE | 76 n_why_governments_should_prioritize_well being?language=en
The Scottish Justice policy is a good example of how Scotland’s National Performance Framework works in practice in a specific policy area.
Justice policies flow from national values
The policy starts by identifying the long term vision for justice, consistent with the NPF, and then the priority goals and outcomes, and finally the key indicators to measure progress in achieving them. PAGE | 78
Wales - the UN Leader
Wales is recognised as a world model by the UN. It has a comprehensive program to build equitable and sustainable wellbeing into government at all levels, consolidated in law, the ‘Wellbeing of Future Generations Act’. This sets national goals and progress measures, entrenches clear values and reporting requirements in public agencies and creates a series of related offices and institutions to implement them. They include: a Commissioner for Future Generations, national milestones and wellbeing goals, a national advisory panel, annual audits and a future trends report. A great example of community engagement is ‘The Wales I want’: https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=IHlXz04jIeo PAGE | 79
New Zealand Wellbeing Budget
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With strong and passionate direction from its Prime Minister and its Treasurer, New Zealand has become a global leader in changing the key rationale and success measure of government and society from GDP to wellbeing. This year it became the first country in the world to introduce a ‘Wellbeing Budget’. What does this mean? As PM Jacinda Ardern explained to the World Economic Forum at Davos in 2019, “If you are a minister and you want to spend money, you have to prove that you are going to improve intergenerational well-being … Growth alone does not lead to a great country. So its time to focus on those things that do”.
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Citizens identify wellbeing priorities Underpinning its new budget, New Zealand has for some years now been developing a Wellbeing Framework, which is partly based on asking New Zealanders directly what they think matters most to their wellbeing.This table shows citizen responses across 11 key areas of life. Interestingly, many people felt that general satisfaction with their lives (including family and relationships, meaning and purpose, happiness etc.) was more important to their wellbeing than more tangible factors like income, work, education and even health. PAGE | 82
NZ measures of wellbeing capital
New Zealand has also become a leader in trying to measure ‘future wellbeing’ The most important factor determining the wellbeing of future generations will be the state of the stock or capital we bequeath to them. These include: natural or environmental capital (like fish stocks, forests, unpolluted air and oceans, clean water); human capital (levels of education and skill in the community); economic capital (household and financial wealth, infrastructure etc.); and ‘social capital’ (trust, the strength of civil society, communities and governments etc). All these things will affect the quality of life of future citizens: and none are currently measured by the GDP, which focuses only on the annual production end of the balance sheet, not the assets. PAGE | 83
The Movement to Wellbeing Economies
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The Movement to Wellbeing Economies "What if we started economics not with its long-established theories, but with humanity's long-term goals, and then sought out the economic thinking that would enable us to achieve them?"
Kate Raworth 2016, 'Doughnut Economics'
The wider underlying issues here go well beyond questions of wellbeing measurement. The fact is that developed societies like Australia are at a cross roads. We will have to choose between economic growth (at least in its present forms) and the sustainable progress of societies. This suggests that we will need to transform not just our budgets, but our whole economies. We will need to develop wellbeing economies. This will only happen if we rethink the social purpose of economies. Rather than being a machine to maximise economic growth and wealth, the economy should be considered as a societal instrument to promote human wellbeing. To do this will take some fundamental re-thinking, because the ‘growth first’ view is so powerfully entrenched in economic theory and in business and government. PAGE | 85
Building wellbeing into the economy: the WEGo group
But a very effective start has been made. Three governments – all quite small and all, interestingly, led by women - have formed a coalition of support and best practice called the ‘Wellbeing Economy Governments Group’ under the auspices of the OECD. New Zealand, Iceland and Scotland are the initial partners in the group, established in 2018, but quite a few more governments are interested and participated in the OECD’s Paris conference last year on ‘Wellbeing into policy’ (see: https://wellbeingeconomy.org/). These include state-level governments like Nova Scotia in Canada.
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Why ANDI wants to work with WA PAGE | 87
A WA Development Index: mutual advantages? ANDI is seeking a State partner to comprehensively model/pilot all aspects of a national development index project. Why? ANDI could be a possible umbrella for work in WA, and a national ‘Best practice’ model But it must be a WA project, owned by WA organisations and must fit with existing WA work We believe there would be strong and lasting benefits for WA
This workshop today came about following meetings that Fiona and I had earlier this year with WA politicians, NGO’s and local government, and Lotterywest. We were - and we are - excited about the idea of a full State version of the ANDI national project. In some ways and in the current climate, we think there are better prospects of establishing the value of this model at state and local level. Today’s workshop is very much a preliminary discussion, and hopefully the start of a process. We certainly agree that this proposal can only be successful if it is owned and developed by the people and organisations of WA, not imposed from outside. Right now, having done a 2-year pilot, ANDI is currently developing 5-year plan for full development with our partner Ernst and Young, which will underpin applications to major funders. We think the WA project could be part of this. PAGE | 88
Relevant WA work in this area WA are already working in this space, with projects such as: Our Priorities (WAgovernment) Lotterywest ‘WA Wellbeing Index’ WACOSS/DPC/Finance ‘Outcomes Measurement Framework’ Local Government mandatory 10-year community plans (WALGA) How might an ANDI model fit in with, and amplify, this work? We would like to know more and discuss this work
We are very aware that there are a number of projects already done or underway in WA that bear on different aspects of the whole set of issues about determining priorities, measuring progress and engaging citizens . So the first question we ask is whether a comprehensive ANDI approach could usefully align with this work and perhaps provide a kind of umbrella framework for it. PAGE | 89
Nous report recommendation on WA Wellbeing Index
One promising point of entry might be the recent report by Nous consultants for Lotterywest, examining a possible WA Index of Wellbeing. Although the initial purpose was narrowed - to provide guidance to the agency in making community grants – the report suggested that Lotterywest and Healthway might partner with other government and community agencies – including ANDI - to develop pilot projects to measure wellbeing more widely in WA. This could be done, Nous said, in way that built a greater alignment and collaboration in wellbeing measurement processes and indicators across WA and nationally. PAGE | 90
What a WA ANDI project might look like over 5 years
We’d like now for us to consider what a WA Development Index might look like if fully developed in, say, 5 years time. Let’s assume it is adequately funded, has good government and community support and strong citizen engagement in its development. And let’s also assume that we are able to design this index in which ways which incorporate the very best practices of successful national and international models as well as the special elements and innovations that West Australians sought. How would it be constructed? What would it look like? What would it do? What effect and benefits might it have on the wellbeing of people and communities; on public policy; and on democracy in this State? PAGE | X
A 'best practice' WA Development Index Based on extensive, ongoing community engagement across the state on priority values, goals and outcomes, including biennial state wide community wellbeing survey) Developed in WA and with international OECD-led peer group Shows state’s progress comprehensively in 12 key domains and overall, both ‘current’ and ‘capital’ progress accounts, subjective and objective wellbeing Measures progress on 12 key outcomes against clear targets in each domain
Listed here are the most important elements of an ‘international best practice’ model for WA – one that optimises the development process, the democratic opportunities and the full range of public policy applications from such an index. This is very like the best practice model that ANDI is aiming for nationally; but in practice the same elements are as relevant and useful at an Australian state level, given state responsibilities. PAGE | 92
A 'best practice' WA Development Index Tracks broad qualities (equity, sustainability) across all domains Index and status report in each domain annually in a different month Attractive, accessible format with strong education & public info focus Multiple policy uses and applications, including local and regional level Built into and across government - planning, budgets, evaluation, community engagement, legislation Used and trusted in the community as agreed vision for ‘the WA we want’.
This is also very like the best practice model that ANDI is aiming for nationally – but in practice the same elements are as relevant and useful at an Australian state level, given state responsibilities. PAGE | 93
Potential partners for WA Development Index
Who might be the potential partners in this enterprise? This is, of course, up to you to decide but we would suggest from our experience that the kind of partners listed here are necessary for representativeness and the right mix of skills. Above all, they are necessary to build a strong organisational infrastructure across the community and to ensure that the project is seen as – and is in fact – an innovative community-government collaboration (rather than a purely government project) - which would help raise the level of public trust and participation
Community and NGO stakeholder organisations (incl. WACOSS) Indigenous council/representative group Key state government departments Local governments (incl. WALGA) Universities/research centres (incl. Telethon KI) Media partner and education sectors Lotterywest, other philanthropies (Ramsay Foundation?) ANDI Nous, Ernst and Young WA ‘Ambassadors’ (eminent West Australians from all walks of life) PAGE | 94
Possible development stages for WA/ANDI Project 1. Planning, design and funding (Year 1) 2. Broad values, aspirations, domains: ‘the WA we want’ (Year 1) Here is a very approximate outline of the main stages of development of the Index, with the ultimate aim is to build it into government and ensure it is widely used and understood, continuously improved and sustainable over the long term.. These stages mirror ANDI’s more detailed 5year national business plan
3. Goals, outcomes and index in each progress domain (Years 2-3) 4. State progress index (Year 3) 5. Entrenchment in government (Years 3- 4) 6. Ongoing review, promotion and education (Year 5)
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Benefits for WA
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Here are the possible benefits for WA that a fully developed wellbeing index would help bring about – not single handedly, of course, but as part of a coordinated government and community process. Perhaps the last of these might be the most important; but it certainly will not happen overnight. As New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said to the World Economic Forum at Davos last year, what we are talking about here is a shift in the fundamental paradigm of government, from building economic growth to building wellbeing and sustainability. This shift may take 20 years, but if we do it, we will look back and say we were on the right side of history. https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=GqzlFffL0W4
Benefits for WA 1. Stronger democracy, increased citizen engagement and trust 2. Improved wellbeing, fairness and sustainability for WA people 3. Better government – planning, reporting, evaluation, policymaking and accountability 4. A clear, concrete shared vision for the State’s development based on regular and trusted reporting 5. WA can be an Australian and international leader in the global movement to redefine progress 6. Over time, a change in the model of government, putting fair and sustainable wellbeing at the heart of government PAGE | 97
Next Steps from here
Set up a consortium of interested partners or ‘community of learning’ Hold a planning workshop Organise a state/international conference on WADI, wellbeing and public policy Here finally are some suggestions for the next steps we might take in the coming months to develop this idea, assuming enough of you think it worthwhile
Commission a funded study for a 5-year development plan Carry out a WA Community Wellbeing Survey We would like to help! PAGE | 98
Get in Touch AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT INDEX
The case for a Western Australian Development Index Mailing address
Level 8 100 Leicester Street Melbourne Graduate School Of Education The University of Melbourne
Email address
Presentedmike.salvaris@unimelb.edu.au by Fiona Stanley & Mike Salvaris http://www.andi.org.au/ Perth, WA number 17Phone December 2019 +61 3 903 56774