Successful Nations Pursue Well-Being – Not Money, Experts Say

Inequality issues and climate change has led to international debates on whether shifting the focus of success from economic growth to wellbeing will be essential to thriving in the new decade.

New Zealand is the first nation to introduce a Wellbeing Budget to focus on areas as mental health, child wellbeing, indigenous people and a low-carbon-emission economy. With that in mind, the Thomson Reuters Foundation asked nine experts the key question, “Can nations prosper by putting well-being ahead of GDP in 2020?”

The answers unanimously nod to the notion of rethinking our economies by putting people and the planet first. As Muhammad Yunus, Nobel Prize Laureate and Microfinance Pioneer, puts it, “Economic growth is a means, it is not an end. The end is the world or society we want to build. If we want to build a world of, say, three zeros — zero poverty, zero unemployment, and net-zero carbon emissions – we have to craft the framework of economics and measurements to assess its successes and failures in achieving these goals. GDP and the economic framework which leads to it are not designed to achieving these goals.”

“Higher GDP is not the goal, well-being is!” exclaims another expert, Pinelopi Koujianou, chief economist of the World Bank. “Research suggests that people in wealthier countries are on average happier than those in poorer ones. Yet it is becoming clear that these citizens care about more than average growth. They value clean air and water, time with family, quality of work and life, and a more equitable distribution of income and wealth.”

“Is a nation truly “prospering” if it is wrecking the environment or its citizens are not able to live dignified lives?” asks Perdro Conceicao, director of the Human Development Report Office at the U.N. Development Programme. “Pursuing genuine wellbeing, including but also going beyond income, recognises this. The Human Development Index – updated in December – adds health and education achievements to portray a broader measure of a nation’s prosperity.”