Parliamentarians & Experts Discuss Alternative Development Metrics
Today the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN), Parliamentarians for the Global Goals (PFGG), and Gabriela Cuevas, President of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), organized a high-level dialogue on alternative development metrics, such as subjective well-being, and their role in tracking progress on building back better from the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants included parliamentarians and staff from approximately 80 countries.
The COVID-19 pandemic represents the greatest threat to humanity since World War II. As Parliamentarians consider recovery packages and legislation to support economic recovery, more than ever, they are looking for science-based recommendations to ensure no one is left behind.
Gabriela Cuevas , President of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), and Kirsten Brosbøl , Founder of Parliamentarians for the Global Goals (PfGG), welcomed participants to this fourth and final webinar in our summer series on the COVID-19 response.
The first speaker, Dr. Shun Wang , Professor at the KDI School of Public Policy & Management, presented on tracking well-being at the national level. Historically, countries have tracked per capita GDP as the key metric of development, but this is not ideal, as it includes both positive spending, such as money spent on schools and healthcare, as well as negative spending, such as spending on prisons. The Human Development Index, recommended by UNDP, improves upon this by looking not only at income, but also education and health. One challenge with this measure is that it can be difficult to compare across countries, because education and health systems are so different. Subjective well-being measures can address this, as it asks individuals to rank or rate their life satisfaction, and is more consistent across countries. It also is a single measure that reflects all aspects of well-being (wealth, health, good governance, friendship, etc.) This is important for many reasons. A better life is the ultimate goal of economic growth, environmental protection, provision of healthcare, etc., and in this sense well-being measures track the ultimate outcome policies are trying to achieve. It also allows us to evaluate the effectiveness of these policies, evaluate tradeoffs, and integrate multiple factors. In the COVID-19 era, we see how the pandemic is affecting people economically and socially. The team that produces the World Happiness Report is currently looking at data from 2020 and the 2021 report will have an assessment on how COVID-19 impacted well-being.
Roberto Gil Zuarth , Former President of the Mexican Senate, presented on the role of Parliamentarians in crafting policy to respond to crises. He noted that the budget approval process is an important mechanism for Parliamentarians to prioritize objectives, allocate resources to programs, and support accountability. Gil said that the time for passive Parliamentarians has passed and that now is the time for legislators to play an active role. COVID-19 has revealed that many of our assumptions are faulty; we had thought income alone was the solution to inequality, but the pandemic has demonstrated that gender inequality, access to education, access to healthcare, and many other structural and social factors are equally as important as income. As Parliamentarians, we have the power to change the tools and metrics that we use, and the question is only whether or not we have the willpower.
Dr. Deborah Russell , Chair of the Finance and Expenditure Committee of the New Zealand Parliament, shared New Zealand's experience passing well-being in legislation. The law requires that every four years the Minister of Finance (equivalent to a Treasurer in other governments) must report to Parliament on well-being in New Zealand and how it has changed over time. The act also requires annual budgets to include a report on how well-being considerations have guided budgetary decisions, across economic, social, environmental, and cultural concerns. This led to the legislature passing The Wellbeing Budget in 2019. Russel noted that actual measurement of well-being is a difficult task, and so they created a living standards framework dashboard. It tracks a large number of indicators across twelve dimensions, such as environment, housing, civic engagement, and cultural identity, including an indicator on subjective well-being, as Dr. Wang recommended. On COVID-19, one challenge they faced was that the legislature was on the verge of passing a new budget when the pandemic hit, and so they had to completely redo it; their philosophy was that if they could get the health response right, other aspects would follow, and it has proven successful.
In the discussion a number of MPs spoke about their own national efforts to track well-being and other non-GDP metrics. There was a rich discussion on the challenges of inequality, both between and within countries, but especially among racial and ethnic minorities, communities living in poverty, and communities facing conflict. There were also a number of comments on the need for support to poor countries to respond to COVID-19, noting that a large percentage of the population in these countries do not have hand washing infrastructure, live in multi-generational families where it is hard to distance if someone is ill, and have under-resourced health systems.
Jeffrey Sachs , President of the SDSN, delivered closing remarks, noting how rich the conversation has been across all four webinars, and highlighting the importance of Parliamentarians in holding governments accountable for successful COVID-19 responses. He noted that the crisis is ongoing, and that another webinar series will be announced for 2021. Summaries and video recordings of sessions 1 (June) , 2 (July) , and 3 (August) can also be found online.