Gross National Happiness as a Larger Context for Healing and Global Change
Dasho Karma Ura [email protected] President, Centre for Bhutan Studies, Thimphu, Bhutan OVERVIEW
GNH concept GNH indicators GNH measurement
2 3 5 ho ma Kar Ura Das SIX L0NGEVITIES SIX
FOUR FRATERNITIES OF HARMONY Dasho Dasho Karma Ura
6 THE WHEEL AS HOLISTIC SYMBOL (HOLISTIC = WELLBEING, GLOBAL, MULTI- DIMENSIONAL, TIMELESS)
8 Changing National Accounts to Full Cost Accounts
Economic Capital
Ecological Cultural Capital Capital
Social Human Capital Capital 9 GNH Dasho Dasho Karma Ura
11 The Centre for Bhutan Studies released the new Gross National Happiness (GNH) Index on 26 November, 2008.
Although Bhutan has held the ideal of GNH since 1972, this is the first quantitative index that has been computed. The Gross National Happiness index is constructed of 72 indicators representing 9 dimensions. To realize GNH, each person should have achieved sufficiency in each of the 9 dimensions and 72 indicators (union):
Psychological Well-being Living Standards Health Education Culture Time Use Ecology Good Governance Community Vitality AGGREGATION
Methodology: Alkire and Foster, 2007 Decomposable threshold method
Step 1: Set a threshold for every Indicator: What is Sufficient?
Step 2 : Identify if people have insufficient and sufficient in each.
Insufficient Sufficient Threshold Decomposable threshold method
Step 3 : Set a threshold across domains: who is ‘unhappy’
GNH threshold across domains= 1 domain If person has insufficient in any one domain, then is classified as unhappy
A person considered happy if he/she is non-deprived in all domains
Step 4 : Headcount of ‘happy’ = 1-H, where H = Number of people who are unhappy Total number of respondents Decomposable threshold method
Step 5: Calculate Average number of dimensions in which people are deprived A = total number of deprivations total number of unhappy people
Step 6 : Calculate Gap or Distance from the threshold for each indicator G = (threshold - actual entry) (threshold) Decomposable threshold method
Step 7 : Calculation of Severity for each indicator
S = (threshold - actual entry) 2 (threshold) Decomposable threshold method
Index: M0 = HA M1 = HAG M2 = HAS
Gross National Happiness Index
GNH0 = 1 – HA Breadth GNH1 = 1Step – HAG 9 : GNH IndexDepth = 1 - Index GNH2 = 1 – HAS Inequality (% = 1 – H Headcount) GNH0 = 0.64 means: most Bhutanese are satisfied in 6 of 9 dimensions.
GNH1 = 0.76 means: the insufficient dimensions are about 2/3 full
GNH2 = 0.80 means: among Bhutanese, inequality is low.
Headcount = 100% No person had sufficient in all 72 indicators. Other findings:
Women are usually less happy than men.
The district Thimphu, which is the capital city, the wealthiest district, and the most urban ranked 11/12 – almost at the bottom – among districts.
Of the nine bowls, the most people had full bowls in ‘time use’ and ‘good governance’. Weighted GNH Index at domain level = .80
Time Use 0.970 Good Governance 0.880 Health 0.855 Culture 0.852 Community Vitality 0.838 Living Standards 0.814 Psychological Wellbeing 0.772 Ecology 0.713 Education 0.548 The 2008 GNH Index is based on survey data from 12 of the 20 Districts.
In future years, the survey will be representative by District (n=8000).
The indicators may shift, but the nine dimensions will be the same. GNH in Policy Making
National Index SINGLE NUMBER GNH INDEX
Influence Progress GNH INDICATORS Measurement
Influence Policy Making GNH POLICY SCREENING TOOLS
Project GNH PROJECT SELECTION TOOLS Formulation