Transcript SLides for Feb preso in Australia

The Global Project on Measuring
the Progress of Societies
OECD World Forum on Statistics,
Knowledge and Policy
Jon Hall, World Forum Project Leader, OECD
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Introduction
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Is life getting better?
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In which ways are societies progressing? Where is there
cause for concern, and where is they reason for optimism?
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Indeed, what does progress mean in the 21st century?
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Some “megatrends”
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Around the world, societies are increasingly concerned with
their quality of life and a consensus is growing around the
need to develop a more comprehensive view of progress
rather than focussing on the economic one (GDP).
Mistrust in national governments (and therefore in national
statistical offices).
Growing number of “agents” in the society (NGOs, etc.).
Individuals are asked to take decisions that in the past were
taken by the government (pensions, school, etc.).
In an age of unprecedented, and overwhelming, information
flows, the common understanding necessary for informed
public discourse is often inadequate.
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The Istanbul World Forum
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1200 people from 130 countries
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Presidents, ministers, leading academics and civil
societarians, private sector and media
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What is Progress?
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What information do we need to assess progress in key
global concerns?
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From outputs to outcomes - how can we get measures used
by a broad audience?
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The Istanbul Declaration
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A culture of evidence-based decision making has to be
promoted at all levels of government, to increase the welfare
of societies.
We affirm our commitment to measuring and fostering
the progress of societies in all their dimensions and to
supporting initiatives at the country level.
We urge statistical offices, public and private
organisations, and academic experts to work alongside
representatives of their communities to produce high-quality,
facts-based information that can be used by all of society to
form a shared view of societal well-being and its evolution
over time.
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The Istanbul Declaration
– encourage communities to consider for
themselves what “progress” means;
– share best practices and increase the
awareness of the need to do so using sound and
reliable methodologies;
– stimulate international debate, based on solid
statistical data and indicators, on both global
issues of societal progress and comparisons of
such progress;
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The Istanbul Declaration
– produce a broader, shared, public
understanding of changing conditions, while
highlighting areas of significant change or
inadequate knowledge;
– advocate appropriate investment in building
statistical capacity, especially in developing
countries, to improve the availability of data and
indicators needed to guide development programs
and report on progress toward international goals,
such as the MDGs.
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The Istanbul Declaration
– produce a broader, shared, public
understanding of changing conditions, while
highlighting areas of significant change or
Please sign it –
inadequate knowledge;
www.oecd.org/oecdworldforum
– advocate appropriate investment in building
statistical capacity, especially in developing
countries, to improve the availability of data and
indicators needed to guide development programs
and report on progress toward international goals,
such as the MDGs.
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The Global Project
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Advocate for more initiatives that measure progress
Assist those wanting to measure progress – through
developing best practice and providing support
Achieve results – through improving the effectiveness and
use of sets of progress measures
A network of networks
We want every society to develop its own set of progress
measures and use them – through National Roundtables
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Towards a Global Project on “Measuring
the Progress of Societies” (1)
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Meet the demand coming from our societies:
– Measure what matters
– Help citizens to focus on key shared facts
– Reduce information asymmetries between who knows and who
does not know, a key divide in the information age
– Make politicians accountable
– Show where the world/countries/regions/communities are going
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Build a global partnership with international
organisations, national and local public institutions,
foundations, NGOs, media partners, academic networks,
corporations, etc.
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Key deliverables (1)
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Statistical research
– Recommendations on how to measure the progress of
societies using different approaches;
– Development of recommendations on how to measure
specific phenomena;
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Key deliverables (2)
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ICT tools to transform statistics into knowledge
– Development of innovative software to improve users’
capacity to visualise and analyse statistical indicators;
– Development of partnerships with national and global
media to improve the dissemination of statistical
information to citizens;
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Key deliverables (3)
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Advocacy and institutional building
– Recommendations on how to build initiatives aimed to
measure the societal progress through the involvement of
different components of the society (government,
opposition, civil society, etc.);
– Organisation of working groups in the different regions of
the world, where experience on these issues can be shared
and discussed, good practices identified, etc.;
– Support to countries and regions who want to establish
initiatives to measure progress, providing training courses,
scientific advice, software to present indicators, etc.
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Key deliverables (4)
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Global infrastructures to measure and foster
world progress: WIKIPROGRESS
– A global 2.0 web-based technical infrastructure where:
• Progress indicators would be made accessible to
citizens all over the world;
• Users could interact with indicators using attractive
graphical interfaces and other analytical tools, and
launch global conversations based on solid and
comparable statistical information, etc.
– World and regional events:
• To stimulate statistical and policy discussions on societal
progress;
• To promote the development and use of progress
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indicators.
Global Leadership
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Consider moving over the long term to promoting a
common framework for measuring the World’s
Progress
Considering developing a set of criteria to judge
whether measuring progress initiatives would be
ratified by the OECD project
But would this work?
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In conclusion, the Project aims to:
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Change culture, helping citizens and policy makers to
pay attention to all dimensions of progress
Develop new statistics in emerging domains
Improve citizens’ numeracy, strengthening people’s
capacity of understanding the reality in which they live
Improve citizens’ knowledge, becoming more aware of
risks and challenges of today world
Improve national policy making, through a better
measurement of policy and societal outcomes
Improve international policy making, through the a
world progress monitoring system, covering all countries
Improve statistical capacity in each and every country
Strengthen democracy respecting historical and cultural
differences
Foster a global and open conversation about the state
and the progress of the world
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IMPROVE 16WELFARE
Some Questions for Discussion
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Do you support the Global Project’s ideals?
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What are your priorities?
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How can we make it work?
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Can you contribute and can we help?
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www.oecd.org/oecdworldforum
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