'Happiness' urged as growth indicator

MANILA, Philippines - Sen. Loren Legarda has suggested that the Philippine government use a “happiness index” apart from the gross national product to measure the country’s economic growth.

“Along with the gross domestic product and other traditional economic yardsticks, it is equally important for us to know whether our economic activities make our people in the environment they live in healthier, educated and better acquainted with their cultural roots,” Legarda said.

Legarda said developed countries such as United Kingdom and France have started to institute a “happiness index” in measuring a country’s growth.

Legarda said the Kingdom of Bhutan has been practicing the philosophy of Gross National Happiness (GNH) in looking at their economic growth.

“Their development philosophy of Gross National Happiness transcends the concept of gross national product as it presents its four pillars - sustainable and equitable socio-economic development, environmental and cultural conservation, and good governance,” Legarda said.

She said the adoption of GNH indicators made the Bhutanese people strive to preserve their environment and cultural heritage and thus promote sustainable development.

Legarda said she is ready to push for the adoption of GNH “for us to go the extra mile of taking into account the quality of life of our people and the quality of our environment in measuring growth.”

Legarda added that new indices that consider environmental protection and investments in disaster risk reduction would more accurately reflect development.

As this developed, Asian parliamentarians will meet in Manila on Thursday to discuss what actions lawmakers in the region could take in order to increase the resilience of Asian countries to disasters and climate change.

The forum will focus on disaster risk reduction as an instrument to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). 

Legarda will represent the country in the meeting with the Asian parliamentarians under the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR) and the Asian Network of Parliamentarians for Population and Development.

The forum aims to provide a venue for leading parliamentarians from Asian countries to share insights on why disaster risk reduction is important in achieving sustainable socio-economic development and the MDGs in particular, what governments still need to do, and how parliamentarians can make the needed change happen.

“Parliamentarians play a pivotal role in today’s historic effort to achieve the MDGs - clear, measurable targets for reducing poverty by 2015 that were set by heads of state at the United Nations Millennium Summit in September 2000,” Legarda said.

Among the countries represented in the parliamentarians’ meeting are Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Nepal, Maldives, Pakistan, the Philippines and Thailand. 

The United Nations Secretary General’s Special Representative for Disaster Risk Reduction Margareta Wahlström will attend the forum.

The 2010 Asia Pacific Disaster Report recently released by the UNISDR and ESCAP said people in the Asia-Pacific region are four times more likely to be affected by disasters from natural hazards than those living in Africa, and 25 times more likely than those living in Europe or North America. 

The region also accounted for a staggering 85 percent of disaster-related deaths and 38 percent of global economic losses in 1980-2009, the report said.