Substantiating Gross National Happiness
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26 November, 2008 – “Is it enough for us to know how to measure happiness and to hope that this will influence policy-making? Is making Gross National Happiness (GNH) policies and programmes enough? What of political will and capacity, given the fact that these, in a democracy, are responses conditioned by popular demands and aspirations?”
“If people do not understand and favour GNH-based policies, will politicians dare? And, if they do, will they succeed? How do we begin? How do we internalise, beyond intellectual enquiry and statements, the values that we speak of? How do we, as academics, thinkers, scientists, leaders and concerned citizens, change our own way of life and behaviour?”
The prime minister, Lyonchhen Jigmi Y Thinley, urged the participants of the fourth international GNH conference, which began in Thimphu on Monday, to ponder the questions.
With an impressive increase in the number of participants, ever since the first conference in 2004 initiated in Thimphu, about 90 key researchers and presenters from 25 different countries came together to answer those questions GNH confronts today.
They are here to take GNH from being a mere philosophy to actually putting it into action. The conference is themed “Measurement and Practice”.
The prime minister said that the contemporary vocabulary and architecture of governance were not in consonance with governance for GNH. “Practices based on GNH measurements will require changes in traditional government, structures, objectives and administrative norms,” he said.
So, what will it take to “practise” GNH?
President for the Centre of Bhutan Studies, Dasho Karma Ura, admitted that the part about measurement was easier than that of practice, as the latter required huge mobilisation in society and a substantial shift of investment priorities.
“But, for a holistic development, government policies must direct money into programmes like maintaining community vitality, culture, and psychological well-being, among others,” he said, adding that policy targeting possibilities were now known through research and addressing them was important.
“It is one thing to quibble about GNH but quite another to practise it in your policies, in your own life. But it’s possible,” he said. Dasho Karma Ura stressed the importance of a GNH index to capture progress beyond material growth.
“There’s a possibility of over-focusing on infrastructure creation, which, by the way, promoted economic growth, so we think we’re progressing. But, if we invest in cultivating peace, compassion, balanced emotion, increased trust, safety and freedom, we don’t see the growth,” he said, adding that a GNH index would help focus on such progress.
Supporting GNH throughout, Mr Nicholas Rosellini, UN resident coordinator, in his opening remarks, said that the conference would help Bhutan’s endeavours in developing relevant indicators and indices to use GNH both as policy tool and as a measurement to assess the country’s development progress.
“While concepts, such as human development with its HDI methodology continue to be relevant, we all know that the global environment has changed significantly since it was first introduced. The financial, food and fuel crises serve as very visible illustrations of this dynamic,” he said.
He said it was in the spirit of recognising this changing and varied nature of reality that people must continue to reassess the relevance of development paradigms and search for alternatives. “I feel that, from this vantage point, GNH continues to give a refreshing perspective to development,” he said.
Meanwhile, participants have varied opinions. While some say that it was going to be a long way before GNH was applied, a few policy-makers are determined to put it into practice immediately. Overall, many are convinced that the conference was another stepping stone for Bhutan to define and refine GNH.
By Kesang Dema (Kuenselonline)