The Social Report: Monitoring Social Wellbeing in New Zealand 2001 - 2007.

The Social Report:

Monitoring Social Wellbeing in New

Zealand

2001 - 2007

Purpose of The Social Report

• “to provide information on the overall social health and well-being of our society”

• Transparency – balance and complement existing economic and fiscal monitoring

• Accountability – to allow us to monitor how New Zealand is performing over time and compared to other countries

• Issue identification – to help identify areas where action is required or that warrant further investigation

The Social Report

Purpose of The Social Report

• Cross-sectoral

• Outcome focused

• Comprises:

• An Outcomes Framework

• Social Indicators to monitor progress

The Social Report

Outcomes Framework

• Well-being has no single metric on which it can be measured comparable to GDP:

• “Life satisfaction” or “happiness” measures are useful at an aggregate level, but do not tell us much without additional information

• One number indexes such as the Human Development Index or the Genuine Progress Indicator require much stronger and more contentious value judgements

• Need for a framework against which to measure social well-being

The Social Report

Outcomes Framework

The Social Report

• Outcome domains for The Social Report 2007 are:

• Health• Knowledge and Skills• Paid Work• Economic Standard of Living• Civil and Political Rights• Cultural Identity• Leisure and Recreation• Physical Environment• Safety• Social Connectedness

Indicators

• “Social indicators are statistics used to measure social wellbeing and monitor trends in wellbeing over time”

• Clear normative interpretation

• Indicate rather than describe

• Must be timely

The Social Report

Indicators

The Social Report

Paid Work

Desired outcome statement Indicators

Everybody has access to meaningful, rewarding and safe employment. An appropriate balance is maintained between paid work and other aspects of life.

11. Unemployment 12. Employment 13. Median hourly

earnings 14. Workplace injury

claims 15. Satisfaction with

work-life balance

Indicators

• 42 indicators in total for The Social Report 2007

• 17 have time series from mid-80s and another 8 have time series from the mid-90s

• For 7 indicators we have no time series

• 15 indicators can be used for OECD comparisons and another 4 have alternative OECD comparable measures

• 2 have no clear normative interpretation

The Social Report

Comparability• We can present a fairly good overview of current

wellbeing…

• …although there are some notable gaps

• Cultural Identity• Leisure and Recreation• Physical Environment• Safety

• However, we are much more limited with regard to international comparisons

The Social Report

Wellbeing and Sustainability

• The Social Report provides a good overview of how we are doing now…

• …but our current wellbeing can be at the expense of our future wellbeing if we draw down on our capital stocks by consuming at a faster rate than those stocks can recover

• To interpret the Social Report therefore, we really need to know the state of the capital stocks that underpin our current welfare

The Social Report