The Kingdom of Bhutan
Conference on Happiness and Economic Development: August 10-12
Hosted by His Excellency Prime Minister Thinley and Professor Jeffrey D. Sachs
Conference Overview
From August 10-12, 2011, His Excellency Prime Minister Jigme Thinley of the Kingdom of Bhutan and Professor Jeffrey Sachs, Director of the Earth Institute and Special Advisor to the UN Secretary General, hosted the Conference on Happiness and Economic Development in Thimphu, Bhutan. The conference brought together over 40 international participants including Chief Minister of Assam Tarun Gogoi, General Secretary of All-India Congress Party Digvijaya Singh, Lord Richard Layard, Professor Peter Singer and other esteemed participants.
The Conference was foreshadowed by a resolution of the United Nations General Assembly on Happiness: Towards a Holistic Approach to Development, sponsored by the Kingdom of Bhutan and co-sponsored by dozens of other countries. This resolution recognized the pursuit of happiness as a universal goal and calls on member states to elaborate measurements of happiness and economic wellbeing to better guide public policies. It looks forward to further discussions among UN member states on the pursuit of happiness in the next session of the General Assembly.
The key points of agreement and outcomes of the conference were as follows:
1) There was broad consensus that happiness is a valid objective for society and for individuals. There was much rich discussion about this complex topic and subject. It is a valid point of departure for a government’s policy or for an individual’s objective.
2) Despite the crisis of modernization, global happiness can be raised. It can be raised by human agency or will power, but it is possible to use the human spirit to raise happiness. One of the important aspects mentioned was that happiness is not a 0 sum state – if anything, it is a positive sum proposition.
3) The happiness agenda should not be considered anti-technological or anti-material. There is no going back to a simpler life, for a basic arithmetic reason. We are now 7 billion people with a tremendous difficulty of provision, meeting the needs of people, being able to operate complex societies. Any attempt to turn back technology would likely lead to devastation.
4) The happiness agenda and imperative leads to certain ideas:
a. Reduction of extreme suffering.
b. Awareness and avoidance of pure status goods.
c. Controlling the media in a way that doesn’t limit freedom but restrains the creation of artificial cravings.
d. Ecological prioritization
5) Implication for government policies
a. Crucial role for measurement: It is basically a bio-feedback mechanism. That is the hard practice of learning meditation, and should be the same thing for government policy.
b. Focus on areas of deprivation/isolation/aging/high vulnerability
c. Address communities as communities and empower them.
d. Focus on education
e. Governments need to pay more attention to mental health
f. The focus on the city is a supreme challenge.
6) Identification of many allies:
a. Public health and mental health community
b. Educators
c. Religious leaders
d. Environmentalists and conversationalists
Conference Summary
Dasho Karma Ura, President of the Center for Bhutan Studies, and Professor Jeffrey Sachs laid out the agenda of the conference during their introductory remarks. Sachs highlighted the leadership of the Government of Bhutan in spreading the philosophy of Gross National Happiness, most recently evidenced through the passion of UN Resolution “Towards a Holistic Approach to Development.” Sachs provided a historical, cultural and economic overview of the inter-connected challenges facing the world today, and the need for a deeper and more holistic attitude towards human well-being and therefore economic and political management.
During the first session, Professor Peter Singer and Lord Richard Layard discussed the historical and philosophical underpinnings of the of the role of happiness in the world. Singer provided a valuable ethical analysis of major questions related to happiness, including providing insights on the difference between Aristotle and Jeremy Bentham/John Stuart Mill which proved to be a very useful distinction for deliberations. Lord Layard provided a global overview of the discipline of happiness studied, and described how this discipline should impact public policy, corporate behavior, educational instruction and family/individual behavior.
The second session included an overview of Gross National Happiness and its implementation by Dasho Karma Tshiteem, Secretary of the Gross National Happiness Commission. He explained the technical underpinnings of the GNH Index and how public policy is influenced by GNH measurements.
The third session included presentations by Professor Carol Graham of the Brookings Institutions and Professor John Helliwell of University of British Columbia. Professors Graham and Helliwell are experts in the economics of happiness. Their presentations provided overviews of the important indicators, studies and technical background of the subject.
The fourth session chaired by Dr. Nirupam Bajpai, Director, Columbia Global Centers | South Asia and Senior Development Advisor, the Earth Institute featured remarks by His Excellency Tarun Gogoi, Chief Minister of Assam and Digvijaya Singh, General Secretary of the All India Congress Committee. Dr. Bajpai said that happiness was a state of mind and differed from person to person and since desires and aspirations were different for people living in rural or urban locations, happiness for one would be defined differently than that for another. Similarly, as far as India goes, the pre economic reform era and the period post 1991 were completely different time frames in which factors affecting happiness, especially for India’s vast middle class, varied significantly.
Digvijaya Singh listed issues like the Right to Information and the National Rural Employment Guarantee program that the Government had put together which played a critical role in raising awareness and strengthening livelihood strategies for the Indian population and hence their happiness. Tarun Gogoi praised the Fourth King of Bhutan, His Highness Jigme Singhe Wangchuk who visualized the concept of Gross National Happiness and brought in democracy in Bhutan.
http://globalcenters.columbia.edu/southasia/bhutan-conference-happiness-and-economic-development
