The concepts behind societal leadership aren't new, but how we're trying to bring them forward into broader societal discussion is.

This article from Foundation chief operating officer Jonathan Perkins in the Summer 2010 issue of the Public Sector Digest highlights some of our thinking on the issues, and profiles initiatives that are trying to advance the discussion of societal leadership issues.

Click to read the full article. [PDF, 1MB]

The Canadian Institute of Wellbeing has released its first report on how Canada is doing beyond traditional economic measures, instead examining how we are doing on a broader set of societal measures of wellbeing.

As the first of several reports centred on the emerging Canadian Index of Wellbeing (CIW), the report released on June 10th provides details on three of the CIW's eight domains of wellbeing: Living Standards, Healthy Populations, and Community Vitality.

The additional five domains of wellbeing — Arts, Culture & Recreation; Civic Engagement; Education; Environment; and Time Use — will be the focus of future reports as they are developed further throughout the next year.

Download the report from the CIW website (link to PDF file)

The New Economics Foundation (nef), within its initiative to support the development of a system of national accounts of well-being, has out the details of its case for governments to systematically measure and report on the well-being of their populations.

Using the latest findings from the field of well-being research, the report National Accounts of Well-being: bringing real wealth onto the balance sheet demonstrates how the case for national well-being measures is closely linked to the history of economic national accounting.

The report describes how a framework for National Accounts of Well-being was developed from European Social Survey data and presents the resulting findings, to show how National Accounts of Well-being can provide a new, more meaningful measure of national success and help governments take decisions to improve the lives of their citizens.

The report is available for download in PDF, along with a related set of country scores in Microsoft Excel (.xls) format.

The New Economics Foundation (nef) proposes a new global measure of progress, the 'Happy Planet Index', revealing for the first time that happiness doesn't have to cost the Earth. It shows that people can live long, happy lives without using more than their fair share of the Earth's resources. The new international ranking of the environmental impact and well-being reveals a very different picture of the wealth, and poverty, of nations.

The Happy Planet Index: An index of human well-being and environmental impact, moves beyond crude ratings of nations according to national income, measured by Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to produce a more accurate picture of the progress of nations based on the amount of the Earth's resources they use, and the length and happiness of people's lives.

Note: downloading of publication requires free site registration with nef.

The 2007 consultation report of the Canadian Index of Wellbeing provides an overview of the initiative and presents a summary of the benefits, opportunities, and challenges behind the widespread development and adoption of a new set of national progress indicators for Canada.

Download the report directly from the CIW website [PDF]