Charter for People’s Measures of Societal Success
The HPI makes it clear that we need to rethink how we measure national success. The countries that are normally considered as models of economic success – either in terms of their high GDP’s or their impressive GDP growth rates – typically don’t stack up so well when evaluated in terms of what really matters – achieving good lives with a minimal environmental impact.
But the HPI is not the end of the conversation.
The HPI aims for simplicity, combining three indicators into a single index, but of course we know that our societies and environments are more complex. The HPI includes what we think is important, but we don’t claim to represent our own countries, let alone the global population.
Because of that, alongside the HPI, we are also launching a call for communities around the world to begin the path to their own citizen-led measures of success.
From Chile to Ireland to Sweden, a deliberative wave is currently sweeping the world, engaging citizen’s assemblies and juries in the important decisions that affect nations. It’s time to start applying these approaches to one of the biggest decisions: our visions of national success.
