Social Progress Imperative

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Social Progress Imperative
Social Progress Imperative
Website https://www.socialprogress.org/

The Social Progress Imperative is a US-based nonprofit created in 2012 best known for the Social Progress Index, a multi-indicator index that assesses the social and environmental performance of different countries. The Social Progress Index is an effort to complement the measure of national performance using traditional economic measures such as gross domestic product with data on social and environmental performance. [1]

Contents

History

In 2010, a group of scholars and business leaders sought to develop a better measure of a country's level of development and, by extension, better understand its development priorities. [2] [3] Under the technical guidance of Professors Michael Porter from Harvard Business School and Scott Stern from MIT, the group formed a US-based nonprofit called the Social Progress Imperative [4] and launched a beta version of the Social Progress Index for 50 countries in 2013 to measure a comprehensive array of components of social and environmental performance and aggregate them into an overall framework.

This work was influenced by the contributions of Amartya Sen on social development, as well as by the recent call for action in the report "Mismeasuring Our Lives" by the Commission on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress. [5] The Social Progress Index was released in 2014 for 133 countries with a second version in 2015. [6] [ full citation needed ]

On July 11, 2013, Social Progress Imperative's chairman and professor at Harvard Business School, Michael Porter, addressed the United Nations 6th Ministerial Forum for Development and discussed the Social Progress Index. [7]

In addition to the global Social Progress Index, the methodology used to create it has been adapted to measure social and environmental performance in smaller areas, such as the Amazon region of Brazil. [8] Other projects include a Social Progress Index for Guatemala City. [9] Fundación Paraguaya has integrated elements of the Social Progress Index into its Poverty Stoplight tool. The national government of Paraguay is setting a target for Social Progress Index performance alongside GDP targets.

The Guardian reported that the European Commission had agreed to partner with Social Progress Imperative to create a Social Progress Index for the European Union. [10] The EU Social Progress Index was published in October 2016.

A similar index, although with some differences compared to the nation list (and therefore not directly comparable), has been published for the individual U.S. states. [11] [12]

Social Progress Index

The Social Progress Index examines social and environmental indicators that capture three distinct dimensions of social progress: Basic Human Needs, Foundations of Wellbeing, and Opportunity. The most recent version of the Social Progress Index is the 2021 Social Progress Index.

Awards

Michael Green's TED Talk on The Social Progress Index was chosen as one of TED's favorite of 2014. [13] [14]

Leadership

Michael E Porter of Harvard Business School is Chairman of the Advisory Board of the Social Progress Imperative. Other members of its board include Judith Roden of the Rockefeller Foundation and Matthew Bishop of The Economist magazine. Economist Michael Green is Executive Director of the Social Progress Imperative.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gross domestic product</span> Market value of goods and services produced within a country

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The Human Development Index (HDI) is a statistical composite index of life expectancy, education, and per capita income indicators, which is used to rank countries into four tiers of human development. A country scores a higher level of HDI when the lifespan is higher, the education level is higher, and the gross national income GNI (PPP) per capita is higher. It was developed by Pakistani economist Mahbub ul-Haq and was further used to measure a country's development by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)'s Human Development Report Office.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Porter</span> American engineer and economist (born 1947)

Michael Eugene Porter is an American academic known for his theories on economics, business strategy, and social causes. He is the Bishop William Lawrence University Professor at Harvard Business School, and was one of the founders of the consulting firm The Monitor Group and FSG, a social impact consultancy. He is credited for creating Porter's five forces analysis, which is instrumental in business strategy development at present. He is generally regarded as the father of the modern strategy field. He is also regarded as one of the world's most influential thinkers on management and competitiveness as well as one of the most influential business strategists. His work has been recognized by governments, non governmental organizations and universities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Genuine progress indicator</span> Enhances Economic / Well-Being indicators

Genuine progress indicator (GPI) is a metric that has been suggested to replace, or supplement, gross domestic product (GDP). The GPI is designed to take fuller account of the well-being of a nation, only a part of which pertains to the size of the nation's economy, by incorporating environmental and social factors which are not measured by GDP. For instance, some models of GPI decrease in value when the poverty rate increases. The GPI separates the concept of societal progress from economic growth.

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Although for many decades, it was customary to focus on GDP and other measures of national income, there has been growing interest in developing broad measures of economic well-being. National and international approaches include the Beyond GDP programme developed by the European Union, the Better Lives Compendium of Indicators developed by the OECD, as well as many alternative metrics of wellbeing or happiness. One of the earliest attempts to develop such an index at national level was Bhutan's Gross National Happiness Index and there are a now a number of similar projects ongoing around the world, including a project to develop for the UK an assessment of national well-being, commissioned by the Prime Minister David Cameron and led by the Office for National Statistics.

Ted Nordhaus is an American author and the director of research at The Breakthrough Institute. He has co-edited and written a number of books, including Break Through: From the Death of Environmentalism to the Politics of Possibility (2007) and An Ecomodernist Manifesto (2015) with collaborator Michael Shellenberger.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Social Progress Index</span>

The Social Progress Index (SPI) measures the extent to which countries provide for the social and environmental needs of their citizens. Fifty-four indicators in the areas of basic human needs, foundations of well-being, and opportunity to progress show the relative performance of nations. The index is published by the nonprofit Social Progress Imperative, and is based on the writings of Amartya Sen, Douglass North, and Joseph Stiglitz. The SPI measures the well-being of a society by observing social and environmental outcomes directly rather than the economic factors. The social and environmental factors include wellness, equality, inclusion, sustainability and personal freedom and safety.

Natural capital accounting is the process of calculating the total stocks and flows of natural resources and services in a given ecosystem or region. Accounting for such goods may occur in physical or monetary terms. This process can subsequently inform government, corporate and consumer decision making as each relates to the use or consumption of natural resources and land, and sustainable behaviour.

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References

  1. ↑ "Going Beyond GDP - Measuring Social Progress". worldwatch-europe.org. Retrieved 22 May 2015.
  2. ↑ Vieira, Helena (August 10, 2017). "Beyond GDP: How social progress and competitiveness are closely related". LSE Business Review. Retrieved September 13, 2020.
  3. ↑ Paulson, Tom (April 15, 2013). "Philanthrocapitalists propose a Social Progress Index". Humanosphere. Retrieved September 13, 2020.
  4. ↑ "Measuring a progressive society". The Economist. June 29, 2016. Retrieved September 13, 2020.
  5. ↑ "Beyond GDP". The Economist . April 18, 2013. Retrieved August 2, 2013.
  6. ↑ "Home". socialprogressimperative.org. Social Progress Imperitive. Retrieved October 30, 2015.
  7. ↑ "Michael E Porter at the UN 6th Ministerial Forum for Development". socialprogressimperative.org. Social Progress Imperitive. July 17, 2013. Archived from the original on August 9, 2013.
  8. ↑ Zweynert, Astrid (August 23, 2014). "EXCLUSIVE: Conservation of Amazon threatened by poor social conditions of its people - study". Thomson Reuters Foundation News. Retrieved May 22, 2015.
  9. ↑ "Índice de Progreso Social de la ciudad de Guatemala". progresosocial.org (in Spanish). Social Progress Imperative. December 17, 2014. Archived from the original on April 9, 2015. Retrieved May 22, 2015.
  10. ↑ Confino, Jo (April 9, 2015). "European Commission agrees to investigate using social progress tool alongside GDP". The Guardian . Retrieved May 22, 2015.
  11. ↑ Social Progress Index: US States – Methodology Summary (PDF). Social Progress Imperative. 2018. Archived from the original (PDF) on April 17, 2018. Retrieved April 16, 2018.
  12. ↑ "State Progress Reports". socialprogressimperative.org. Social Progress Imperative. 2018. Archived from the original on April 17, 2018. Retrieved April 16, 2018.
  13. ↑ "The Telegraph's pick of the 10 best TED talks". Telegraph.co.uk. 10 February 2015. Retrieved 22 May 2015.
  14. ↑ "Michael Green: What the Social Progress Index can reveal about your country" . Retrieved 30 October 2015.
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