oa Towards Measures Of Well-Being For Qatar

Traditionally countries looked at measuring well-being in terms of income growth. But size and growth of GDP reflects aggregate economic performance and is not necessarily a good measure of individual or national well-being ― low income groups may not always benefit ― and increasing GDP growth is unsustainable if depleting the natural resource base. International policy focus now shifting to measuring well-being of individuals and nations and quality of lives of individuals and populations. New and innovative methods to monitor well-being and happiness are being devised by international agencies, some countries, as well as NGOs and private sector. National well-being is now being understood and measured through many dimensions of people's lives, attitudes and aspirations using traditional and non-traditional data sources. The paper will provide a background on the evolving international focus on measures of well-being, including the approaches of UNDP, Stiglitz, government of the UK, Legatum Institute, OECD, BCG and Gallup/Silatech, and make the case for developing a well-being index for Qatar. It will touch on Qatar's new Social Prosperity Index and present the methodology and results of new measures of well-being for Qatar in the domains of health, education and environment