Achieving and sustaining higher levels of human well-being are challenges for individual citizens, governments, and international organizations world-wide. Measures of human well-being levels are an integral part of this process, used increasingly to monitor and evaluate conditions within and among countries. Not only has the number of measures of human well-being grown appreciably in recent years, but demands that they more fully capture progress in the various dimensions of human well-being have also increased. They are also more extensively used to justify development aid and measure progress towards internationally agreed targets such as those adopted under the Millennium Development Goals.

To meet this important agenda, World Institute for Development Economics Research of the United Nations University (UNU-WIDER) has sought to provide insights that will allow for the better design, application, and interpretation of measures of achieved well-being.

The research is particularly focussed on measures used in inter-country well-being assessments, such as the well-known Human Development Index.

The speakers are contributors to the study and will discuss and present some of its key findings.

A Policy Brief summarizing this study is available online in PDF. Details also available at: wider.unu.edu/

CHAIRPERSON

Jean-Marc Coicaud is Head of the UNU office at the UN in NY. He was a Senior Academic Officer in the Peace and Governance Programme at UNU in Tokyo and previously served in the Executive Office of the UN Secretary-General as a speechwriter for Dr Boutros Boutros-Ghali.

SPEAKERS

Mark McGillivray is a Deputy Director of UNU-WIDER. He is also an honorary Professor of Development Economics in the Department of Economics at the University of Glasgow , an External Fellow of the Centre for Economic Development and International Trade at the University of Nottingham , and an Inaugural Fellow of the Human Development and Capability Association. Professor McGillivray is Director of the WIDER research project Social Development Indicators (Measuring Human Well-being).

Farhad Noorbakhsh is Professor of Development Economics and Head of the Department of Economics at the University of Glasgow . He joined the University of Glasgow in 1980, has been a research collaborator with a number of international organizations, and previously served as the Director of the Centre for Development Studies at Glasgow . Professor Noorbakhsh was elected as a Fellow of the Human Development and Capability Association in 2007 in recognition of his work on measuring human development.

DISCUSSANT

James Foster is Professor of Economics at Vanderbilt University and a Senior Fellow of the Vanderbilt Institute of Public Policy Studies. Professor Foster is an internationally acclaimed expert in evaluating inequality and poverty and understanding their economic and social consequences. The 1984 Foster-Greer-Thorbecke poverty measure has been adopted almost universally by international organizations and researchers doing empirical work on poverty. More recent academic work includes a joint book project on inequality with Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen of Harvard University. Professor Foster recently held visiting research positions at the University of Oxford and WIDER.

Admission is free. Please register in advance: online at ony.unu.edu/

WIDER Publications from the Measuring Well-Being Study
Review of Income and Wealth
Volume 51, Number 2
June 2005

Special issue: 'Inequality and Multidimensional Well-being'
Edited by Mark McGillivray and Anthony Shorrocks
Journal of the Asian Pacific Economy
Volume 11, Number 2
May 2006

Special issue: 'Well-being Achievement in Pacific Asia'
Edited by Mark McGillivray
Understanding Human Well-being
Edited by Mark McGillivray and Matthew Clarke
(paperback 9789280811308)
November 2006

United Nations University Press
Human Well-being: Concept and Measurement
Edited by Mark McGillivray
(hardback 9780230004986)
November 2006

Studies in Development Economics and Policy
Palgrave Macmillan
Inequality, Poverty and Well-being
Edited by Mark McGillivray
(hardback 9781403987525)
August 2006

Studies in Development Economics and Policy
Palgrave Macmillan
Measuring Human Well-being: Key Findings and Policy Lessons available online in pdf
David Clark and Mark McGillivray
UNU Policy Brief 3, 2007
(ISBN 9789280830361)

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World Institute for Development Economics Research of the United Nations University (UNU-WIDER) undertakes multidisciplinary research and policy analysis on structural changes affecting the living conditions of the world's poorest people; provides a forum for professional interaction and the advocacy of policies leading to robust, equitable and environmentally sustainable growth; and promotes capacity strengthening and training for scholars and government officials in the field of economic and social policy making. WIDER is the first research and training centre of the United Nations University (UNU), established in Helsinki, Finland in 1984. wider.unu.edu/

Source: Ara Kazandjian
United Nations University