Development policy and wellbeing: Bhutan's Gross National Happiness Index
Should policymakers pay more attention to Gross National Product (GNP)? – or Gross National Happiness (GNH)?

Bhutan is known for its longstanding stance that GNH is more important than GNP. In a world hungry for GDP alternatives, this event will share up-to-date and sophisticated research on the concept and measurement of GNH.

Our keynote speaker, Dasho Karma Ura, is the founding President of the Centre for Bhutan Studies and GNH in the Royal Government of Bhutan, has been a Visiting Fellow at the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative with support from the University’s Public Policy Challenge Fund, and is an Honorary Member of the SCR in Magdalen College. He will share his decades of leadership advancing development that balances material and spiritual, political, social and environmental aspects.

Bhutan’s GNH Index takes an integrated look at people’s lives, assessing the sufficiency of the causes and conditions of well-being across 9 domains and 33 indicators. It constructs a society-wide gradient of well-being that spans psychological well-being, health, education, living standards, community vitality, cultural diversity, environmental resilience, governance, and time use. It distinguishes inequities by gender, region, and occupation, and is used to screen government policies and programmes.
Date: 24 June 2022, 10:00 (Friday, 9th week, Trinity 2022)
Venue: Queen Elizabeth House, 3 Mansfield Road OX1 3TB
Speakers: Professor Sabina Alkire (Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative), Dasho Karma Ura (Centre for Bhutan Studies and GNH)
Organising department: Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative
Organisers: Eliya Lucks (University of Oxford), Jessica Hedge (University of Oxford), William Pryor (University of Oxford)
Organiser contact email address: nteranya.sanginga@qeh.ox.ac.uk
Part of: Oxford Policy Engagement Network (OPEN) Showcase 2022
Booking required?: Required
Booking url: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/development-policy-and-wellbeing-bhutans-gross-national-happiness-index-tickets-354445886187
Audience: Members of the University only
Editors: Elizabeth Crawford, William Pryor, Jessica Hedge