UNU-WIDER (World Institute for Development Economics Research)
Measuring Human Well-being: Key Findings and Policy Lessons Presentation
UNU-WIDER
(World Institute for Development Economics Research)
Launch and Presentation of the WIDER Study. Measuring Human Well-being: Key Findings and Policy Lessons
Monday 17 September 2007, 10:00 to 12:00am
Please register at: www.ony.unu.edu/unuseminarregistration.shtml
tel. 212 963 6387
Dag Hammarsköld Library Auditorium, United Nations Headquarters 1st Avenue, Between 45th and 46th Streets, New York, New York 10017
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 focused 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: http:// www.wider.unu.edu
CHAIRPERSON
Jean-Marc Coicaud heads the UNU office at the United Nations in New York. He has served as Senior Academic Officer in the Peace and Governance Programme at UNU in Tokyo and in the Executive Office of the UN Secretary-General as a speechwriter for Dr. Boutros Boutros-Ghali. Dr. Coicaud is the author, co-author and co-editor of a number of books focusing on authoritarian democracy, political legitimacy and international ethics.
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 www.ony.unu.edu
or Tel: 212-963-6387 - E-mail: unuona@ony.unu.edu
WIDER Publications from the Measuring Well-Being Study 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 )
Written by David Clark and Mark McGillivray
UNU Policy Brief 3, 2007
(ISBN 9789280830361)
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 worlds 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. www.wider.unu.edu
For media enquiries, please contact:
Ara Kazandjian
Media and Outreach Coordinator
World Institute for Development Economics Research
of the United Nations University (UNU-WIDER)
Katajanokanlaituri 6 B, 00160 Helsinki, Finland
Tel. +358-50-3510325
E-mail: ara@wider.unu.edu
www.wider.unu.edu
or:
Maria Rosaria Venosa
United Nations University
Office at the UN, New York
DC2-2064
(t) 212 963 6387
(f) 212 371 9454
mariarosaria@ony.unu.edu
