Putting People and their Data at the Centre – investing in the social wellbeing of Aotearoa

  Jacinda Ardern’s announcement of her intention to deliver New Zealand’s first ‘Wellbeing Budget’ at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January caused headlines as the world’s youngest female head of state outlined an approach to economic measurement that put people’s needs at the centre of the government investment agenda. Ardern said “politics needed to be more altruistic and more long term” to address the deep-rooted inequalities in New Zealand’s current economic outlook and to address the challenges emerging from issues such as climate change and automation. World leaders and economic institutions have been watching the ‘little country at the bottom of the world’ with great interest, as they embark on this experiment that could change the way governments develop social strategy and assess the effectiveness of their social policies. For many years institutions like the OECD have been encouraging economies to look beyond just economic measures of success and […]