Category: Occasional Publications

The remainder of this report presents the findings of the 2015 Gross National Happiness (GNH) Survey, which collected information from across Bhutan on many aspects of Bhutanese people’s lives that relate to wellbeing measurement and analysis. The Survey was used to construct the 2015 GNH Index, and to compare levels and the composition of GNH across groups, and across the period 2010-2015.

His Majesty’s Address to the Nation on the Celebration of His Majesty the Fourth DrukGyalpo’s 60th Birth Anniversary
༄༅། །མ་དབང་མངའ་བདག་རན་པོ་ཆའ་ཞབས་ལས་ ཡབ་ར་དམ་པ་མ་དབང་འབག་རལ་བཞ་པ་དགང་ལོ་༦༠ བཞས་པའ་འཁངས་སར་གནང་བའ་གསང་བཤད་གསར་ག་ཐགས་པ་བཞཊ་སོ།།

GNH Weightage Factor (WF) Method is a mathematical procedure useful in the following cases:

1. To identify relative importance (weightage) the surveyed population is knowingly/unknowingly attaching to each surveyed Domain while answering the Cantril Ladder Questionnaire (Subjective Happiness Survey).
2.To compute for every Domain optimum distribution of the current GNH budget and also of the added budget under various optimum allocation schemes.
3.To compute the extra GNH budget required to enhance the current GNH to the desired value and to calculate optimum distribution of the extra budget amongst different Domains.
4.To compute under various optimization schemes the new GNH number when the budget of some Domain(s) is changed by certain percentage.
5.To identify Paradigm Shift (PS) and Prime Movers of Happiness (PMH) situations in the available survey data.
6.To compute the change in GNH value when the surveyor uses his/her own WF numbers for the Domains.
7.To eliminate the effect of arbitrary nature of GNH Index procedure deciding “who is happy and who is not”.
8.To identify Cantril Ladder GNH part not explained by GNH Index procedure.

This document was submitted as a background paper to the International Expert Working Group on a New Development Paradigm and seeks to synthesise for busy readers, how the IEWG might explain and defend well-being and happiness and also what value-addition this work has in policy terms when compared with many other aligned and very necessary movements and policy advocacy for a shared well-being.

It outlines the concept of well-being, flourishing, and happiness for all which forms the objective of a new development paradigm.