Trinidad and Tobago 1st country in Caribbean to adopt innovative approach to advancing development
From Avina
New way to look at development shows that economic growth is not same as social progress
(May 20, 2014) Port of Spain — Trinidad and Tobago becomes today the first country in the Caribbean to adopt a rigorous and collaborative new approach to measuring and advancing development. Rather than focusing just on traditional economic factors, such as gross domestic product, the national government along with businesses and civil society organizations are partnering to measure and advance ‘social progress’ along dozens of different indicators like education, healthcare, and personal safety.
Allison Pajotte, Executive Director of Lifesupport Caribbean, one of the civil society organizations which will be part of the new Social Progress Trinidad and Tobago said: “We will use the global Social Progress Index as a foundation to create a national sub-index as a common framework from which government; international aid agencies, education, business and civil society groups can work towards achieving social progress.” She added: “This new initiative is in keeping with Government’s Medium Term Policy Framework 2011-2014.”
About the initiative in Trinidad and Tobago:
– Trinidad and Tobago is only the 4th country in the world to create a national-level Social Progress Network.
– It joins Paraguay, Costa Rica and Brazil as one of the first countries to join the fast-emerging global Social Progress Network.
– Lifesupport Caribbean Initiative (LCI) in collaboration with the Ministry of Planning and Sustainable Development are launching the new partnership called ‘Social Progress Trinidad and Tobago’ today at the Ministry of Planning and Sustainable Development, International Waterfront Complex, 1A Wrightson Road, Port of Spain.
– Key stakeholder organizations from across civil society, education, business education, government and international aid agencies will attend the launch meeting today. Smaller working groups will immediately begin bilateral talks with Social Progress Imperative representatives on Wednesday May 21 and Thursday May 22.
“We are excited that Trinidad and Tobago will be the first country in the Caribbean to form its own team of government, business, and civil society organizations to measure, and then collaborate to improve, social progress,” said Michael Green, executive director of the Social Progress Imperative, the nonprofit based in Washington, DC which created the Social Progress Index and which will support the new initiative in Trinidad and Tobago. “This effort not only shows that Trinidad and Tobago has the capacity to choose its own priorities for development and to improve the lives of its people, but it strongly suggests that other nations in the Caribbean will be able to learn from its example.”
The global Social Progress Index, created by a team led by Professor Michael E. Porter of Harvard Business School, is designed as a complement to GDP and other economic indicators to provide a more holistic understanding of countries’ overall performance. Measuring a country’s social progress outcomes, the Index identifies a wide range of areas in which Trinidad and Tobago trails other countries with similar GDP per capita, such as Spain and Greece. Analysis of 132 countries, including Trinidad and Tobago, was released in April.
While Trinidad and Tobago ranks 28th in GDP per capita of the 132 countries in the Index, it ranks only 47th overall for social progress, and ranks particularly poorly in areas like personal safety (117th), Ecosystem Sustainability (95th), and Health and Wellness (83rd). However, it also ranks an impressive 22nd in the world for Tolerance and Inclusion, 31st in the world on Shelter, and 32nd in the world on Personal Rights.
Going forward, however, the new partnership in Trinidad and Tobago will design and execute studies to measure social progress within Trinidad and Tobago, allowing comparison of different parts of the country to each other and highlighting opportunities to advance overall wellbeing. The work in Trinidad and Tobago will build on lessons learned in the growing number of countries which have examined social progress within their borders, not just compared to other countries. Representatives of the Social Progress Network from Paraguay will be in Trinidad and Tobago this week to provide guidance on a new social data-capture protocol and a research agenda.
The Ministry of Planning and Sustainable Development stated “This initiative is in keeping with Government’s Medium Term Policy Framework 2011-2014, which seeks to chart a development agenda to improve of the quality of life of all citizens of Trinidad and Tobago. Further as Government embarks on its preparation for its new development agenda ‘Action 21,’ this collaboration with LCI is opportune.”
The local Initiative will engage scholars at the University of the West Indies led by the Faculty of Social Sciences, in the development of the national sub-index, as Trinidad and Tobago moves toward a more inclusive model of development that not only includes social and environmental measures, but focuses on outcomes that directly affect people.
About the Social Progress Imperative
The Social Progress Imperative’s mission is to improve the lives of people around the world, particularly the least well off, by advancing global social progress by: providing a robust, holistic and innovative measurement tool—the Social Progress Index (SPI); fostering research and knowledge-sharing on social progress; and equipping leaders and change-makers in business, government and civil society with new tools to guide policies and programs.
What is ‘social progress’?
Social progress is defined as the capacity of a society to meet the basic human needs of its citizens, establish the building blocks that allow citizens to improve their lives, and create the conditions for individuals and communities to meet their full potential.
Financial Support
The Social Progress Imperative is registered as a nonprofit organization in the United States, and is grateful to the following organizations for their financial support: Cisco, Compartamos Banco, Deloitte Global, Fundación Avina, The Rockefeller Foundation, and the Skoll Foundation.
*GDP per capita definition
The Social Progress Index uses the World Bank definition: “GDP per capita based on purchasing power parity (PPP). PPP GDP is gross domestic product converted to international dollars using purchasing power parity rates. An international dollar has the same purchasing power over GDP as the U.S. dollar has in the United States. GDP at purchaser’s prices is the sum of gross value added by all resident producers in the economy plus any product taxes and minus any subsidies not included in the value of the products. It is calculated without making deductions for depreciation of fabricated assets or for depletion and degradation of natural resources. Data are in constant 2005 international dollars.”
Interactive data tool on the current state of social progress in Trinidad and Tobago is available here: http://www.socialprogressimperative.org/data/spi/countries/TTO
