WEBVTT

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On January 4, 1934,

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a young man delivered a report

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to the United States Congress

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that 80 years on,

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still shapes the lives of
everyone in this room today,

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still shapes the lives of
everyone on this planet.

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That young man wasn't a politician,

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he wasn't a businessman,

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a civil rights activist

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or a faith leader.

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He was that most unlikely of heroes,

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an economist.

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His name was Simon Kuznets

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and the report that he delivered was called,

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"National Income, 1929-32."

NOTE Paragraph

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Now, you might think,

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"this is a rather dry and dull report."

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And you're absolutely right.

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It's dry as a bone.

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But this report is the foundation

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of how, today, we judge the 
success of countries.

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What we know best as
Gross Domestic Product,

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GDP.

NOTE Paragraph

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GDP has defined and shaped our lives

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for the last 80 years.

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And today I want to talk about 


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a different way to measure
the success of countries,

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a different way to define 
and shape our lives

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for the next 80 years.

NOTE Paragraph

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But first, we have to understand

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how GDP came to
dominate our lives.

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Kuznet's report was delivered

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at a moment of crisis.

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The U.S. economy was plumetting

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into the Great Depression

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and policy makers were 
struggling to respond.

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Struggling because they didn't
know what was going on.

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They didn't have data and statistics.

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So what Kuznet's report gave them

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was reliable data on what 
the U.S. economy

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was producing,

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updated year by year.

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And armed with this information,

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policy makers were, eventually,

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able to find a way out 
of the slump.

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And because Kuznet's invention

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was found to be so useful,

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it spread around the world.

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And now today, every country

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produces GDP statistics.

NOTE Paragraph

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But, in that first report,

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Kuznets himself delivered a warning.

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It's in the introductory chapter,

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page 7 he says,

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"The welfare of a nation can, therefore,

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scarcely be inferred

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from a measurement of 
national income

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as defined above."

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It's not the greatest sound 
bite in the world,

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and it's dressed up in the 
coursest language

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of the economist.

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But his message was clear,

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GDP is a tool

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to help us measure
economic performance.

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It's not a measure
of our wellbeing.

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And it shouldn't be a guide

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to all decision making.

NOTE Paragraph

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But we have ignored

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Kuznet's warning.

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We live in a world where

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GDP is the benchmark of sucess

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in a global economy.

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Our politicians boast when
GDP goes up.

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Markets move

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and trillions of dollars of capital

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move around the world

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based on which countries
are going up

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and which countries 
are going down,

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all measured in GDP.

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Our societies have become

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engines to create more GDP.

NOTE Paragraph

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But we know that GDP is flawed.

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It ignores the environment.

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It counts bombs and prisons as progress.

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It can't count happiness

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or community.

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And it has nothing to say

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about fairness or justice.

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Is it any surprise

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that our world,

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marching to the drum beat of GDP,

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is teetering on the brink

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of environmental disaster

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and filled with anger and conflict?

NOTE Paragraph

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We need a better way


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to measure our societies,

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a measure based on the real things

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that matter to real people.

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Do I have enough to eat?

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Can I read and write?

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Am I safe?

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Do I have rights?

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Do I live in a society where
I'm not discriminated against?

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Is my future

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and the future of my children

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prevented from environmental destruction?

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These are questions that GDP

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does not and cannot answer.

NOTE Paragraph

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There have, of course,

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been efforts in the past

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to move beyond GDP.

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But I believe that we're living

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in a moment when we

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are ready for a measurement revolution.

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We're ready because we've seen,

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in the financial crisis of 2008,

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how our fetish for economic growth

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led us so far astray.

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We've seen, in the Arab Spring,

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how countries like Tunisia

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were supposedly economic superstars,

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but they were societies

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that were seething with discontentment.

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We're ready because today

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we have the technology

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to gather and analyze data

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in ways that would have been

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unimaginable to Kuznets.

NOTE Paragraph

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Today, I'd like to introduce you to

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the Social Progress Index.

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It's a measure of the wellbeing of society,

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completely separate from GDP.

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It's a whole new way
[Social Progress Index]

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of looking at the world.

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The Social Progress Index

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begins by defining what it

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means to be a good society

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based around three dimensions:

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The first is, does everyone have
the basic needs for survival?:

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food, water, shelter, safety.

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Secondly, does everyone have

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access to the building blocks

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to improve their lives?:

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education, information, health
and sustainable environment.

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And then third,

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does every individual have access

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to a chance to pursue their goals

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and dreams and ambitions

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free from obstacles?

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Do they have rights,

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freedom of choice,

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freedom from discrimination

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and access to the the world's
most advanced knowledge?

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Together, these 12 components

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form the Social Progress framework.

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And for each of these 12 components,

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we have indicators to measure

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how these countries are performing.

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Not indicators of effort or intention,

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but real achievement.

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We don't measure how much
a country spends on healthcare,

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we measure the length and quality

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of people's lives.

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We don't measure whether governments

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pass laws against discrimination,

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we measure whether people 
experience discrimination.

NOTE Paragraph

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But, what you want to know

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is who's top, don't you?

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I knew that, I knew that, I knew that.

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Okay, I'm going to show you.

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I'm going to show you on this chart.

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So here we are,

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what I've done here is 
put on the vertical axis

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social progress.

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Higher is better.

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And then, just for comparison,

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just for fun,

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on the horizontal axis

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is GDP per capita.

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Further to the right is more.

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Okay,

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so the country in the world

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with the highest social progress,

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the number one country on social progress

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is New Zealand.

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(Applause)

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Well done. I've never been, must go!

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(Laughter)

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The country with the least social progress,

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I'm sorry to say,

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is Chad.

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I've never been, maybe next year.

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(Laughter)

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Or maybe the year after.

NOTE Paragraph

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Now, I know what you're thinking.

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You're thinking, "Aha,

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but New Zealand has a higher GDP

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than Chad!"

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It's a good point, well made.

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But let me show you

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two other countries.

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Here's the United States,

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considerably richer than New Zealand,

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but with a lower level of social progress.

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And then here's Senegal,

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it's got a higher level 
of social progress

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than Chad,

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but the same level of GDP.

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So what's going on?

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Well, look.

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Let me bring in the rest of 
the countries of the world,

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the 132 we've been able to measure,

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each one represented by a dot.

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There are lots of dots.

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Now, obviously I can't do all of them,

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so a few highlights for you:

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the highest ranked G7 country is Canada.

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My country, the United Kingdom,

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is sort of middling, sort of dull,

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but who cares,

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at least we beat the french.

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(Laughter)

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And then looking at the emerging economies,

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the bricks, top of the bricks, pleased to say,

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is Brazil.

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(Laughter)

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Come on, cheer!

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Go, Brazil!

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Beating South Africa,

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then Russia,

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then China

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and then India.

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Tucked away on the right-hand side,

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you will see a dot of a country with

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a lot of GDP but not

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a huge amount of social progress,

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that's Kuwait.

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Just above Brazil

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is a social progress superpower,

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that's Costa Rica.

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It's got a level of social progress

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the same as some 
Western European countries,

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with a much lower GDP.

NOTE Paragraph

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Now, my slide is getting a little cluttered

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and I'd like to step back a bit.

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So let me take away these countries,

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and then pop in the regression line.

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So this shows the average relationship

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between GDP and social progress.

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The first thing to notice,

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is that there's lots of noise

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around the trend line.

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And what this shows,

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what this empiracially demonstrates,

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is that GDP is not destiny.

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At every level of GDP per capita,

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there are opportunities

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for more social progress,

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risks of less.

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The second thing to notice

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is that for poor countries,

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the curve is really steep.

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So what this tells us is that

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if poor countries can get

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a little bit of extra GDP,

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and if they reinvest that in

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doctors, nurses, water supplies,

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sanitation, etcetera,

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there's a lot of social progress bang

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for your GDP buck.

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And that's good news

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and that's what we've seen

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over the past 20, 30 years

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with a lot of people lifted out of poverty

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by economic growth and good policies

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in poorer countries.

NOTE Paragraph

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But go on a bit further up the curve,

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and then we see it flattening out.

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Each extra dollar of GDP

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is buying less and less

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social progress.

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And with more and more

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of the world's population

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living on this part of the curve,

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`It means GDP is becoming

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less and less useful

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as a guide to our development.

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I'll show you an example of Brazil.

NOTE Paragraph

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Here's Brazil,

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social progress of about

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70 out of 100.

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GDP per capita about 
14,000 dollars a year.

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And look, Brazil's above the line.

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Brazil is doing a reasonably good job

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of turning GDP into social progress.

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But where does Brazil go next?

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Let's say that Brazil

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adopts a bold economic plan

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to double GDP in the next decade.

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But that is only half a plan.

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It's less than half a plan

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because where does Brazil

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want to go on social progress?

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Brazil, it's possible

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to increase your growth,

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increase your GDP,

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while stagnating or going backwards

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on social progress.

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We don't want Brazil

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to become like Russia.

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What you really want

00:11:38.358 --> 00:11:39.285
is for Brazil

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to get eve more efficient

00:11:40.581 --> 00:11:42.893
at creating social progress

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from its GDP

00:11:44.239 --> 00:11:46.889
so it becomes more like New Zealand.

00:11:46.889 --> 00:11:48.119
And what that means is that

00:11:48.119 --> 00:11:50.776
Brazil needs to prioritize social progress

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in its development plan

00:11:52.468 --> 00:11:54.880
and see that it's not just growth alone,

00:11:54.880 --> 00:11:57.532
its growth with social progress.

00:11:57.532 --> 00:12:00.150
And that's what the Social Program Index does.

00:12:00.150 --> 00:12:02.450
It reframes the debate about development,

00:12:02.450 --> 00:12:04.820
not just about GDP alone,

00:12:04.820 --> 00:12:07.399
but inclusive, sustainable growth

00:12:07.399 --> 00:12:09.438
that brings real improvements

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in people's lives.

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And its not just about countries.

NOTE Paragraph

00:12:14.394 --> 00:12:17.904
Earlier this year,

00:12:17.904 --> 00:12:20.701
with our friends from the Imazon non-profit

00:12:20.701 --> 00:12:22.400
here in Brazil, we launched

00:12:22.400 --> 00:12:24.378
the first subnational

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Social Progress Index.

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We did it for the Amazon region,

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it's an area the size of Europe,

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24 million people,

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one of the most deprived 
parts of the country.

00:12:35.084 --> 00:12:36.994
And here are the results,

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and this is broken down

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into nearly 800 different municipalities:

00:12:42.133 --> 00:12:43.816
And with this detailed information

00:12:43.816 --> 00:12:46.034
about the real quality of life

00:12:46.034 --> 00:12:47.977
in this part of the country,

00:12:47.977 --> 00:12:49.957
Amazon and other partners

00:12:49.957 --> 00:12:52.286
from government, business and civil society

00:12:52.286 --> 00:12:54.000
can work together to construct

00:12:54.000 --> 00:12:55.677
a development plan

00:12:55.677 --> 00:12:58.014
that will help really improve
people's lives,

00:12:58.014 --> 00:13:01.250
while protecting that precious, global asset

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that is the Amazon rainforest.

00:13:04.221 --> 00:13:06.122
And this is just the beginning,

00:13:06.122 --> 00:13:08.501
You can create a Social Progress Index

00:13:08.501 --> 00:13:10.301
for any state,

00:13:10.301 --> 00:13:11.323
region,

00:13:11.323 --> 00:13:12.128
city

00:13:12.128 --> 00:13:13.826
or municipality.

00:13:13.826 --> 00:13:15.729
We all know and love TEDx,

00:13:15.729 --> 00:13:17.971
this is SOCIALPROGRESSx.

00:13:17.971 --> 00:13:19.435
This is a tool for anyone

00:13:19.435 --> 00:13:21.184
to come and use.

NOTE Paragraph

00:13:21.184 --> 00:13:22.515
Contrary to the ways we sometimes

00:13:22.515 --> 00:13:24.034
talk about it,

00:13:24.034 --> 00:13:27.495
GDP was not handed down from God

00:13:27.495 --> 00:13:30.359
on tablets of stone.

00:13:30.359 --> 00:13:32.210
It's a measurement tool

00:13:32.210 --> 00:13:34.854
invented in the 20th-century

00:13:34.854 --> 00:13:36.772
to address the challenges

00:13:36.772 --> 00:13:39.135
of the 20th-century.

00:13:39.135 --> 00:13:41.004
In the 21st-century,

00:13:41.004 --> 00:13:43.456
we face new challenges:

00:13:43.456 --> 00:13:45.514
aging, obesity, climate change,

00:13:45.514 --> 00:13:46.619
and so on.

00:13:46.619 --> 00:13:48.223
To face those challenges,

00:13:48.223 --> 00:13:50.243
we need new tools of measurement,

00:13:50.243 --> 00:13:53.997
new ways of valuing progress.

NOTE Paragraph

00:13:53.997 --> 00:13:56.395
Imagine if we could measure

00:13:56.395 --> 00:13:58.925
what non-profits, charities,

00:13:58.925 --> 00:14:00.894
volunteers, civil society organizations

00:14:00.894 --> 00:14:04.700
really contribute to our society.

00:14:04.700 --> 00:14:07.308
Imagine if businesses competed

00:14:07.308 --> 00:14:11.499
not just on the basis of
their economic contribution,

00:14:11.499 --> 00:14:12.963
but on their contribution

00:14:12.963 --> 00:14:14.997
to social progress.

00:14:14.997 --> 00:14:17.080
Imagine if we could hold

00:14:17.080 --> 00:14:18.949
politicians to account

00:14:18.949 --> 00:14:23.146
for really improving people's lives.

00:14:23.146 --> 00:14:26.521
Imagine if we could work together,

00:14:26.521 --> 00:14:28.189
governments, business,

00:14:28.189 --> 00:14:29.533
civil society,

00:14:29.533 --> 00:14:31.361
me, you

00:14:31.361 --> 00:14:32.800
and make this century

00:14:32.800 --> 00:14:36.704
the century of social progress.

00:14:36.704 --> 00:14:37.783
Thank you.

00:14:37.783 --> 00:14:43.815
(Applause)