Week in review

Dear week in review readers,

We would like to present you with a new and improved week in review and would like to hear your views on what changes you would like to see and what you would like us to keep. Please let us know by commenting on this post.

In the meantime, here are this week’s updates from the progress community.

On Rio
Rio Heads for Economics With Meaning (BBC 14.06.2012)
Ahead of next week’s Rio+20, this article examines various progress initiatives around the world and sheds a new light on the argument against GFP. In GDP-world, a society that drives is richer than one that cycles, as more money is spent.
See more and contribute to the Wikiprogress article on comprehensive indicators

On gender and sustainable development 
Women Must Be at the Forefront of Rio+20, and Beyond (IPS 15.06.2012)
In an interview with IPS the Head of UN Women, Michelle Bachelet, talks about the importance of gender equality as a dimension of sustainable development. Women farmers make up 43 percent of the agricultural labour force in developing countries and 80 percent in some parts of Africa.
See more and contribute to the Wikigender article on gender and climate change

Indices released this week: It’s been a exciting few days, There were three progress indices released this week, hightlights below.

Happy Planet Index 
The Happy Planet Index (HPI) measures the extent to which countries can provide sustainable and happy lives for their populations; it uses data on life expectancy, experienced well-being and ecological footprint to calculate this.

Global Peace Index 
The Global Peace Index (GPI) measures peace in 158 countries according to 23 qualitative and quantitative measures of peace. The index gauges the level of security and safety, international and domestic conflict and degree of militarisation.

Cost of Living Survey 
The Cost of Living Survey, produced by Mercer, shows Tokyo is the most expensive city to live in in the world, followed by Luanda (Angola) and Osaka (Japan). Karachi, Pakistan is ranked as the world's least expensive city and is less than one-third as expensive as Tokyo.

Country	GDP (nominal) of 183 World Bank 2011	Human Development Index 2011	Happy Planet Index 2012	Global Peace Index 2012
US	1st	4th	105th	88th
China	2nd	101st	60th	89th
Japan	3rd	12th	45th	5th
Germany	4th	9th	46th	15th
France	5th	20th	50th	40th

Your in Progress,
Philippa