Week in Review

This week the spotlight shone on the 4th OECD World Forum on “Statistics, Knowledge and Policy”. With over 1000 attendees, the four-day Forum had participants from national statistical offices, government agencies, academia and civil society. It included a combination of keynote speeches, round tables, and themed sessions on material conditions, quality of life, gender and sustainability (see our #Delhi2012 blog for an overview). Here are the highlights from this eventful week.

Quotes from #Delhi2012

Below are a selection of quotes that were tweeted by those at the OECD World Forum or watching the live-webcast. Big thanks to all those who kept us up to date in the Twittersphere!

"The Rolling Stones said, 'you can’t always get what you want'. Well being can’t always be achieved at one time" Allister McGregor  

“If you take equity and sustainability seriously then you have to rethink the Public - Private” Khalid Malik 

"Ideas of change come from the margins not the centre" Amitabh Behar 

“Early Development Index is like the GDP for childrens development” Fiona Stanley

"If you treasure it you measure it" Glenn Everett

"Inequality weakens our economies and undermines our democracies" Joseph Stiglitz

“Our metrics fail to take into account excitement of living with community and purpose” Joseph Stiglitz

Media highlights:

I am pessimistic on Eurozone, IMF optimistic: Stiglitz (Business Standard 17.10.2012)

IMF's India GDP f'cast wrong: Montek (Financial Express 16.10.2012)

Union Minister Srikant Jena Inaugurates 4th OECD World Forum in New Delhi (Orissadiary 16.10.2012)

Plan panel hints at 2 percentage point poverty reduction in 2011-12 (Business Line 16.10.2012)

'Govts should reduce personal, corporate taxes, increase burden on consumption’ (Indian Express 15.10.2012)

OECD in advanced talks with government to open India office (The Hindu 15.10.2012)

Other highlights this week:

International day for the Eradication of Poverty (UNDP 19.10.2012)
The International Day for the Eradication of Poverty is celebrated every year on October 17 throughout the world. This year, Helen Clark called for scaled up efforts to fight poverty,

“today, we do have reason to celebrate the progress made to eradicate extreme poverty, but we must continue to work together on its eradication." 

Happiness in difficult times: The ‘giggle factor’ is gone (Vancouver Sun 18.10.2012)

Economist John Helliwell discusses the importance of measuring subjective well-being and the challenges faced by academics in overcoming “giggle factor” associated with global happiness research.

That’s all from me this week. I hope you can tune in again the same time next week for another edition of the Week in Review.

Yours in Progress,

Philippa Lysaght