You spoke, we listened - Measures of Australia's Progress Consultation

Since the Australian Bureau of Statistics first published Measures of Australia's Progress (MAP) in 2002, it has been bringing together a large range of statistics about Australia’s society, economy and environment to help give an insight into our national progress and ask the question - 'Is life in Australia getting better?'.

The statistics are put into social, economic and environmental domains to best display whether progress or regress is being made as a whole and allows for each domain to be considered side by side.

Given the explosion of interest in international and domestic activity occurring in measuring progress, the ABS considered it was timely to review whether MAP is still measuring the aspects of life that matter most to Australians. To do this, the ABS has undertaken the largest, broad-ranging consultation in the agency's history.  In a nut shell,  for the last two years the MAP Consultation has been asking Australians, 'What is important to you for your nation's progress?'

On November 20, 2012 ‘Measures of Australia’s Progress - aspirations for our nation: a conversation with Australians about progress’ was released. This report provides a full and transparent account of the aspirations that Australians told us were important to them for progress.

What Australians want

From what people told us, we found that ideas of what progress is have changed since we first set out to measure it in 2002. We also found that there is a gap in the current picture of progress, particularly in the areas of the built environment and other aspects that enrich people's lives.  Many people strongly endorsed the area of Governance as a fourth MAP domain, which echoes the international trend to give greater focus to measuring progress in things such as human rights and having a political voice. People also wanted more statistics to be broken down by population groups and geographic areas.

The people we spoke to provided many new and interesting aspirations for Australia's progress. Many Australians feel that having equal opportunity or a fair go is an essential element for progress, as are other aspects that enrich people's lives such as recreation, sport, popular culture and the arts. The consultation also revealed that Australians think that having a say in the decision making that affects their lives, and having institutions that are accountable for their decisions, are crucial for progress.

This word cloud represents the range of ideas expressed during the MAP consultation.  The size of the words represent how often they were raised.

So, where to next?

We will be using the aspirations from the consultation to refresh the existing MAP indicators and release a new version of MAP in late 2013. We are also planning on giving the 2013 release a brand new look, ensuring it's easy to use and retaining MAP's 'at a glance' view of national progress. We also want to clearly communicate the stories behind the statistics, and allow users to directly access data they are interested in. Take a look at the mock-ups on BetaWorks and let us know if you like the new layout and functionality.

We'll also plan to include infographics and videos in MAP 2013, so you can easily get the top progress stories fast! Check out our example demo video to find out more!

Hannah Wetzler

Social Analyst

Social and Progress Reporting  |  Population Labour and Social Statistics  |  Australian Bureau of Statistics

CRC and governments delivering on commitments: Australia’s National Children’s Commissioner

New Zealand, Britain, Sweden and Norway each have one and last week it was announced that by the end of 2012, Australia will have a National Children’s Commissioner. Sitting within the Australian Human Rights Commission, the National Commissioner’s role will be to promote the rights, well-being and development of children and young people in Australia. The Commissioner will raise awareness of issues affecting children, undertake research and education programs and monitor the Government’s legislation, policy and programs relating to children’s rights, well-being and development (Attorney General for Australia, 2012).

The responsibilities of the National Commissioner are in line with the General Measure of Implementation (GIM) of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which states the importance of establishing co-ordinating and monitoring bodies to ensure that all children enjoy all rights of the Convention (UNHCR, 2003).

The Convention on the Rights of the child is the most ratified treaty in the world. Yet this strong show of commitment by governments is not always reflected in action. In many countries, some of the rights set out in the Convention are yet to be incorporated into national legislation meaning that although the commitment has been made at an international level, there is no legal instrument at a national level to ensure its implementation.

In Australia assessments of the quality of child well-being have shown some poor results, despite the country being a signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, developed, wealthy and peaceful with low levels of poverty.

Drawing on a UNICEF IRC 2007 publication, ‘Child poverty in perspective: an overview of child well-being in rich countries’, in 2008 UNICEF Australia partnered with the Australian Research Alliance for Children and Youth (ARACY) to develop a unique report card on the wellbeing of young Australians. With the absence of internationally-agreed upon indicators of child well-being, the CRC is an ideal source of guidance and was applied in both studies to assess the situation for children. In the Australia study eight dimensions of child well-being were used for analysis:

1. Material well-being
2. Health and safety
3. Educational well-being
4. Relationships
5. Behaviours and risks
6. Subjective well-being
7. Participation
8. Environment

The findings of the report revealed that Australia’s progress was behind that of many other developed nations in some indicators. Indigenous Australian babies were found to have the lowest birth weight in the OECD and Australia ranked 20^th of 27 countries for infant mortality. Teenage pregnancy rates were significantly higher than the OECD average and those for Indigenous young Australians were the highest in the OECD. School achievement for Indigenous young Australians was in the bottom 10% with only two other countries achieving lower scores, Mexico and Turkey (ARACY, 2008).

These results are indicative of how achieving and maintaining child well-being can be a complex process. The presence of peace, economic prosperity, social protection and welfare and, regulatory frameworks are all important factors that contribute to an environment conducive to promoting the well-being of children. However, other strategies are required to ensure delivery on commitments and that the specific needs of disadvantaged populations are met.  

The assurance of children’s well-being requires a holistic and multidimensional approach and coordination across ministries and between actors to ensure the social, physical, nutritional, cognitive and emotional developmental needs of children of all ages, living in all different contexts, are met. Additionally, the implementation of initiatives requires monitoring and evaluation and the measurement of progress to ensure accountability and the effective use of resources.

The move by the Australian government to prioritise children and their needs through the nomination of a National Commissioner demonstrates recognition of the importance of children’s rights and well-being and is a hugely positive step towards achieving progress in these areas and improving the situation for all children in Australia.

Wikichild Consultant

Hannah Chadwick

Australian Research Alliance for Children and Youth (ARACY), 2008, the ARACY Report Card on the Well-being of Young Australians: Technical Report, ARACY, CanberraAustralian Research

Attorney General for Australia, 2012, Gillard Government to establish National Children's Commissioner, Media Release 29.04.2012, (Accessed 07.05.2012), Available at:  http://www.attorneygeneral.gov.au/Media-releases/Pages/2012/Second%20Quarter/29-April-2012---Gillard-Government-to-establish-National-Childrens-Commissioner.aspx?zbrandid=2039&zidType=CH&zid=2771439&zsubscriberId=504179093&zbdom=http://aracy.informz.net 

Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCR), 2003, GENERAL COMMENT No. 5 (2003), General measures of implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (arts. 4, 42 and 44, para. 6), (Accessed 08.05.2012), Available at: http://www.unhchr.ch/tbs/doc.nsf/898586b1dc7b4043c1256a450044f331/3bba808e47bf25a8c1256db400308b9e/$FILE/G0345514.pdf 

Save the Children Australia, 2010, National Children's commissioner: Our Position, Policy, Research and Advocacy Department, (Accessed 07.05.2012), Available at: http://www.savethechildren.org.au/resources/position-papers/national-childrens-commissioner.html 

UNICEF IRC, 2006, The General Measures of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, (Accessed 07.05.2012), Available at: http://www.unicef-irc.org/publications/415

The week in review

Hello, glad you could join us for the Wikiprogress week in review - a handful of headlines that have caught our eyes over the last week. You can find all news articles and blog posts on the progress community in the  Wikiprogress Community Portal .  

On progress in Australia
Australia's national statistician prefers a "dashboard" approach to well-being  (15.12.2011)
Imogen Wall from the Measures of Australia’s Progress team at the Australian Bureau of Statistics uses a dashboard metaphor to describe the importance of using a range of indicators for measuring well-being, “It is important, when driving, to have information not only about speed and distance travelled, but also about engine temperature and remaining petrol.”
See more and contribute to the Wikiprogress article on Measures of Australia’s Progress

On gender equality
An African Gender Statistics Group in the offing  (13.12.2011)
In an address to the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa and the Ghana Statistical Service, Dr Grace Bediako announced plans for an African Gender Statistics Group that aims to mainstream gender into national and international statistics programmes.
See more and contribute to the Wikigender article on Gender Statistics



On the environment
Time for a Green Index  (13.12.2011)
Professor of Environmental Science Chuluun Togtokh argues that the UNDP Human Development Index ‘idolises’ some of the most environmentally damaging societies and suggests replacing the index with one that considers green technologies. He has found that per capita carbon emissions are a simple and quantifiable indicator, which is both strongly and positively, correlated with income.
See more and contribute to the Wikiprogress article on green growth

On employment
Jobs, or more precisely, the lack of jobs is now a global issue (World Bank 26.09.2011)
The World Bank blogs on a pressing global issue: unemployment. It is more than the 205 million people worldwide who are unemployed, it is that in today’s post-crisis world policy makers and practitioners do not know how to create jobs, let alone good jobs.
See more and contribute to the Wikiprogress article on unemployment rates


In the spotlight
TIME 2011 Person of the Year: The Protester:  Why I Protest: Ahmed Harara of Egypt (TIME 14.12.2011)

In announcing the 2011 person of the year as The Protester, TIME has profiled a series of protesters involved the the various uprisings of 2011. Ahmed Harara was protesting in Tahrir Square in January when he lost his eye to a rubber bullet; ten months later he returned to Tahrir Square only to lose the other eye in the same way.
See more and contribute to the Wikiprogress article on the Arab Spring


In the meantime, if anything interesting passes your desk that you would like to see in the next Wikiprogress week in review, please tweet it to us  @Wikiprogress or post it on our Facebook page .    

Yours in progress,


Philippa Lysaght

The week in review

Hello, glad you could join us for the Wikiprogress week in review - a handful of headlines that have caught our eyes over the last week. You can find all news articles and blog posts on the progress community in the Wikiprogress Community Portal. 

On data

Global corruption index reflects Arab Spring Unrest (Reuters 30.12.2011)

The 2011 Corruption Perceptions Index released this week found that levels of  awareness of corruption have risen significantly for Arab nations involved in the uprisings. One of the leading nations involved in the Arab Spring, Tunisia, fell to 73^rd place from 59^th last year.

See more and download the 2011 CPI

On happiness

Happiness Index: how happy are you - and David Cameron? (Guardian data blog 01.12.2011)

The Office of National Statistics in the UK has released findings of a national consultation established as part of  David Cameron’s Happiness Index. The findings show 76% of adults in Great Britain rated their own life satisfaction, with a score of 7 or more out of 10. 

See more and contribute to the Wikiprogress article on Happiness

On gender equality

Busan skirts gender equality (IPS 01.12.2011)

The 4^th High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness held in Busan this week has been criticised by gender champions from around the world for the lack of inclusion of key gender equality issues in the Forum’s outcomes document. Although a Joint Busan Action Plan on Gender Equality and Development is one of the outcomes of the conference, it is considered to be limited. 

See more highlights from the Busan conference in the Wikigender Community Portal

On progress in Australia

Measuring well-being is still in the too hard basket (Sydney Morning Herald 30.11.2011)

Over the past few years the global progress movement has gathered momentum as broader indicators of well-being has become an increasingly popular topic. In Australia, Measures of Australia’s Progress (MAP) is at the forefront of this movement with their work on measuring national well-being and determining whether or not life in Australia is getting better.

See more and contribute to the Wikiprogress article on Measures of Australia’s Progress

In the Spotlight:  4^th High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness

That’s all from us this week. We hope you tune in the same time next week. In the meantime, if anything interesting passes your desk that you would like to see in the next Wikiprogress week in review, please tweet it to us @Wikiprogress or post it on our Facebook page. 

Yours in Progress,

Publish Post

Philippa Lysaght

How's Life?

By Romina Boarini

How’s Life? This is the (seemingly) simple question that the OECD put at the centre of its recent work on measuring well-being, launched on October 12 during the conference marking the two years of the Stiglitz-Sen-Fitoussi’s report (see also recent Angela’s post). How’s life talks of what people value most in their lives, what they can do, what they are and what they would like to be. Those who associate the OECD with economic forecasts and free market policies may find surprising that the OECD takes the well-being business so seriously, especially in hard economic times. But since the Organisation is seeking to inspire Better Policies for Better Lives, assessing how life is going and how it can be improved is just as fundamental as looking at financial markets and public debt.

As you readers of Wikiprogress all know, the OECD has been long involved in the quest for better measures of well-being and progress. But this is the first time that the OECD puts together many comparable indicators of well-being in OECD and a few emerging countries. How’s Life analyses well-being through eleven dimensions of people’s lives (income, jobs, housing, health, work and life balance, education, social connections, civic engagement, environment, personal security and subjective well-being), presenting a large amount of evidence on these areas. It also looks at the quality of existing well-being measures and proposes a few avenues for taking the statistical and research agenda on well-being forward.

The main findings from How’s Life are:

Well-being is much more than money. This is where we started from but this is also where we arrived at the end of the journey. How’s Life shows that economic measures are not enough to capture the complexity and the beauty of life, but also the struggle that life represents for many. Income is important for well-being, but there are other aspects, for instance social ties, opportunities and freedoms, that count even more.

Understanding well-being has a lot to do with inequalities. We already knew that averages are not enough for assessing economic well-being because income inequality is large in many countries. What we did not know, and How’s Life tells us, is that there are also many inequalities in health, education, civic engagement, social ties and environment. Many of these inequalities are driven by low-income and low-education, suggesting that nurturing children from early years can greatly make their adult life better.

Well-being is both objective and subjective. There are components of well-being that are essentially objective: having a decent housing and being healthy for instance. But there are also very important subjective aspects to take into account: for instance whether people like their jobs, whether they feel insecure in the neighboourhood where they live, etc. How’s Life shows that there are sometimes gaps between objective life circumstances and how people feel about them: for instance there are 10 insecure people per every victim of crime in the population. Gaps do not indicate that some indicators are more reliable than others. They just indicate that these various indicators are capturing different aspects of personal security and that it is important for policy makers to address criminality and concerns of crime at the same time.

How’s Life finds that well-being is not only individualistic, i.e. depending on what people have and do for themselves. It is also very much about spending time with others, helping others, building a community and feeling part of a large social network that can help in case of need. For instance life satisfaction goes up significantly when volunteering or when enjoying strong social ties.

Finally, How’s Life shows that no country excels in all dimensions (and this is also why it is important to look at all facets of people’s lives rather than at one headline number). There are however countries that tend to do very well in many of the dimensions considered, for instance Australia, Canada and the Nordic countries. Why is that? Two factors seem to matter: inequalities and the key role that well-being plays in the overall political strategy of these countries. Indeed, inequalities tend to be lower in the top-performing countries, especially among the Nordics, suggesting that a more equal distribution of opportunities and outcomes is also beneficial for average well-being. Secondly, many of the well-performing countries have adopted a broad well-being framework for designing their policies (see for instance Australia Treasury’s well-being framework and Norway’s sustainable development strategy). Their strategy is paying off.

What’s next? The second edition of How’s Life is planned for May 2013. In the meantime we will update the Better Life Index, the other big pillar of the OECD Better Life Initiative. We are also running various research projects to get better measures and understanding of well-being, together with many other international organisations and researchers worldwide. You can learn more about in our web site.

Is life in Australia getting better?

These are the sorts of questions we are asking the Australian public this year - to find out and help articulate the public's aspirations for Australia's national progress.

I work on a publication called Measures of Australia Progress (MAP) by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. Our aim is to help people answer the question "Is life in Australia getting better?" While this may be of no interest to someone living in Denmark for example, the principles of what we do, can be applied to any country or community. And we hope that people use what we do for their community's progress and wellbeing.

This year we're hoping to create a public conversation on Australia's progress. We are asking Australians from all walks of life about their goals and aspirations for Australia's progress. What kind of country do we want to live in? We're calling this consultation MAP 2.0, as we want to update our publication with the feedback we receive.

Why are we doing this?
The reason we're asking for the goals and aspirations of Australians is if we want to know if Australia is progressing, we have to know what it is we are progressing towards. Once we know our progress goals, we can better measure how we're tracking towards them. It's our role, as statisticians to measure our progress, but it is the role of the community to determine what progress means. What is appealing about this process is that it applies to any level and any community. There can be national aspirations which a publication like MAP can measure, and there can be local community aspirations which local projects can measure. As the goals and aspirations of each community might be different, this approach allows to take in that diversity.

Progress so far... ?
We're hoping to generate a national conversation about Australia's progress, similar to the global dialogue that the Stiglitz, Sen, Fitoussi Commission called for. The ABS has been a leader in this field for some time. We first released MAP in 2002 and it was seen as a groundbreaking and somewhat controversial publication back then - raising the profile of environmental statistics. Now that has become the norm. The ABS would like to continue to be a leader in this field so we're having a fresh look at MAP. Plus there are many other projects that are looking at the progress and wellbeing of societies, so we'd like to learn from their experiences. We've created some maps, calling them "Indicator Land" maps to demonstrate the number of projects. They're not a comprehensive list of projects, more of a visual aid to demonstrate the explosion of interest in this field.

Blog to be released soon...
As part of our consultation, we're launching our blog on 29th August, with help from several prominent Australians to start a national dialogue. I won't tell you who they are as we're in the process of finalising the list. Our aim is that people will provide comments and share their goals and aspirations for Australia's progress on our blog. This post is a bit of shameless self-promotion by us :)

As part of the consultation we've already visited each ABS office in the state capitals in Australia and held workshops to collect people's goals for Australia. Also, we've gathered groups of experts to help refine progress aspirations for Australia. The aspirations we collect, along with the comments and feedback we hope to receive on our blog, will feed into a report and eventually a new version of MAP. We hope to release our report in time for the next World Forum in India.

If you can't wait for the launch of our blog and would like more information, you can read our submission booklet or the feature article in MAP 2010 to get a better idea of what we're doing.

Stay in touch! measuringprogress@abs.gov.au


Serhat Turut

Interview with Sue Taylor

Interview with Sue Taylor from the Australian Bureau of Statistics on the electronic publication Measures of Australia's Progress 2010. This interview took place at the NatStats 2010 conference held last month in Sydney.

Australians are becoming healthier, wealthier and wiser

The recent release of the electronic publication Measures of Australia’s Progress 2010 (MAP2010) caused quite a stir at the National Statistics conference held in Sydney last week (NatStats 2010).

MAP2010 looks at a range of progress indicators over the last decade and aims to answers the question- is life in Australia getting better?

So… is it? The overall answer is yes. We can add a few years onto life expectancy, drop a few percentage points on unemployment rates, see attainment of vocational or higher education qualifications soar and watch the dollar rise for both national income and household economic wellbeing.

On the downside? The environment. Australia has regressed in the areas of biodiversity and atmosphere… and quite significantly I might add.

We’ve known for a while that Australia has generally been progressing in overall wellbeing and prosperity, and that it also has environmental issues that need to be addressed, so why the big fuss over MAP2010?

It’s not just about the fact that MAP have expanded their indicators, or that key indicators can be measured over 10 years giving us a real sense of progress/regress or even the overwhelming joy of the Australians at the conference knowing that they are more or less on the right track. It is about the fact that anyone can access the publication and see at a glace where Australia is going well and where they need to improve. And best of all, you don’t need to be a statistician (or a rocket scientist) to understand it!

MAP2010 uses a traffic-light system to indicate dimensions of progress that have improved (green light), dimensions that have regressed (red light) and dimensions that have neither progress or regressed over the last 10 years (amber).

The publication includes a snapshot of data and text to explain what impact these measurements have on the lives of Australians. Further and quite detailed information is available for each indicator for those who are interested, but for those who just want to see where Australia stands and how far it has come- the snapshot provides just the right amount of information.

This echoes a common theme that has come out of NatStats2010 conference, that is a call to not only continue developing measures of progress, but to ensure these measures are communicated and understood by those they most effect- the general public. I am thrilled to say that I think MAP2010 has achieved this.

Stayed tuned for a video interview with Sue Taylor on MAP2010...

Philippa