OPHI Director Sabina Alkire spoke at a meeting organized by France and the OECD, titled Two Years After the Stiglitz-Sen-Fitoussi Report: What Well-Being and Sustainability Measures?, on behalf of the Government of Bhutan on October 12.

Dr. Alkire was speaking about Bhutan's Gross National Happiness Index, which measures wellbeing in the country.

The Commission on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress, set up by the French government, presented the Stiglitz-Sen-Fitoussi report to French President Nicolas Sarkozy in 2009.

The Commission recommended broadening the scope of traditional measures for economic performance to include measures of quality of life, inequalities and wellbeing, as well as better taking into account sustainability and environmental conditions.

The conference took that discussion forward, and focused in part on the experiences of developing countries such as Bhutan, Colombia and Morocco in measuring wellbeing.