Belgium
From Wikiprogress.org
| Belgium | |
 Flag of Belgium | |
| Population (In Millions) | 11.02 |
| Human Development Index | 18/169 |
| Gross Domestic Product (In USD Billions - World Bank) | 513.66 |
| Global Peace Index | 14/153 |
| Happy Planet Index | 64/143 |
| Social Institutions and Gender Index | - /86 |
| Environmental Performance Index | 88/163 |
| Child Mortality Rate | 3.5 |
| More information on variables | |
Contents |
Main Progress Initiatives
Federal Council for Sustainable Development
The Federal Council for Sustainable Development was set up in 1997 and advises the federal authorities about Sustainable development issues. It provides a forum for discussion of sustainable development, and encourages debate by organising symposiums. Experts in the subject, government and civil society representatives, and the general public participate and use the opportunity to voice their points of view and to debate issues. The Council takes into consideration the results of the symposiums when formulating advice for government.
The Federal Council for Sustainable development is a participatory institution and includes environmental and development organisations, consumers' unions, trade unions, employers' federations, energy producers and representatives of the sciences sector among its members.
Societal Progress and Well-being
At the federal level, the Task Force on Sustainable Development of the Federal Planning Bureau (FPB) and the Belgian Federal Science Policy have taken initiatives to develop indicators of societal progress and well-being. The FPB Task Force aims to develop models and indicators of sustainable development in Belgium, with societal progress as one of its strategic objectives. Every two years, a federal report[1] on sustainable development is published, which includes 88 indicators illustrating to what extent living conditions in Belgium are heading towards strategic objectives of sustainable development. The report also examines the choice of strategic objectives in the context of a long-term vision on the evolution of society, the environment, the economy and government policies. In addition, by showing the diversity and interactions between the indicators, the report intends to promote policies which can accelerate achieving the strategic objectives of sustainable development.
The WellBeBe initiative
The Belgian Federal Science Policy Office is also looking into indicators of well-being in Belgium (WellBeBe). The main goal is to develop indicators that consider the individual in his whole life-cycle and which includes the notion of social structure.
Official Statistics
Happiness in Belgium
This is an overview of findings on Happiness in Belgium.The available findings are presented in the latest ‘Nation Report’ on Belgium [2]. This report is ordered by type of happiness questions and within these types by year. This ordering is to facilitate the assessment of progress, comparison over time being most fruitful using the same questions.
The report presents means and standard deviations, both on the original scale range and transformed to a common range 0-10. The means inform about the level of happiness in the country and the standard deviations about inequality of happiness.
Links provide more detail about the precise text of the question, the full distribution of responses and technical details of the survey. The report is continuously updated.
Progress Papers and Publications
- UNCSD: Rio 20plus
- Growth doesn't make people happy: Do the economists know it?, 2006, Isabelle Cassiers, Catherine Delain, Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium. (French)
- Global Progress, 2000, Francis Heylighen & Jan Bernheim, Free University of Brussels, Belgium.
