Happiness In The GCC

Why Happiness Is the New Metric Driving Gulf Governments.

Ever since ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle presented his theory of happiness as the ultimate purpose of human existence, its importance has been the subject of debate, intrigue and interest.

“Everywhere we see people seeking pleasure, wealth, and a good reputation. But while each of these has some value, none of them can occupy the place of the chief good for which humanity should aim,” Aristotle argued, suggesting happiness was the final end goal.

But it is only in recent years that governments, local authorities and others have seen happiness as important a metric for progress as GDP growth, foreign direct investment and infrastructure development.

In the World Happiness Report, prepared by the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) and the Earth Institute at Columbia University, the authors argue that happiness provides a broader indicator of human welfare than measures of inequality, poverty, health, education and good government viewed separately. A notion agreed by other happiness experts.

“There is a increasing recognition that the way we have been measuring progress – in terms of pure GDP – is inadequate,” says Meik Wiking, CEO of the Happiness Research Institute in Denmark.

“We should not just focus on living standards but also quality of life. Also we are seeing more and more governments and more and more agenda-setting organisations working in a serious manner within this field – and that has created even more data that shows the validity and reliability of the metric.”

As this trend has developed, Gulf countries are seeing happiness as one of the most important measures under which they are judged.

Among the biggest backers has been the UAE, which has set a goal to enter the top five of the World Happiness Report – from 28th in 2016 – under its Vision 2021 National Agenda.