BIMSTEC for ‘connecting minds’ in the region with Bhutan’s GNH

The seven countries grouping, Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) sees Bhutan’s unique way of measuring economic progress as a tool of “connecting minds” of the member states.

The Himalayan Kingdom of Bhutan uses a set of barometer to measure Gross National Happiness (GNH) in which it stresses on 'development with values.'

The BIMSTEC Secretariat in Dhaka,  in association with bdnews24.com, organised a roundtable on Tuesday over GNH’s role in regional cooperation and development to mark the 20th anniversary of the Bay of Bengal grouping.

Researcher of the Centre for Bhutan Studies and Gross National Happiness Research Dr Dorji Penjore explained why and how they measure the GNH.

Representatives of the member states were present at the roundtable.

“We will try to see how to extract some of those parameters in foreign policy making,” BIMSTEC Secretary General Sumith Nakanala said.

“This concept is not alien to us. We are promoting connectivity and when we talk about connectivity it's not always hard connectivity. Soft areas like some of the concepts of GNH can be very well employed for regional connectivity across the border. This is something we need to collectively take up in the region,” he said.

“With this we are promoting connectivity, connecting minds across the Bay of Bengal”. 

Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Thailand are the members of BIMSTEC (launched in1997) that connects South Asia with the Southeast Asia, and serves as a platform for inter-regional cooperation between SAARC and ASEAN members.

It is now being seen as an alternative to SAARC by some think-tanks following India-Pakistan tension that resulted in postponement of this year’s summit in Islamabad.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi hosted BIMSTEC leaders at an outreach meet in Goa last year during the BRICS summit.

The grouping is now promoting 14 priority sectors of development and common concerns.

They include trade and investment, technology, energy, transport and communication, tourism, fisheries, agriculture, cultural cooperation, environment and disaster management, public health, people-to-people contact, poverty alleviation, counter-terrorism and transnational crimes, and climate change.

What is GNH?

The idea of happiness and wellbeing as the goal of development is not new in Bhutan. This has been part of Bhutan's development endeavours since the early part of its modernisation process.

But it is now being pursued as a deliberate policy goal after the fourth King Jigme Singye Wangchuck introduced GNH to define the official development paradigm for Bhutan.

The UN has also adopted a non-binding resolution on GNH, and since 2013, it is celebrating the International Day of Happiness on Mar 20 as a way to recognise the importance of happiness in the lives of people around the world.

Dr Dorji Penjore.

“Like butter and milk, GNH infuses energy in our foreign policy,” Dr Penjore said. “Every foreign guest is being briefed on that when they make official visit to Bhutan”.

“I think because of GNH we are able to raise our international profile. It was due to our effort that GNH was adopted by the UN General Assembly as a non-binding resolution,” he said.

“It is premised on the belief that happiness is the ultimate desire of every individual, and by extension, the responsibility and purpose of the state is to create the necessary conditions that enable citizens to lead the good life”.

It stresses “collective happiness to be addressed directly through public policies in which happiness becomes an explicit criterion in development projects and programmes,” Dr Penjore said.

He said they ask the participants of the survey to reply 1,500 questions. In the second survey which was conducted in 2015, some 8, 000 people took part.

“It takes three hour for each person to complete the interview process. We then give them money as they have to skip work. It's like paying for a day they would earn by working,” he said.

“This is important because by knowing this we can take steps,” he said, adding that they would soon introduce special projects to address the issues come up from the GNH.

“We have seen the changes between the two surveys,” he said, particularly mentioning the happiness index of women.

According to GNH, women are unhappier than men. But the gap slightly narrowed in the second survey.

A domain-based framework has been adopted to measure the GNH. The framework contains nine domains which are: psychological wellbeing, health, time use and balance, education, cultural diversity and resilience, good governance, community vitality, ecological diversity and resilience and living standard.

These domains have 33 indicators.

Under education, he said, they look at values, knowledge and skills, apart from formal and informal education.

“These domains collectively provide the structure for the GNH Index and the means to track Bhutanese’s progress of wellbeing”.

The main objective is to set an alternative framework for development, providing indicators to different sectors to guide development, and allocating resources in accordance with targets, among others.

He said the main mechanism for sustaining the happiness of the people in medieval Bhutan was to maintain a Buddhist outlook on life.