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Gross National Happiness WorkshopsThe purpose of the session on Gross National Happiness (GNH), Sunday morning 7 December 8.30-10.00, is to provide a platform for exchanges on an emerging global ‘GNH movement’ and related initiatives.We have invited two researchers from the Centre for Bhutan Studies (CBS) to report on the Fourth International Conference on Gross National Happiness in Thimphu, to be held in Bhutan 24-26 November 2008, just before the Buddhist Economics conference. Equitable Economic Development is one of the ‘Four Pillars’ of GNH. Other experts have made themselves available to contribute to the exchanges and all Buddhist Economics participants are asked to join in a creative dialogue exploring future perspectives towards global transformation. A more detailed session arrangement will be distributed at the start of the conference. The first ever GNH conference was organised by the Centre for Bhutan Studies in Thimphu in February 2004. The second conference followed in Nova Scotia, Canada, June 2005, where the organizer was GPI (Genuine Progress Index) Atlantic. The title was Re-thinking Development. Local Pathways to Global Wellbeing. In November 2007 we had the great privilege to organize the 3rd International Conference on Gross National Happiness (GNH3) in Thailand. The title of the conference was World Views Make A Difference. Towards Global Transformation. It turned out to be a colourful week-long event involving farmers, community leaders, academics, business people, spiritual leaders, government policy makers, Youth: a multitude of stakeholders. The conference started at Wat Hin Mak Peng, a Buddhist temple in the forest tradition near the border with Laos. Re-vitalized Loy Krathong – a traditional festival to pay respect to the element of water – was celebrated at the borders of the Mekong River, Nongkhai Province of Thailand. At Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, venue of the second part of the conference, speakers and resource persons included Dr. Sheldon Shaeffer, UNESCO Asia-Pacific Director, Dr. Surin Pitsuwan, Secretary-General of ASEAN, Lyonpo Jigme Y. Thinley, the first democratically elected Prime Minister of Bhutan, Sulak Sivaraksa, social activist, Thailand, anthropologist Helena Norberg-Hodge, Ladakh/Sweden, Dr. Peter Hershock, East-West Center, Hawaii, Nic Marks, New Economics Foundation (nef), Roger Torrenti, France, for the ICT sector and Dr. Apichai Puntasen on Sufficiency Economy. Our involvement as organizers1, in partnership with a diversity of organizations and persons, left us the challenging legacy to produce a synthesis of the great diversity of ideas, initiatives and research projects gathered in the GNH3 conference. In August 2008 we started a series of some 6 bi-monthly ‘GNH Movement’ Workshops in the 2008-2009 season, in Bangkok, for the Thailand Research Fund within the framework of its Sufficiency Economy programme. In the ‘GNH Movement’-Workshop Series a group of stakeholders in development will explore the concepts of happiness and social transformation; principles of effectively shaping multi-stakeholder dialogue; research on alternative indicators; concrete programme initiatives in the areas of: 1- ICT and the media, 2- sustainable agriculture and the ‘Urban/Rural Divide’, as well as 3- capacity building in the Mekong region. More in particular the possible role of Thailand in the Global GDP Debate will be explored as well as, from the point of the GNH movement, the potential synthesis between a diversity of transformative streams including Sufficiency Economy and Buddhist Economics. Subsequent recommendations for policy development including all stakeholders and new research initiatives are expected to result from this process. 1 Suan Nguen Mee Ma Co., Ltd., a small-scale publishing house and event organizer based in Bangkok, was appointed as conference organizer. |
