UNEP Is For Inclusive Wealth, I Am For Inclusive Development – The Difference Is Gross!
In its website, ensiasays it is “a solutions-focused nonprofit media outlet[1].” Coming out with solution or option, yes, ensia, you have my admiration; but you have to start right. Start right where? In defining the problem! (ascending arrow from World Economic Forum
Ensia has come out with an opinion piece by Pushpam Kumar, “Pandemic, Floods, Fires, Hurricanes, Extinctions — Nature Is Telling Us It’s Time To Build Our Economy Around Inclusive Wealth[3].” Mr Kumar is the Chief Environmental Economist of the United Nations Environment Programme, UNEP – so I take it that the new concept of “inclusive wealth” is more or less acceptable to the United Nations as a good measure of the overall health of a country.
So UNEP is now saying goodbye to the Gross Domestic Product, GDP, which Mr Kumar sees is being replaced by Inclusive Wealth:
How did we get here? By basing our decisions on a short-sighted measure of human well-being. Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which is conventionally used to measure economic growth and well-being, fails to account for the contributions of natural ecosystems. It treats the environment as a luxury good rather than an asset that generates benefits that can be measured in monetary terms… As a result, we don’t give the environment sufficient weight in our decisions – and the consequences of our decisions come back to haunt us in the form of disease, political instability, economic insecurity and more.
Instead, Mr Kumar says:
How can we get to a better place? Through something called “inclusive wealth accounting” – a measure of true well-being, not just for ourselves, but for future generations. Inclusive wealth refers to the sum of social worth of manufactured capital (like building and machines), human capital (like health and skills) and natural capital (like biodiversity and ecosystem services).
Bravo! Looks good, sounds good – but “inclusive wealth” cannot be seen except in an increase in the number of government offices and their reports, and more private palatial homes. You have to look at the record books, inside banks to check.
Instead, I want to see “inclusive development” – I don’t have to ask, “Where is the money?” I can see it in the increasing numbers and amounts of (a) free housing for the poor, (b) free hospitalization for the sick and indigent, (c) grants for freeeducation, (d) more jobs, (e) more social benefits, and (f) higher standards of living.
“Inclusive wealth” is seen only in the record books of government; “inclusive development” is seen everywhere you look! Government crooks cannot hide development if there is any, and how much, or how little. What more evidence do you want?
I first learned about inclusive development from the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, ICRISAT, when William Dar was Director General; he hired me as a writer, work from home, WFH, 2007-2014. Now he is PH Secretary of Agriculture – my WFH conviction on inclusive development has never changed since ICRISAT 13 years ago.
On to 100 years of Inclusive Development!@517
Comments
Post a Comment