Better quality of sustainable development in Bhutan
[October 2012] Time Magazine recognized Bhutan’s pursuit of Gross National Happiness (GNH) and sustainable development in the article “The Pursuit of Happiness”, published on 22 October 2012. PEI has worked to support the incorporation of Poverty and Environment linkages in Bhutan’s policies since October 2007, contributing to the integration of poverty-environment-climate concerns into national, sectoral and local level policies and plans. The outcome of the inclusion of these linkages is a better quality of sustainable development. The Time article made a reference to PEI’s work: “Bhutan’s solution is to turn Gross National Happiness principles into a policy-screening tool to achieve that elusive ideal of sustainable development.” All draft government policies are now screened to help improve their sustainability elements and respond to calls to make policies provide more benefits for poorer people. It has already been applied to eight draft government policies. The full article is available to Time’s subscribers here.