T&T has received poor ratings in personal safety, crime, health and the environment, all critical areas that have an impact on quality of life, according to the Social Progress Index (SPI).Ranking 47th out of 132 countries this year, T&T was rated good in education, freedom of expression, and inclusion.
T&T gained international recognition as an early adopter of new ways to improve the lives of its citizens. Attention was drawn to this country's attempts at early adoption of the SPI with initiatives to support a new model for national development.
Social Progress T&T Secretariat's deployment of the SPI, in collaboration with the Ministry of Planning and Sustainable Development, Central Statistical Office, University of the West Indies, and key private sector organisations including Solutions by Simulation and Deloitte Touche T&T, caught the attention of international agencies which subsequently commended the civil society organisation that initiated the collaboration.
Director of the Social Progress T&T Secretariat, Allison Pajotte, will be this country's first participant in the Global Wellbeing Lab.
In an interview with GIZ Global Leadership Academy, when asked what prompted the adoption of the model, Pajotte said, "Our focus has been on the GDP and economic indicators as a measure of our national performance. It is now accepted, and our current social environment shows, that the GDP alone is inadequate to guide national development, so our measure of national performance is distorted. The SPI complements the GDP to provide the social picture that has been missing."
Pajotte added that "while the Global SPI looks at social and environmental indicators common to all countries, what we are doing locally is developing a Sub National Index based on the same methodologies that will focus on the indicators that are specific to and affect quality of life in T&T. For instance, traffic does not affect all countries and therefore it is not on the Global Index, but in T&T it is a source of distress to a majority."
Speaking on the flexibility of the Global Index, Pajotte said, "It allows us to develop a multi-purpose tool that can measure, monitor and report on social indicators specific to T&T and also act as a common framework from which Government, private sector, civil society groups and international aid agencies can work from. This tool will help guide our social investment and social programming in the future."
Secretary General of Social Progress T&T Secretariat, Ann Marie Ramdhan said, "Through a Memorandum of Understanding signed with the United States-based Social Progress Imperative, we are providing free training in the SP Index methodologies to subject experts in data and statistics in T&T to develop this Sub-National Index in six months. This transfer of knowledge is being done in a manner to ensure institutional memory for further development of the tools we will be creating."
Pajotte said, "Social Innovation is the only way we can solve complex social problems and it is comforting to know that international agencies are already looking in that direction."She leaves T&T for Berlin in February, where she will meet 23 other participants of the Global Wellbeing Lab for the first time.
People or organisations interested in partnering with the local network on Social Progress T&T initiatives that will roll out in 2015 can contact the secretariat at HYPERLINK "mailto:trinidadandtobago-network@social-progress.org" trinidadandtobago-network@social-progress.org or 1-868-622-5687.
The Global Lab 2015, entitled "Transforming Society and the Economy," is due to start in February 2015 and will consider the prototypes (pilot projects), experiences, and networks focusing on issues related to wellbeing and for innovation beyond GDP.