9781422283899

I NTRODUCTION S OCIAL P ROGRESS IN E AST A SIA AND THE P ACIFIC S ocial progress is a society’s ability to meet the basic human needs of its citizens, to create the building blocks that individuals and communities use to improve the quality of their lives, and to make it possible for them to reach their potential. This is not the same thing as economic prosperity, which is limited to money and profits and can give misleading impressions of a society’s actual conditions. While development includes economic factors, social progress considers the many other things that affect quality of life, some of which can make life good even if a strict economic definition would suggest otherwise. The Social Progress Imperative measures various aspects of social progress in every country in the world for which data is available. The data comes from international organizations such as the World Bank, the World Health Organization, and the United Nations. The Imperative uses this information to create its Social Progress Index (SPI), which scores nations on how well they perform in three categories: Basic Human Needs: Does a country provide for its people’s most essential needs? Foundations of Well-being: Are the building blocks in place for individuals and communities to enhance and sustain well-being? Opportunity: Is there opportunity for all individuals to reach their full potential? The SPI ranks countries from best to worst and arranges them in six groups ranging from very high to very low social progress. SPI rankings cover

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S OCIAL P ROGRESS IN E AST A SIA AND THE P ACIFIC