How was life around the world in 2015? 

“Are our lives getting better? How can policies improve our lives? Are we measuring the right things?” These are the questions the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) seeks to answer with its Better Life Index and How’s Life? report.

How’s Life? 2015 is the third edition of the report. As with previous editions, it looks at how the 34 OECD countries (and some emerging economies) stack up in 11 dimensions, including housing, income and wealth, personal security, environmental quality, and work-life balance. The study finds, as expected, that there’s a strong correlation between GDP and life satisfaction, but that wealthier countries have plenty of opportunity for improvement. Overall, Canada and the United States rank sixth and seventh respectively.

As well as measuring current well-being, How’s Life? explores the resources and trends that will shape future well-being, including natural resources, human resources, economic resources, and social resources. Trends include rising long-term unemployment, rising obesity rates, and increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases. 

Along with the full report, the OECD’s Better Life Index provides an interactive way for people to explore what well-being and a better life mean for them by weighting the 11 dimensions measured by How’s Life? and comparing how countries perform. 

By providing better data, and a deeper understanding of well-being, the OECD aims to support the development of policies that enhance well-being around the world. 

The first ever global map of cultural and creative industries

Compared to more traditional industries, Cultural and Creative Industries (CCI) are often only partially described and generally misunderstood or undervalued, creating challenges in understanding their economic weight in both mature and emerging economies.

To address this, the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers (CISAC) recently commissioned EY to complete a global study of the economic and social impact of CCI that builds on UNESCO's definition of CCI. 

The study, Cultural Times: The First Global Map of Cultural and Creative Industries, highlights that CCI generate US$2,250 billion of revenues (3% of world GDP) and 29.5 million jobs at the global level. It identifies North America as having the third largest CCI behind Europe and the Asia-Pacific, with revenues of US $620 billion (28% of global revenues) and 4.7 million jobs (16% of total jobs). In general terms, the North American market is driven by leading cultural and entertainment players in areas of TV, movies and radio; however, Canada was singled out as an international benchmark for game development, as well as its commitment and success in the music industry. Canada and the US are seen as being at the forefront of CCI’s digital transformation with the largest number of consumers of digital cultural content.

The report also evaluates the impact of cultural and creative workers. For economic development professionals focused on how to support the growth and expansion of their local economies, there are a number of qualities that speak to the value of attracting and retaining CCI business investment. CCI are also seen as playing a significant role in the urban development or place-making of cities and towns. Collectively and individually these activities are seen as the components necessary for forging both a local and global identity for a community that in turn attracts the investment, workers and visitors needed to sustain economic growth.

The changing face of community engagement

Engaging with the public in meaningful and effective ways as a municipality, government representative, or economic development practitioner can be difficult at times. As a result, new dynamic and innovative engagement strategies are emerging to keep citizens interested in public engagement processes, ranging from online interactive municipal budget allocation tools, Twitter Town Halls, sounding boards located in high-use public areas, and citizens’ reference panels. These techniques are helping to move engagement beyond “informing” and “consulting” with the public towards “involving”, “collaborating”, and “empowering” community members (see the "spectrum of public participation” for more information).

In an effort to share their own inclusive methodologies on how to build capacity in communities through public participation, the Montreal Urban Ecology Centre (MUEC) recently released its guide Participatory Urban Planning: Planning the city with and for its citizens (hard copies in English and French are available in the MUEC online store).

Highlighting its six-step participatory planning process, MUEC stresses the importance of including citizens throughout the entire life cycle of a project, allowing public debate to shape the plan. The six steps are accompanied by examples of participatory activities, including activities such as an exploratory walk that helps to identify specific issues in a location, scenario validation workshops that prioritize planning solutions, and design workshops that can provide community members who are often excluded from design discussions with tools to participate in a meaningful way.

At the end of the day, MUEC’s six-step participatory planning process encourages celebration of the positive changes that public engagement can bring to communities and recognition of the role that citizens had in transforming their community.