27 Jul 2014

The acting Minister for Presidential Affairs and Public Administration, Mr Gaotlhaetse Matlhabaphiri says government is aware of the country’s performance in the latest 2012 Happy Planet Index (HPI), as well as its previous 2006 and 2009 manifestations. 

Responding to a question from the MP for Francistown South Mr Wynter Mmolotsi, Mr Matlhabaphiri said whether one interprets our score in the “2012 Index as being “poor” is, however, very much dependent on one’s view of the methodology behind HPI, as well as the credibility of its underlying data, which I would suggest in each case is debatable.”

He said some had falsely interpreted the 2012 HPI to mean that Batswana were perceived to be the world’s least happy people based on the premise that the HPI is a survey of popular satisfaction. 

He said what HPI instead sets out to measure is “the environmental efficiency of supporting well-being in a given country.” 

“In other words HPI is really more about “happy planet” than “happy people” in that “environmental efficiency” is taken to mean a society that consumes less the planet’s resources, thus leaving a smaller “Ecological Footprint,” to sustain itself, thus underscoring the indexes’ anti-material development, anti-consumer, as well as anti-GDP bias,” he added.

Minister Matlhabaphiri therefore explained that it is in this context that relatively high income countries such Gulf Emirates (GDP Per Capita US$ 43-96,000), USA ($55,000) and Denmark ($58,000), as well as middle income countries in the region, e.g. Mauritius ($8,800) and South Africa ($7,000), are ranked together with Botswana ($7,600) at the bottom of HPI in its lowest ‘red’ category.

At the top of HPI, in its higher green and yellow categories, one instead finds lower income, but more significantly very low consumption countries, which include such perceived earth friendly jurisdictions as Bangladesh ($900), Vietnam ($1,900), El Salvador ($3,800) Iraq ($6,900) and the Palestinian Authority ($2,900), among others.

“What the question therefore becomes to what degree should we today be concerned about a 2012 index in which Europe’s top achiever, Albania ($5,000), is ranked a full 120 places above the EU’s richest country, Luxembourg ($107,000)?

The Minister said notwithstanding the above he do note that there is at least one component that pulled down the country’s 2012 HPI score that is of genuine concern, being perceptions of low life expectancy in this country that fail to take into account the country’s actual statistics, which reflect the relative success of HIV/AIDS interventions over the past decade. 

Given the potential negative impact of even false perceptions “We have found it necessary to proactively communicate our current statistics to international stakeholders.

I further note that the component of the 2012 HPI that purports to deal with the “experienced wellbeing” of humans did not include that 2012 Gallup World Poll’s “Positive Emotions” rankings in which Botswana was in fact placed 70 out of 146 countries in terms of the positive attitude of our people,” he added.

MP Mmolotsi had asked the Minister if he is aware that in the past few years Botswana has performed poorly in the Happy Planet Index score; if so, has he instigated some investigations into the possible causes of such unhappiness and how he plans to rectify the situation to increase the Happiness Index of the nation.  ENDS