“To ensure our new development paradigm is not seen simply as utopian dreaming, and to work practically towards its actual adoption and implementation, I believe we need to specify that our approach is not anti-growth per se.”
The Prime Minister, Jigmi Y.Thinley was speaking at the International Expert Working Group Meeting in New York on Wellbeing and Happiness: A new development paradigm.
Lyonchhoen said the Gross National Happiness approach supports responsible and meaningful development in the context of well-being and happiness within ecological boundaries. He said job creation through energy conservation and through investments in public transit, organic agriculture and wind energy in Denmark and Curitiba clearly demonstrate what Bhutan proposes as ecologically and economically viable.
However, Lyonchhoen said, Bhutan alone cannot take on the herculean task. “Bhutan is a tiny country in a remote corner of the Himalayas. We like to pride ourselves on being big on dreams, but honestly, we are small on resources and capacity, including funding.”
He said Bhutan cannot even imagine embarking on this endeavor to alter fate of life on earth, “and it is certainly not our intent to impose our views or direct the ways ahead.” He said Bhutan would need the help of brilliant thought leaders and practitioners.
But even as the thought leaders and practitioners started deliberating and Lyonchhoen said that the proposed framework and synopsis of the new development paradigm could be re-defined, re-shaped and re-constituted, and that just about everything else is subject to consensus to, Lyonchhoen talked about “bottom line”.
“What is not negotiable? Where will we not compromise?” said the Prime Minister. He said there are two key issues Bhutan sees as this “bottom line”.
“Bhutan sees the core problem of the present development paradigm as its fundamental purposelessness, its goal-lessness, or the absence of a clear vision. What is the goal of human development and societal change? Surely it must be more than economic growth or higher income or even just survival and sustainability?”
Lyonchhoen said what distinguishes Bhutan’s approach to development is that it makes explicit the goal of development as human happiness that arises from or is conditioned by the well-being of all life forms.
“We have also identified happiness as the higher propose, state of being, and intended end product of various constituents of well-being like healthy ecosystem services, decent living standards, good health, strong and safe communities, decent education, and a vibrant culture.”
