National Data Office opens forum on measuring quality of life beyond GDP

The National Data Office said Wednesday it is holding the 12th Forum on Inclusive and Sustainable Measurement of the Quality of Life at El Tower in Seoul, bringing government ministries, academics and research institutes together to discuss how indicators of well-being can be connected to policy.

The forum, held both online and in person, is organized jointly with the Korean Association for Quality of Life Studies, which has co-hosted the annual event since 2015. This year's theme is "Policy and Data in the Beyond GDP Era," and the program is built around a keynote lecture and two sessions, one on quality of life and one on the Sustainable Development Goals. It will also look back on a decade of SDG implementation and discuss the direction of future sustainable-development monitoring.

The keynote lecture will be given by Han Jun, president of the Korean Association for Quality of Life Studies and a Yonsei University professor, on the question "In the Beyond GDP Era, What Should We Measure?" He will examine the limits of GDP-centered measurement and the development of quality-of-life and sustainability indicators. In a discussion with Gu In-hoe and Hong Jong-ho, both Seoul National University professors, the forum will take up citizens' expectations, quality of life and policy indicators.

The quality-of-life session, chaired by Han, will cover changes in quality-of-life indicators, their use in policy and institutional tasks. Choi Ba-ul, a director at the National Data Research Institute, will present on 30 years of change in quality of life and the development of the indicator system. Lee Ji-hoon, a director at the Gross National Happiness Transition Forum, will examine how well-being policy in OECD member countries has expanded from measurement to policy and propose domestic institutional tasks in budgeting, policy evaluation, citizen participation and legislation. Hwang Seon-jae, a Chungnam National University professor, will analyze cases in which central and local governments have used quality-of-life indicators and discuss the legal basis, governance and policy feedback needed for indicators to be used in practice.

The SDG session, chaired by Oh Su-gil, president of the Korean Society for Sustainable Development, will review 10 years of SDG monitoring and implementation assessment. Kim Eui-young, an official at the National Data Research Institute, will present lessons from global SDG monitoring and shifts in international discussions. Chung Woo-hyun, a senior research fellow at the Korea Environment Institute, will present on Korea's 10 years of SDG implementation assessment and its two monitoring systems. Lee Chang-eon, a professor at Woosuk University, will analyze SDG practices by local governments and civil society and discuss institutional achievements and structural limits of regional implementation reviews.

Lee Myung-ho, deputy director of the National Data Office, said he hopes the forum will be a place to seek ways to measure people's actual lives and sustainability more faithfully beyond GDP and to connect the results to policy. "Based on the past 10 years of experience measuring quality of life and the SDGs, I hope this serves as an opportunity to discuss the direction of policy indicators that citizens can feel and data-based policy," he said.

The forum is streamed live on its website, dsriforum.co.kr, where participants can submit comments.