Purpose of the Social Report
The Social Report has four key aims:
- to provide and monitor over time measures of wellbeing and
quality of life that complement existing economic and environmental
indicators
- to assess how New Zealand compares with other
countries on measures of wellbeing
- to provide greater transparency in government and to
contribute to better informed public debate
- to help identify key issues and areas where we need to
take action, which can in turn help with planning and decision making.
The Report enables us to examine the current level of
wellbeing in New Zealand, how this has changed over time, and how
different groups in the population are faring. The social report helps
us to identify adverse trends in social outcomes at an early stage. The
Report itself cannot illuminate what is driving these trends but it can
point to the need for further research to better understand what is
happening and to what actions need to be undertaken to address them.
Government policy, as well as individual decisions, families,
communities, businesses and international factors, influence the
outcomes we report on. The cross-cutting nature of many social issues
means that the social report is not a tool for evaluating the
effectiveness of any one particular government policy.
|
