Shouldn’t your country have a happiness minister?

The UAE’s minister for happiness opens the conference.

I am back from Dubai where I spent 3 days at the World Government Summit along with 4,000 other delegates.

One theme running through the entire event was how government policies can further the happiness of citizens. I was invited to participate as an expert in happiness at work.

And the event was REALLY fascinating. They had many of the biggest names in the field come and speak, including Ed Diener, Sir Richard Layard, Jeffrey Sachs and the prime minister of Bhutan where they have been focusing the country’s development on happiness for the last 15-20 years.

Here I am with Sir Richard Layard:

The closing speakers were the economist Joseph Stiglitz and Elon Musk.

I am hugely impressed with the scope of the event and also with the consistent focus on how governments can focus on the wellbeing of their citizens, rather than just on economic growth. I think this is a fascinating vision for the future of public policy making.

And the two are not the same. It is entirely possible to create economic growth in a way that does not make people any happier. Here is a graph showing how GDP per capita grew consistently over a 30-year period in the UK while life satisfaction stayed flat:

So shouldn’t your country have a happiness minister? I wish mine did!