OECD - Measuring and Assessing Well-being in Israel

Since 2011 the OECD has played a major role in carrying forward work on the measurement of well-being and on how well-being measures can beused to inform better policy-making. Under the aegis of the Better Life Initiative, reports such as Hows Life? have pioneered the analysis of how outcomes on thedifferent elements of well-being vary across countries, while other reports such as the OECD Guidelines on Measuring Subjective Well-being have proved instrumentalin extending the range of well-being indicators available from official sources. The Better Life Index illustrates how good data visualisation can be effective in engaging the wider public in thinkingabout what constitutes a better society, and has also generated useful information on how people in different countries value the different dimensions of well-being.

In all of theOECDs efforts to advance the measurement of well-being, the active engagement of OECD member countries has been crucial. In refining the choice of measures for HowsLife? or in testing different approaches to collect data, member countries have been at the core of the OECD work on well-being. This report on Measuring andAssessing Well-being in Israel represents another step in working with member countries to incorporate the analysis of well-being into the OECDs analysis, and in supporting membercountries to develop policies that will improve the wellbeing of their citizens.

Although short sections on well-being are now regularly included in the OECDs economic surveys,and a well-being perspective has been fully integrated into the Multi-Dimensional Country Reviews led by the OECD Development Centre, Measuring and Assessing Well-being inIsrael is the first OECD country monograph specifically focused on well-being. The OECD hopes that this monograph will support, and contribute to, Israels national programme to developindicators of well-being, resilience, and sustainability, launched in 2012, by providing an international comparative picture, and by sharing its experience in the policy applications of well-beingdata.

Beyond complementing Israels own national efforts to measure well-being , Measuring and Assessing Well-being in Israel is also intended tobe of interest to a broader international audience. As a small, rapidly changing country, the picture of well-being that emerges in Israel is of potential interest well beyond Israel itself. Inparticular, the greater depth of analysis possible in a country monograph means that Measuring and Assessing Well-being in Israel is able to go further than manyother OECD reports in looking at key specific issues such as the sustainability of well-being.

Israel has taken a bold step forward in engaging with the OECD to produce Measuring and Assessing Well-being in Israel to support and complement its national project to measure well-being, resilience, and sustainability. Achieving better policiesfor better lives requires that well-being be mainstreamed within the broader policy process, therefore it is hoped that Israels initiative will set a best practice that will be followed by many otherOECD countries.