“Transformation is our watchword. At this moment in time, we are called to lead and act with courage. We are called to embrace change. Change in our societies. Change in the management of our economies. Change in our relationship with our one and only planet” Ban Ki Moon
To us, and many others, the most important transformation that we will need to fulfill the sustainable development goals, is the transformation of the economy. Paul A. Samuelson, Nobel laureate and one of the most influential economists of the 21st century once said: 'I don't care who writes a nation's laws, or crafts its advanced treatises, if I can write its economics textbooks'. The current economic paradigm, and most of us are unaware of this, govern everything we do, and inform the creation of the practices, norms, laws, rules, business and market structures, and technologies that brought us the era of unsustainable development in the first place. This paradigm allows our leaders to claim progress even when our life support system, the patterns of the clouds, the oceans, the forests and our soil, are destroyed, and even when social injustices and inequality rise.
The For Progress Namibia Project has been working on various aspects that bring us toward a wellbeing economy, and have joined forces with other scholars and practitioners in this field across Africa. As part of this work and developing alternative indicators to measure progress towards this, the project spent time speaking with citizens of Namibia to ask them what are the important things that form a good life. What does progress mean. The project aims to build a common narrative on what is deemed important in a developed, resilient and regenerative Namibia. We are proud to officially launch our short video on this work 'Namibians make meaning of a good life and progress'. We ask that you share it widely and get involved!
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