Global Dialogue for Happiness gets underway ahead of WGS

Dubai / Emirates Business

The Global Dialogue for Happiness got underway on Saturday with Her Excellency Ohood bint Khalfan Al Roumi, the UAE Minister of State for Happiness, and Helen Clark, Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme, both reaffirming the importance of happiness in government to global and individual development and progress. Launching the World Government Summit 2017, the day-long Global Dialogue for Happiness was dedicated to the advancement of human happiness around the world.
The World Government Summit 2017 will run from February 12 to 14 in Dubai. The inaugural session was headlined by the UNDP Administrator and themed ‘Where is Happiness on the Global Agenda?’
Opening the session, Her Excellency Ohood Al Roumi said: “The role of the World Government Summit is to answer the key questions facing society by bringing together scientists, officials from public and private sectors to exchange views and seize the opportunities to come up with effective solutions for these challenges. The Global Dialogue for Happiness is one of the most important events on the agenda. More than 300 experts have converged to exchange views and spark a conversation on trends and happiness for people of the world.”
Talking of the need to explore new solutions and approaches to human happiness, Her Excellency pointed out the Dialogue was a truly global event: “These innovations can be adopted for socio-economic development in countries that are urgently in need of such development. With so many evolving trends in technological development, from AI to autonomous vehicles, the real question that should be asked is: ‘How will this contribute to a happier life?’”
Her Excellency Ohood Al Roumi also spoke about the 20% of the world’s population affected by conflict crises. She said: “We in the UAE believe the main duty of government is to ensure happiness. His Highness Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, believes that governments should create the atmosphere to allow everyone to achieve their ambitions.”
Helen Clark, the former Prime Minister of New Zealand and Administrator of United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), highlighted the importance of happiness and well-being for the UNDP with regard to measuring development.
She said: “The UNDP welcomes this interest in happiness as a way of broadening the conversation about human progress. Quoting the English saying ‘Man does not live on bread alone’, she said that “While economic progress and income generation are important, they certainly did not encompass the whole aspect of growth.”
GDP alone, Clark pointed out, is not enough.“It is important to broaden the conversation beyond the tyranny of the GDP indicator. There is much more in life than the interest in how much money is generated per capita.”
Both speakers highlighted the importance of balancing advancements in technological development with well-being, happiness and human progress. They also examined the important issues of mental health, and how the modern world was only now waking up to the seriousness of this issue. Former New Zealand Prime Minister Clark is the first woman to lead the United Nations Development Programme.
The World Government Summit (WGS) 2017 has drawn the participation of more than 4,000 personalities from 139 countries around the world, reflecting the leading stature of the summit on regional and international levels and the high interest from governments, global organizations, private and public sector entities, decision makers, entrepreneurs, academics and university students as well as scientists and innovators. WGS 2017 features 150 speakers across 114 sessions that highlight the world’s most pressing challenges and showcase best practices and cutting-edge
solutions to deal with them.