Global Justice Day Seminar 2019

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How should we measure progress? It can often seem that economic growth is the focus of measurements of societal progress, but the economy is only one aspect of a well-functioning and sustainable society.

At Social Justice Ireland, we are interested in measuring real progress, taking into account the social and environmental factors, as well as the economic ones, that influence our well-being as a society.

Each year Social Justice Ireland marks United Nations World Day of Social Justice with a seminar looking at Ireland's progress in meeting our responsibilities under the Global Goals for Sustainable Development (SDGs). In February 2019, we used this seminar to launch our Sustainable Progress Index for 2019. This Index is based around the SDGs. It measures Ireland's performance on social, economic and environmental indicators, and compares Ireland with our peer countries in the EU-15. The Index was launched by its authors, Professor Charles Clark of St John's University in New York and Catherine Kavanagh of University College Cork. You can watch the video of this section of the seminar below.

Following the launch by Professor Clark and Dr Kavanagh, Jennifer Thompson, Coordinator Coalition 2030, responded to the Index, and this was followed by an open floor discussion. You can watch the video of this section of the seminar below.