CIRDAP Official Channel 85d ago

‘Gross National Happiness and its Operationalization in Bhutan, Her Excellency Dasho Karma Hamu Dorjee, Royal Bhutanese Embassy, March 16th. The 6th Webinar on ‘Gross National Happiness and its Operationalization in Bhutan’ was held on March 16th, 2026. Her Excellency Dasho Karma Hamu Dorjee, Ambassador of Bhutan, Royal Bhutanese Embassy in Dhaka, Bangladesh embraced as the esteemed speaker of the webinar. Gross National Happiness is a term coined by His Majesty the Fourth King of Bhutan, Jigme Singye Wangchuck in the 1970s. The concept implies that sustainable development should take a holistic approach towards notions of progress and give equal importance to non-economic aspects of wellbeing. The Gross National Happiness Index is a single number index developed from 33 indicators categorized under nine domains. The GNH Index is constructed based upon a robust multidimensional methodology known as the Alkire-Foster method. The concept of GNH has often been explained by its four pillars: good governance, sustainable socio-economic development, cultural preservation, and environmental conservation. Lately the four pillars have been further classified into nine domains to create widespread understanding of GNH and to reflect the holistic range of GNH values. The nine domains are: psychological wellbeing, health, education, time use, cultural diversity and resilience, good governance, community vitality, ecological diversity and resilience, and living standards. The domains represent each of the components of wellbeing of the Bhutanese people, and the term wellbeing here refers to fulfilling conditions of a “good life” as per the values and principles laid down by the concept of Gross National Happiness.