Meet Freddy Ehlers, Ecuador’s Minister of excellent residing (yes, it is a actual Job)

In the previous few years, there is been a shift in how economists and governments view development. as a substitute of measuring success merely as a topic of commercial increase, some have began to believe people’s actual lived experience—that’s, their high quality of existence and smartly-being. as an instance, there are now a number of initiatives to quantify folks’s happiness as a substitute for gross home product (see right here and right here, as an example).

There are well-recognized examples of nations embracing happiness economics, particularly Bhutan, which invented “gross nationwide happiness” as a metric in 1972. but, arguably, the shift has gone the furthest in Latin america, specifically in countries like Ecuador and Bolivia. each have programs to promote smartly-being among electorate and to include smartly-being metrics into executive choice-making.

In Ecuador, this wide push comes under the heading of buen vivir, a term that, in English, method simply “just right living,” however, to Ecuadoreans, has a much broader connotation. the concept that has its roots with indigenous peoples, who emphasize the happiness of the collective, not simply the individual, and who take into account man and his atmosphere no longer as separate issues, but part of the identical being. In 2008, Ecuador became the primary u . s . a . on the earth to provide the atmosphere constitutional rights, meaning attorneys can now argue for an ecosystem’s rights the identical manner they would possibly somebody’s human rights.

at the same time, buen vivir can also be something extra political, a philosophy in line with the “twenty first century socialism” espoused through several Latin American governments. it is a few seek for alternatives to American-fashion capitalism and justice for the poor. Buen vivir professional Eduardo Gudynas defines it as “building excited by the great lifestyles in a huge experience.”

In Ecuador, the person accountable for buen vivir is a former television journalist named Freddy Ehlers. Sixty-nine-years-outdated, Ehlers heads his personal happiness ministry, a department of 30-atypical individuals, and enjoys direct get entry to to President Rafael Correa. “He asked me to coordinate with the entire executive to see if our actions are in reality to offer the possibility for happiness to flourish,” he says. “We’re working with the entire institutions to advertise the idea of buen vivir through which people have to alter the best way we live, and the way in which we act. we’re proposing to redefine the world.”

In follow, exactly what that means isn’t completely clear. but Ehlers, who most often wears a Panama hat in public, does have some concepts, and he indubitably makes an enthusiastic spokesperson. One initiative from his place of work, for example, will see all faculties dedicate time to classes in “values and virtues”—honesty, humility, generosity, cohesion—alongside the standard curriculum. “These are issues the arena has misplaced, and we consider it is the trade of the government to lend a hand promote this in faculties, trade, among the civil servants and within the media,” he says.

every other initiative involves “visitors-lighting” foods for sugar, salt, and fats, so persons are extra privy to the chance of what they may be consuming. And, the ministry’s “national Plan for just right living” has targets covering the whole thing from power (fossil fuels are out, renewables are in) to collaborative consumption and the sharing financial system.

Ehlers can also be all in favour of introducing lifecycle economics to the Ecuador’s executive, so it starts offevolved to account for the environmental costs of its movements. it can be begun working with the world Footprint network, a California consultancy, to determine the overall environmental footprint of the Ecuador’s economy and to begin to peer how that economic system can reside inside its environmental limits. GFN analyses exhibit most nations reside well beyond what their ecosystem will allow. for example, Switzerland at the moment needs 4 Switzerlands to maintain itself, GFN says.

“understanding the footprint will provide us a greater judgment of right and wrong,” he says. “we would like [GFN] to come back to Ecuador to give us just right information about this, because, in other countries, they wouldn’t have accurate records and that makes it troublesome to follow this new direction.”

at the comparable time, Ehlers wants to internationalize Ecuador’s manner, so other international locations apply its direction. “We consider the arena cannot keep growing find it irresistible is, as a result of we best have one planet. which is why buen vivir is essential to speak about,” he says.