Kickstarting a national conversation

ANDI will be developed in close collaboration with the Australian community and driven by community views about national progress, wellbeing and sustainability. During the  development phase, and once established, ANDI will be a key platform to promote dialogue about wellbeing and progress — to define these terms and to capture their full meanings.

Broad involvement by the community in the establishment phase will build momentum and understanding of the tool prior to its launch. People will have the opportunity to highlight  what wellbeing means to them and the type of future directions that Australia should pursue to boost wellbeing. The wellbeing measures identified will be used to define and shape the ANDI index, which in turn will shape data collection across Australia.

Once launched, ANDI will be a flexible tool, able to be shaped by people’s preferences in combination with the available datasets.

ANDI will be a platform for regional forums to be held across Australia to establish measures of wellbeing at regional and sub-regional levels. These will be held with community groups,  not-for-profit organisations, business leaders, academics and other members of the community. Web forums will be established to promote the sharing of stories and reflections on wellbeing and to provide feedback about the index. These forums will include web pages to help those in service delivery fields to share their views and establish networks.

In 2011, the ABS Measures of Australia’s Progress is embarking on a consultation project to ask Australians about their perspectives on progress and wellbeing. With its extensive links  to community groups, ANDI will be an important contributor to this consultation.