Vision 2050: goals for better lives

If things go according to plan, in the next 25 years, people in Malta will have a median disposable income that is 135% the EU average – pulling ourselves out of its current ‘below average’ status to be where countries like Luxembourg, Austria and Germany now stand.

Malta will also be among the top 10 countries in the world on the Human Development Index (HDI), whereas we currently rank 24th. The top 10 positions are currently occupied by a handful of Nordic countries and others like Switzerland, China, Germany, Australia, Netherlands and Belgium.

Malta is also committed to be among the top five EU countries in terms of overall life satisfaction, rising several places up from its current ranking of 15th to take positions thus far held mainly (though not exclusively) by the Nordic countries of the EU.

These are ambitious goals, particularly in a context where the other countries against which we are competing will also be making advances to rise in the rankings. These benchmarks will eventually be translated to targets at the national level and those targets, in turn, to strategies for implementation. But by examining the goals in more detail, we can already now start to envisage the change that we will need to undertake. 

The median income goal will demand an improvement in disposable income. Stimulating income improvements, reducing taxes, increasing income benefits as well as reducing inequality can support this outcome.

In the context of years of buoyant GDP growth, this will not be an easy goal to maintain in the future. Given income inequalities, it is best achiev­ed by increasing income of the low earners rather than raising high incomes further.  

Per capita income (GNI to be exact) also forms part of the HDI, so doing well on the median income objective will also improve our HDI performance. The HDI score is also derived by looking at education (school years) and health (life expectancy). Thus, to meet the HDI target, Malta will need to find ways to increase the number of years people remain in education – an area where we fare lower than our counterparts.

Malta will also need to maintain or improve its performance on longevity, where we are already among the highest in the world. Health and education will therefore constitute two areas of attention for the next 25 years. 

For the life satisfaction goal, things are a little more complex. Here we need to focus on improving life satisfaction among those whose satisfaction is low (like, poor health) and to ensure that those who experience a decent or high life satisfaction do not slip down the scale. 

Life satisfaction is measured by a question that asks some 10,000 respondents in Malta annually (and in other countries around the world) how satisfied they feel with their lives. It is a simple enough question but one that evokes thinking about income, health, social life, recreation, housing, environment, governance and family, among other considerations. This then means the vision demands attention to all these domains that matter to the metric. 

One way to ensure that the life satisfaction goal is reached is to introduce a well-being impact assessment (in use in other countries like Canada and the UK) that evaluate policies and interventions (including the annual budget) for their impact on life satisfaction. Such measures will at least ensure that we do not harm life satisfaction. But it is also possible to imagine interventions that will actively improve well-being. 

For instance, given that people with poor health in Malta score by far the lowest on life satisfaction, improving public sector health services (including waiting times and areas), promoting and nudging preventive practices (for example, physical activity, nutrition) and enhancing mental health and well-being awareness and services would likely improve average life satisfaction in Malta. 

Time use satisfaction is relatively low in Malta compared to satisfactions in other domains, so initiatives that include extending flexible working arrangements, reducing commute time – including through work-from-home and work hubs – promoting lifelong learning though training during work hours and evaluating shorter work weeks and living wages are the kind of interventions that could enhance performance.  

Well-being also responds to social and cultural experiences. Based on evi­dence in other countries, promoting volunteering and altruism, increasing access to arts and culture participation for vulnerable/poor, tackling loneliness among the elderly and boosting integration of migrants (say, Maltese language learning) could help. Exposure to environmental experiences in green and blue spaces and voluntary environmental behaviour itself boost well-being.

Initiatives can include reducing noise (particularly from construction and recreational areas), promoting time in nature and environmental behaviours like tree-planting. Interventions that address poverty directly will improve all three high-level goals, including LS, HDI and median income.

International institutions, including the United Nations, the European Union and the OECD, have actively prompted the agenda to measure well-being and to promote policy that advances it. The Malta Foundation for the Well-being of Society and the University of Malta, through the Well-being INDEX project, has advanced work on well-being measurement, trends, modelling and policy in Malta over the course of the past five years. Malta is now equipped with data on life satisfaction among every demographic segment, in different domains and over time.  

In the context of this, it is very positive that the Vision for Malta 2050 recognises that progress cannot be measured solely by Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and includes reference to well-being as one of its three high-level goals. This aspiration, together with the tools to achieve it, will help us lead better lives in Malta. 

Marie Briguglio is the principal investigator of the Well-being INDEX project, a collaboration of the Malta Foundation for the Well-being of Society and the University of Malta.