A Study of Sustainable Social Progress in the Kingdom of Tonga

This chapter describes a preliminary study of sustainable social progress in the Kingdom of Tonga conducted following the 2009 report and recommendations of the Commission on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress (CMEPSP). Tonga appears to be making reasonable social progress according to GDP, the Human Development Index and Millennium Development Goals metrics. However, closer examination shows that hardship, inequality and other social problems are actually increasing in Tonga. Tonga’s progress to date has also been socially and ecologically unsustainable in many ways. Future challenges to sustainable social progress will require social change to address these socio-ecological sustainability challenges. Examining different perspectives on eight key dimensions of wellbeing indicates that social progress has been uneven across different dimensions of Tongan’s wellbeing. From these different perspectives an estimation is made of a plausible ‘shared view’ of Tongan priorities for social progress. The findings of this study indicate the importance of broadening a society’s concept of ‘development’ into one of sustainable social progress. Such a transition needs to be far more comprehensively integrated into Tongan national development priorities and initiatives. However, this pilot study would need to be repeated on a much larger scale to produce sufficiently robust findings to guide policy making for sustainable social progress in Tonga. The general approach taken in this study is transferable to other social contexts to build a wider understanding of how sustainable social progress can be approached and ideally achieved around the world.