Toward a Social Development Index For Hong Kong: The Process of Community Engagement

Abstract

Stakeholder involvement is an essential component in the development ofeffective measures of national and local development. The significance ofthis aspect of social indicator model-building in the construction ofnational/local assessment tools is illustrated through the creation ofa Social Development Index (SDI-2000) for Hong Kong SAR (SpecialAdministrative Unit of the People's Republic of China). In all, theprocess leading to the SDI-2000 required two years to complete and theinvolvement of more than 100 political, administrative, academic andcommunity leaders representing all aspects of collective social lifein the SAR. Consisting of 47 indicators distributed across 14 sectorsof social development, the SDI-2000 revealed patterns of developmentthat both affirmed the validity of certain aspects of Hong Kong's currentdevelopment priorities – mostly those associated with its economic,educational and scientific priorities – and, via another set of relatedindicators, identified areas of considerable social instability forwhich new development initiatives are needed – especially in reducinggrowing social inequalities within and between population groups thatlargely have been left out of the SAR's recent economic prosperity –i.e., low-income households, children and youth, and the elderly.The article also identifies ways in which future versions of the SDIcan be strengthened – including through the addition of subindexes thatmeasure the SAR's changes over time in relation to Rule of Law,Subjective Quality of Life, and the impact of the Social Servicein reducing social inequality. The SDI-2000's current EnvironmentalQuality Subindex also needs to be revised.