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

Abstract

Stakeholder involvement is an essential component in the development of effective measures of national and local development. The significance of this aspect of social indicator model-building in the construction of national/local assessment tools is illustrated through the creation of a Social Development Index (SDI-2000) for Hong Kong SAR (Special Administrative Unit of the People’s Republic of Republic). In all, the process leading to the SDI-2000 required two years to complete and the involvement of more than 100 political, administrative, academic and community leaders representing all aspects of collective social life in the SAR. Consisting of 47 indicators distributed across 14 sectors of social development, the SDI-2000 revealed patterns of development that both affirmed the validity of certain aspects of Hong Kong’s current development priorities—mostly those associated with its economic, educational and scientific priorities—and, via another set of related indicators, identified areas of considerable social instability for which new development initiatives are needed—especially in reducing growing social inequalities within and between population groups that largely 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 SDI can be strengthened—including through the addition of subindexes that measure the SAR’s changes over time in relation to Rule of Law, Subjective Quality of Life, and the impact of the Social Service in reducing social inequality. The SDI-2000’s current Environmental Quality Subindex also needs to be revised.

The research summarized in this paper would not have been possible without the contributions of my colleagues at the Hong Kong Council of Social Service: Chua Hoi Wai, John Y.C. Fung and Anthony K.W. Wong. Each is thanked for their enthusiasm for and the countless number of hours invested in the effort. Dr. Frans Lammertyn, Vice Rector for Educational Policy of the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, also is acknowledged for providing me with the opportunity to complete work on this paper while serving as a Visiting Scholar with that university’s Faculty of Social Science.