Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is an important indicator of the health of the cash economy, though it was not developed and should not be interpreted as a reflection of human wellbeing.  The Melanesian Wellbeing Indicators initiative of the Vanuatu Government moves beyond GDP to consider a more holistic and culturally appropriate approach to measuring social welfare. 

Indicators reflect social values and influence development decisions.  It is therefore important to produce indicators that reflect access to and use of indigenous lands, traditional knowledge and practice, and community vitality in officials statistics for better context in decision-making.  The Vanuatu Bureau of Statistics has collected and reported information on wellbeing since 2010.  These metrics are now taken together with standard income, service access, health, and education variables commonly used to reflect social welfare. 

Several indicators developed from the Melanesian Wellbeing Indicators project are considered key indicators for monitoring and evaluation of the National Sustainable Development Plan (NSDP).  This ensures continued collection and reporting of wellbeing information through at least 2030 in Vanuatu.

Support for this initiative comes through Nia Tero, an organization that supports indigenous peoples and local communities to defend and govern their territories, manage and protect their natural resources, and pursue their livelihoods.

The Vanuatu Bureau of Statistics has partnered with World Vision Vanuatu since 2022 in testing age and culturally appropriate methodologies for measuring child wellbeing. A national pilot study of child wellbeing will likely follow.

The Vanuatu Bureau of Statistics has partnered with the Vanuatu Indigenous Land Defense Desk based at the Vanuatu Cultural Centre since 2015 to promote the dissemination of wellbeing statistics in rural areas across the country.  The partnership has helped communicate information in ways that are more readily understood than analytical reporting, avoiding the issue of misinterpretation.

Visual tools, social media outreach, networking, and speaking engagements have helped raise awareness on the state of wellbeing in Vanuatu today.  The partnership has recently produced a podcast series, “Storian blong Gudfala Laef”, in another effort to inform people of the state of wellbeing.  The series combines real stories told by real people and joins them with wellbeing statistics so people are able to identify with the information more directly.  It is also an effort to engage a cultural strength—storytelling—for dissemination purposes.