Gross National Happiness Commission

The Gross National Happiness Commission (GNHC) is the central planning and policy coordination body of the Royal Government of Bhutan, tasked with translating the philosophy of Gross National Happiness into concrete government policy. Chaired by the Prime Minister, the Commission is responsible for formulating Bhutan's five-year development plans, screening proposed policies and projects through the GNH policy screening tool, coordinating international development assistance, and ensuring that all government activities align with GNH principles. It is the most powerful planning institution in the Bhutanese government and exercises influence over virtually every sector of public policy.^[1]

The Commission traces its origins to the Planning Commission established in 1971 by the Third King, Jigme Dorji Wangchuck, to guide Bhutan's first modern development plan. The body was renamed the Gross National Happiness Commission in 2008 during Bhutan's transition to constitutional monarchy, signalling the institutionalization of GNH as the framework for all national development planning.^[1]

Organizational Structure

The GNHC is chaired by the Prime Minister and includes secretaries (heads) of all major government ministries as members. The day-to-day operations are managed by the GNHC Secretariat, headed by a Secretary who holds the rank equivalent to a ministry secretary. The Secretariat employs professional planning officers organised into sector divisions covering areas such as macroeconomic planning, social sector planning, infrastructure, environment, and local development.^[1]

The Commission's mandate encompasses several key functions: formulation and monitoring of five-year plans; annual budgetary coordination across all government agencies; policy screening through the GNH lens; coordination of bilateral and multilateral development assistance; and oversight of decentralised planning at the dzongkhag (district) and gewog (block) levels.^[1]

Five-Year Plans

Bhutan's development has been guided by a series of five-year plans (FYPs) since 1961, when the first plan was launched with substantial Indian financial support. The GNHC (and its predecessor, the Planning Commission) has been the principal author of these plans since the early 1970s. The plans set national priorities, allocate resources across sectors, and establish targets and indicators for monitoring progress.^[1]

Key five-year plans in Bhutan's history include:

• First FYP (1961–1966): Focused on basic infrastructure — roads, schools, hospitals. Entirely funded by India.
• Fourth FYP (1976–1981): First plan developed under the Fourth King's reign, introducing the concept of self-reliance alongside Indian assistance.
• Ninth FYP (2002–2007): The first plan to explicitly operationalize GNH as the guiding framework, organising objectives around the four pillars of GNH: sustainable and equitable socio-economic development, environmental conservation, preservation and promotion of culture, and good governance.
• Tenth FYP (2008–2013): Developed under the newly renamed GNH Commission, this plan coincided with the transition to constitutional monarchy and the first democratic elections.
• Eleventh FYP (2013–2018): Emphasized "self-reliance and inclusive green socio-economic development" with 16 National Key Result Areas.
• Twelfth FYP (2018–2023): Focused on "Just, Harmonious and Sustainable Society through Enhanced Decentralisation."
• Thirteenth FYP (2024–2029): The current plan addresses challenges including youth unemployment, economic diversification, and digital transformation.

The GNH Policy Screening Tool

One of the GNHC's most distinctive functions is the GNH policy screening tool (PST), developed in 2008 in collaboration with the Centre for Bhutan Studies. The PST is a systematic methodology for evaluating proposed policies, projects, and programmes against 22 variables organised under the nine domains of the GNH Index. Any new policy proposal submitted to the government is required to pass through the screening process before approval.^[1][2]

The screening process works as follows: the proposing agency submits the policy to the GNHC Secretariat, which assembles a review panel of experts and stakeholders. The panel scores the proposal's likely impact on each of the 22 screening variables on a scale from highly negative to highly positive. A policy that scores negatively on key dimensions — for example, a mining project that would damage ecological diversity — can be sent back for revision or rejected outright. The tool has been credited with blocking or modifying several proposals that would have prioritised short-term economic gains over environmental or cultural considerations.^[2]

Role in Development Coordination

The GNHC serves as the principal coordinating body for international development assistance to Bhutan. All bilateral and multilateral aid programmes — including those from India, the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, the United Nations system, Japan, Denmark, Switzerland, and others — are channeled through or coordinated with the GNHC. The Commission negotiates framework agreements, monitors implementation, and ensures alignment with national priorities as set out in the five-year plan.^[1]

This centralizing function gives the GNHC considerable power over the direction of Bhutanese development. Proponents argue that this prevents duplication and ensures coherence; critics note that it concentrates planning authority in a small technocratic body and limits bottom-up input. The Commission has made efforts to decentralise planning through the Local Development Planning Manual, which guides gewog-level planning processes, but substantive decision-making authority remains centralised in Thimphu.^[1]

Criticisms and Challenges

The GNHC has faced criticism on several fronts. Some observers argue that the GNH framework, for all its rhetorical appeal, has not prevented significant social problems including rising youth unemployment, rural-urban migration, growing inequality, and persistent poverty in remote areas. The gap between GNH philosophy and on-the-ground reality has led some to characterise it as aspirational rhetoric rather than effective policy guidance.^[3]

More pointed criticism comes from human rights advocates who note the paradox of a happiness-centred planning framework in a country that forcibly expelled over 100,000 of its own citizens in the 1990s. The Lhotshampa expulsion was carried out during the period when GNH was the stated national development philosophy, raising fundamental questions about whose happiness the framework was designed to measure and promote. The GNHC's five-year plans from the late 1980s and 1990s coincided with the implementation of policies — including Driglam Namzha enforcement and the 1985 Citizenship Act — that directly led to the ethnic cleansing of southern Bhutan.^[4]

The policy screening tool, while innovative, has also been criticised for lacking transparency. The screening process is conducted by appointed panels rather than through public deliberation, and rejected proposals are not always made public. Some analysts have suggested that the tool functions more as a legitimation device for decisions already made than as a genuine check on harmful policies.^[3]

International Recognition

Despite these criticisms, the GNHC model has attracted considerable international interest. Delegations from numerous countries have visited Bhutan to study the Commission's planning methodology, and the GNH policy screening tool has been adapted for pilot use in several other contexts. The United Nations Development Programme has supported the GNHC's capacity building, and the Commission's approach has been cited as a model for integrating well-being metrics into national planning.^[1]

References

1. Gross National Happiness Commission, Royal Government of Bhutan. https://www.gnhc.gov.bt
2. Centre for Bhutan Studies and GNH Research. https://www.grossnationalhappiness.com
3. The Diplomat. "Bhutan's GNH: A Reality Check." January 2020.
4. The Diplomat. "Bhutan's Dark Secret: The Lhotshampa Expulsion." September 2016. https://thediplomat.com/2016/09/bhutans-dark-secret-the-lhotshampa-expulsion/