How would you measure development progress?

How should we measure the progress of development? What factors would you want measured if it was your life being analysed? Would you join the powerful lobby of macro-economic cheerleaders and focus on GDP? Would you follow Bhutan's lead and track gross national happiness, focusing on spiritual wellbeing? Or would you put a premium on economic equality and inspect the Gini scores? The multiplying toolbox of development statisticians reveals an increasingly wide range of indicators. Last year, the UN Human Development Report took on a new tool: the multidimensional poverty index (MPI). It looks at 10 variables, including access to good cooking fuel, schooling, electricity, nutrition and sanitation. The MPI "is like a high-resolution lens which reveals a vivid spectrum of challenges facing the poorest households", explained Sabina Alkire, director of the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative and a developer of the index. "Before, you might know a person was poor but did not know if their children went to school, if they had a floor or if they cooked on wood." And on Tuesday, as part of its 50th anniversary celebrations, the OECD releases its interactive Your Better Life Index, where you can see how your country performs on the topics you feel make for a good quality of life. It compares countries on 11 combinations: housing, income, jobs, community, education, environment, governance, health, life satisfaction, safety and work-life balance. The tool, set up for the 34 OECD states, aims to hand over decisions of what makes a better life to those who live it: "The OECD is NOT deciding what makes for better lives. YOU decide for yourself." As one might expect, the politics associated with defining and measuring progress becomes sharper when focusing on specific countries. Rwanda, for example, is on track to meet at least six of the eight millennium development goals (MDGs); it is often lauded for its progress on key health indicators. In this video part of the Overseas Development Institute's development progress series, Rwanda's health minister highlights the country's rising life expectancy and decreasing malaria deaths. But some critics say the price of such progress in Rwanda is shrinking space for key political freedoms. On Sunday, Al-Jazeera took a look at the Indian government's announcement that it would be re-defining its official classification of poverty and what it means to be poor, just one day after a World Bank report said India's anti-poverty programmes were failing because of corruption. In the UK, David Cameron said he wants to put measures ofhappiness at the heart of policy, a proposal with no shortage of critics. Madeleine Bunting, for example, called that zombie politics, shifting focus from issues where politicians can have considerable impact such as inequality. Meanwhile, Jonathan Glennie considered whether Latin America holds the key to happiness and why there's more to development than ending absolute poverty. What do you make of these different tools? What value could the OECD's Your Better Life Index have in a development context? And if you were truly in the driver's seat, how would you define and measure progress? Tell us what you think.