Signposts for Australian Agriculture – Review of social components of the framework

Product Information

Signposts for Australian Agriculture is a project coordinated by the National Land and Water Resources Audit, with initial funding from the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry. Recognising the importance of this initiative, the Bureau of Rural Sciences has allocated its own funding to support Signposts. The 2005-06 funding includes provision to carry out a review of the social components of the Signposts for Australian Agriculture Framework. This review follows on from a review carried out by ABARE focussing on the human components of the framework, which at that time included both economic and social components.

This report reviews the social components of the framework, and includes discussion and recommendations on:

• the goals of the social components of the framework;
• social indicators – what they are, and current knowledge on designing appropriate indicators to measure concepts including quality of life, human well-being and social capital. This underpins subsequent review of the social components of the framework;
• the overall structure of social components of the framework;
• the suitability of current social sub-components of the framework and suggested modifications; and
• for each original or modified social component, specification of objectives or desired outcomes, suggested indicators, and discussion of availability of data.