Economic Value of Whānau Ora

Whānau Ora is a central government policy. It is a culturally-based, and whānau-centred approach to wellbeing focused on whānau (family group) as a whole, as the decision-makers who determine their goals and aspirations. Te Pūtahitanga o Te Waipounamu was the funding agency for Whānau Ora in the South Island.

In 2025, Te Pūtahitanga commissioned Ihi Research to evaluate the 83 entities it had funded in Wave 16 of the programme. Ihi Research asked Paul and Caroline to contribute an economic analysis of the wellbeing benefits.

The analysis was based on a survey of participants in Wave 16. Of the 83 initiatives, 48 completed the survey, a response rate of 57.8 percent. The survey included a question on subjective wellbeing to match a question asked in the General Social Survey. 

Respondents reported an increase in current life satisfaction of 0.9 compared to Māori respondents in the 2021 General Social Survey and an increase of 0.6 compared to the GSS survey in 2018. Using the latter figure to be conservative, we calculated the economic value of this increase depending on different assumptions about how many people the respondents represented. The results are shown in the table.

The full evaluation report of the Wave 16 initiatives funded by Te Pūtahitanga prepared by Ihi Research can be read here [external link].