About

We measure what a country can do

NCB is a prototype benchmark from Envisioning. It scores 52 countries on nine dimensions using public data. Each score has a separate confidence value, and there is no overall ranking.

Wealth does not tell the whole story

Most indices track income or governance. This tests whether a country’s ability to act under uncertainty can be measured separately.

Countries can be wealthy without being equally able to anticipate change, coordinate, learn, experiment, adapt, build or sustain shared purpose. This benchmark tests whether those capabilities can be observed separately.

If the claim holds, countries at the same income level have different capability shapes, and a dimension can improve without the country first getting richer. If it fails, the dimensions will track GDP per head. The diagnostics will show which result the data support.

The full argument is in docs/WHY.md, including what would disprove it.

The benchmark uses nine dimensions

Each dimension asks its own question. Together they make up the profile. There is no composite score.

Of 69 indicators, 35 have published values and 26 are gaps. Gaps stay in the registry, lower confidence, and define the data-collection agenda. Raw values include their source and year.

Brazil is the first case

The same frame covers every country. Fitting one country is not enough.

The benchmark grew out of Envisioning's work on national capability. Brazil is the first field case, with other Latin American countries on the same scale and under the same rules.

Brazil has no special treatment in the code. Adding a country rebases the frame and requires a major version bump. A Portuguese version opens on Brazil's shape and agenda.

The method and limits are open

Confidence stays separate from the score, and known failures sit beside the numbers they affect.

The method explains how a statistic becomes a score and a trend.
The limits records where the benchmark is known to mislead.
The decision log records each methodological choice and what would overturn it.
The challenge page is where objections, gap fills and evidence records go.

Code, data and docs live in the open-source repository on GitHub. Check any number against its source.

Envisioning built NCB

Envisioning researches how societies anticipate and act on change. This benchmark is one tool.

Envisioning is a technology research institute and advisory. NCB helps read a country's capability shape, test interventions, and see what public data can measure.

It is a research prototype. It does not rank countries or give policy advice. Delphi estimates are model output. Envisioning seeks institutional partners to improve the method, fill gaps with comparable data, and connect diagnosis to intervention.

Start with the countries page

Countries opens profiles with a radar chart and sortable table.
Capabilities compares one dimension across the full set.
Agendas turn scores into a raise, measure and hold list for each country.
The glossary defines the project's terms.

Check confidence before quoting a score. Thin dimensions rely on one or two indicators.