My name's Amanda Janoo, and I'm the economics and policy lead for the Wellbeing Economy Alliance for WEAll. And I'm thrilled to be able to talk to you today about how we can design policies and utilize policies to build a wellbeing economy, an economy that really works in the service of people and the planet.
One of my favorite examples towards a Wellbeing Economy is Wales. Because they not only developed seven wellbeing goals, but they really thought a lot about how does this translate into a different form of governance and way of working? So they have these five principles for how they want to work together. And one is taking a long-term perspective? So not just constantly thinking about the short-term crises, but really the long term goals. Focusing on prevention? So as we were saying earlier, how do we prevent the economic, or environmental, or social crises from starting in the first place? By getting the economy to do more of the heavy lifting in the first place. How do we support greater integration, breaking down silos, and supporting more collaboration. Not only across governments agencies, but with society at large. And fostering and supporting greater engagement by people.
And with these principles in mind, they realized that that needed to also translate into how they were measuring their wellbeing goals. So I love that they put a big emphasis here on effective communication. So they wanted to make sure that any indicator that was chosen could be immediately grasped the public. That they could intuitively understand why that indicator related to one of the goals or multiple goals that they have identified is important for their society.
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Amanda Janoo
Hi everyone. My name's Amanda Janoo, and I'm the economics and policy lead for the Wellbeing Economy Alliance for WEAll. And I'm thrilled to be able to talk to you today about how we can design policies and utilize policies to build a wellbeing economy, an economy that really works in the service of people and the planet.
So to start off with, we always need to start with the question, what actually is the economy, right? In order to understand what the wellbeing economy is, and the movement, and how we can build through policies, this question really stands center.
And when you Google the word economy, or at least when I did, the first image that came up is this one. So it's a fairly common I think association with the economy of stock market values, or GDP growth rates. Very jagged lines and numbers are tracking an area of our lives.
But the challenge with this, a view of the economy is it really presents the economy as something out there, abstract that happens beyond our control. When the reality is that we are the economy. Yeah? It is you and I, and everyone else. And that the economy is actually just a word that we use for the way that we produce and provide for one another. Yeah?
So with this understanding of the economy, we realize that something has gotten a little bit wrong, right? Because we produce and provide for one another in order to improve our quality of life. But ultimately somewhere along the way, we started to really focus on producing and consuming as if it were a goal in its own right, as opposed to a means by which to improve our collective wellbeing.
So I've always really liked this quote by Einstein because it encapsulates that approach really perfectly as a perfection of means and a confusion of ends really seems to characterize our age.
And no way that this is clearer than with the emphasis on GDP, right? So we developed the indicator GDP to really evaluate our level of production and consumption in a society, and to understand the monetary value of that production and consumption.
But somewhere in the '50s, we started to really utilize that indicator as a metric of our societal progress, to really focus on boosting it at any cost. And as a result, as you can see, we got really good at it. GDP has been growing almost exponentially since the '50s.
But the problem is that it's not translating into improvements, into our quality of life. And in many ways, leaving us worse off.
So first and foremost, of course, I think our planet, our home is being destroyed by an economic system that relentlessly takes from our planet and gives nothing back. We also were experiencing extreme levels of inequality that have only skyrocketed since the pandemic, with now just eight billionaires owning as much as half of the world.
When you add on top of this the growing anxiety, loneliness, and despair that's really sweeping the world, we have to start questioning what is it really for? What is all of this economic growth really for if so many in the world are actually just becoming more miserable?
So all of these realizations, when you add COVID on top can lead to a really frustrating realization that why are we and our policymakers continuing to just focus on the economy in the face of such huge existential threats to our society?
But the good news is that these realizations aren't lost on people, and people are really calling for a change. With over half of the globe now believing that capitalism is actually doing more harm than good. And really excitingly, 74% of people in G20 countries, are the supposed winners of this economic system, right? The high-income countries want their countries and national economic priorities to shift from an emphasis on wealth and profits to really focusing on promoting social and ecological wellbeing.
And this realization and this call for action is at the heart of the wellbeing economy movement. It is the recognition that people and planet are not here to serve the economy. The economy is here to serve us, right? So we need to stop treating people in planet like they're here to work in service of the economy, and start realizing that we have the power to transform this economic system so that it really promotes the social and ecological flourishing for all.
Now the wellbeing economy movement comes under a lot of different banners, whether you call that circular economy, or regenerative development, community wealth building, business for the common good, so many other initiatives. But what they all have of in common is a realization that we have the power to mold this economic system so that it works in line with our social values, objectives, and needs as a society. And that ultimately, we have the power to break out of this cycle of just focusing on growing the economy as fast as possible so that we can take some of that wealth through taxes in order to fix the damages that are done to people in planet in the process, and really get the economy to do more of the heavy lifting. Right? So meaning that we can really get the economy itself to be regenerative, right? To actually work to protect our ecosystems, to create zero waste, to revitalize our natural environment, to ensure a fair distribution of wealth and power throughout the system so that we don't need to rely on the state after the fact in order to always be that agent of redistribution or of protection, and to prevent these issues from the first place.
So with this realization, this is what the wellbeing economy vision is all about. It's about recognizing that we all need dignity, right? And we can build an economy that ensures that everyone has enough. They have the foundations to live in comfort, and safety, and happiness, and need not fear falling into poverty, right? Because there's security and stability in their needs. And the comforts that they desire.
Critically, it also recognizes our fundamental need for nature. That we are not separate and distinct from our natural environment, but rather an integral part. And therefore, we don't need to purely be a negative impact on the environment, but we can actually be a positive agent for the ecological flourishing of our planet as is illustrated for example by regenerative agriculture, right? And biodiversity protection, and regeneration, and movements towards net zero and even carbon capture through economic activities.
We also need to recognize in a wellbeing economy, our need for fairness, right? So building an economic system that has justice really at its heart, where we ensure that there's equitable distributions of time, of wealth, of income, and of the rights of all of the species on this planet. So that there is not this extreme inequality that we are seeing now in increasing concentrations of wealth and power into the hands of the few.
It also recognizes our fundamental need for connection. Because really ultimately, so much of the magic of our economic systems that it facilitates our interconnections all over the world. And that this interconnection between us is so vital for our wellbeing. It provides meaning and purpose. So at its heart, it's about focusing on redefining our notion of value so that we are evaluating our work for example and its value by its contribution to social and ecological wellbeing. As opposed to having the highest paid salaries at this moment being in the industries and sectors that are the most exploitive, we would have and really value the work of the caregivers, and the environmental stewards, the artists, the farmers, and those who really do provide the things that are necessary for social wellbeing and ecological revitalization.
And finally, last but not least. We all really need participation. So participation is important not only as an important method to build a wellbeing economy, but the act of participating and having a voice over our lives is critical to our wellbeing. So we want to ensure we build an economy that is molded and directed by the people, that is a reflection of their values, and of our objectives, and is really locally rooted in our communities.
So all of that I'm sure sounds great. Right? Yay. Let's build this utopia. So the question is of course, how do we actually get there? So this is why the Wellbeing Economy Alliance was started. There was a recognition that around the world, there were so many incredible thinkers, activists, businesses, and governments who were really trying to transform this economic system and recognize the need for deep systemic change. And that if we could bring them together, we could build the power base that is really needed to transform this system.
So our action plan is strategies to really be a connector, a convener. To support cooperation and collaboration across this incredible ecosystem of thinkers and activists, healers, and artists, and everyone who recognizes deep down that there's something wrong with our current economic system, who believes that they can be a part and an agent for building a better one.
And try to aim to support this movement, and this building and growing power base through developing accessible knowledge around what is a wellbeing economy and how do we get there, and building new hopeful narratives that move us from just critiquing our current economic system to really envisioning a new economic system that seems viable and really desirable.
So with this, WEAll is really ultimately made up of our members. We have citizens and members from all over the world who are bringing their various expertise and their areas, their passions, and their persuasions to this movement. We're building the Wellbeing Economy Governments for example, was established which is currently comprised of Finland, New Zealand, Wales, Scotland, and Iceland. And they now are an independent sort of group that works together to develop a wellbeing economy. They've all established alternative indicators to GDP that really focus on social and ecological wellbeing, and meet in order to support one another to figure out how do we develop strategies and policies that can really transform our system.
But we recognize that the change we're seeking is not just going to come from the top down, but really requires bottom up grassroots organizing and advocacy. So we also work on building place-based hubs, where people can come together from the public private and third sector to really work together to advocate for a wellbeing economy. And to develop the strategies and initiatives that really make sense for their specific context, and to really push their policymakers and society at large to transition towards a wellbeing economy.
So thinking about the challenges that our policymakers are facing, but also critically the rising grassroots and place-based initiatives, we wanted to figure out how can we support more transformative policy design? How can we really practically design policies for a wellbeing economy? And so this was what led us to develop a Wellbeing Economy Policy Design Guide.
This project was created and brought together, over 100 of our members from all over the world who supported in bringing together the resources, information, case studies, content, and ideas that make up this process. And ultimately, one of our members. I think articulated what we were aiming to achieve really beautifully when he said, "The flaws in mainstream economics and GDP are now well documented. But what's really needed is a practical guide on how do we build a wellbeing economy, and how do we organize this transition in a democratic, inclusive, and participatory way? Because such a guide would help us to institutionalize this process and give tools to policymakers that can present the wellbeing economy as a feasible alternative."
So with this quite ambitious goal in mind, we developed started off with thinking about what are the core principles that really need underpin a wellbeing economy design process. And the first one is the goal orientation, right? It's about switching and moving our understanding of societal progress from a focus just on wealth to wellbeing. How do we focus first and foremost on social and ecological wellbeing, and then think about how we can design the economy and mold and direct it so that it works in service of those goals?
It's really about recognizing the importance of a contextual approach. Because one of the major issues with mainstream economics is this one-size-fits-all idea that across space and time, all economies are fundamentally the same, that all people are fundamentally the same. And therefore ignores the incredible power of culture and history, politics, values, geography, and so much more that determines the ways that we produce and provide for one another. So recognizing that the journey to a wellbeing economy and the ultimate shape and form will look different in different places. And that that's important to allow space for.
It's really about taking a holistic view. So recognizing that the economy is not separate and distinct from our society, politics, culture, and the environment, but that all of these things are really interconnected. And how do we take a systems approach in which to examine and explore those interconnections?
And one of I think the most important ones when we think about policymaking is around the strength-based approach. So I've been working as an economic policy advisor and facilitator for over a decade. And in working with governments, the major thing is it almost always starts with a problem, right? So you start with a critical problem, and the government's there to come in and fix it. Right? But when you start with a goal and a position vision of what are we actually trying to achieve, and rather than saying, what are we lacking? Looking at what do we have already that is in line with that vision that is in support of that vision? And how do we build on that? How do we support and encourage those areas of our society and of our lives that are in alignment with that vision so that that can be a foundation for its achievement?
And last but not least is the point around participatory. Because this principle you'll see is really strong throughout our proposed process. Because one of the major issues of the shape and form of contemporary globalization has been people feeling they don't have a voice over their lives anymore, that they don't have the power to determine their economic destiny. So ensuring processes for people to be engaged in outlining what they really desire and building the strategies and policies that will get them there is really core to this process.
So with this in mind, what does this mean in practice? So we generally have broken up this process into five stages, which as with any written document makes it seem kind of sequential. But ultimately everybody, anybody who's worked in policy knows that it never works that way. It's always a process of iterative trial and error, and coming back, and reconnecting to these different processes.
So whilst this will seem kind of linear, please recognize that it's a very circular and integrated idea and process. But the first area we focused on was really around this idea of how do we develop a wellbeing vision? So if we're not going to keep evaluating our societal and national progress by our level of production and consumption, namely GDP growth rates, we need to become clear on what really matters for wellbeing, right? How do we develop this vision of what a flourishing society would look like?
So around the world, wellbeing visions come on a lot of different names. So there are indigenous conceptions like Ubuntu, that really recognize and look to a vision of a society that lives in harmony with one another, with the natural environment, and with ourselves. And in thinking about communicating this, they bring art and culture. Other governments also have been working on developing wellbeing frameworks, right? That can be either illustrated as an infograph, but identifying those areas of economic of life that are really most important to wellbeing.
So it starts really with understanding what matters for wellbeing in the first place. So I promise this is the only time I'll show you an actual page in the guide. But the point is that we recognize there are different ways to do this.
So we're not going to say these are the things that matter for wellbeing. But we'll show you and give you tools and resources on how do you organize community forums or focus groups, surveys, and citizen assemblies by which to bring people together to really identify those areas of life that are important to wellbeing. Because ultimately, this is not a question of just analytical rigor. This is also moving from our head to our heart. And recognizing, and thinking about those aspects of our own vision of success that need to be challenged so that it's not purely about material success, but really about the connection or education, the creativity, the health, the meaning, the respect, and the flourishing, right? That we want to achieve as a society.
So around the world, there have been a lot of different approaches to this. But in Germany for example, they organized a wide range of public consultation sessions all over the country. Brought people together to ask them what mattered for wellbeing. And you'll see here, right? They ended up with thousands of responses, but these were some of the most common. And there are some clear outcomes, right? They want access to healthcare. That feels really important, or our salaries, our sense of security. But there's also a lot around values of equity, and helpfulness, solidarity, and critically also processes around the need for political participation for civic engagement.
So all of these kind of ideas ultimately can form a new framework for a society around this is our wellbeing vision. These are our wellbeing goals. And then what's happening in a lot of countries and communities around the world is that then they're figuring out how to measure and create indicators by which to monitor progress around those areas.
And one of my favorite examples is one of the WEGo countries is Wales. Because they not only developed these seven wellbeing goals, but they really thought a lot about how does this translate into a different form of governance and way of working? So they have these five principles for how they want to work together. And one is taking a long-term perspective, right? So not just constantly thinking about the short-term crises, but really the long term goals. Focusing on prevention, right? So as we were saying earlier, how do we prevent the economic, or environmental, or social crises from starting in the first place? By getting the economy to do more of the heavy lifting in the first place. How do we support greater integration, breaking down silos, and supporting more collaboration. Not only across governments agencies, but with society at large. And fostering and supporting greater engagement by people.
And with these principles in mind, they realized that that needed to also translate into how they were measuring their wellbeing goals. So I love that they put a big emphasis here on effective communication. So they wanted to make sure that any indicator that was chosen could be immediately grasped the public. That they could intuitively understand why that indicator related to one of the goals or multiple goals that they have identified is important for their society.
Because oftentimes, so many have this faith in GDP, right? But how many people really understand exactly what that indicator means? So the more that we can utilize evidence and indicators that can be understood by the public, I think the more powerful those indicators can become as ownership and agent of change for people.
Then becomes the hard stuff. Right? So as Wales is trying to break down silos and really integrate more people, this is one of the challenges, but also the exciting aspects of building a wellbeing economy is around how do we align institutions and stakeholders? How do we get people on board?
And a good case study I think of this comes from Utah, where they recognized that their economy in the '90s was growing really fast. And it was causing a lot of, while still generating a lot of wealth was potentially going to have very negative impacts on their environment and their quality of life, if it wasn't managed in some way.
So they wanted to develop a new economic strategy. But they wanted people, a very participatory process. And initially, there was quite a bit of resistance to this. The idea of getting the general public engaged in developing an economic strategy, because some people held paternalistic views that were saying, "Well the economics is just for experts. And people don't know what they want or what they need," etc. Well, other challenges related to the fact that this was a statewide initiative, and different towns and municipalities felt that this would be an encroachment on their authority, right? And that the economic growth strategy should be within their arena.
So there are a couple strategies that they used that might be useful for anyone listening. And the first one was to really frame this as a long-term initiative. So to not try to do this within a six month or three month kind of timeline, but to allow for a longer process that could continue across any sort of political administration. So it wasn't bound to a particular party or authority.
They also really framed it as visioning as opposed to planning. And that was important because when it was thought of as an economic plan, that it felt like it needed to be very technical, kind of managerially driven. Whereas visioning felt more inclusive for a wide range of different actors.
And finally, they talked about it as a process, as opposed to a project. So something which would ultimately transcend, and continue on, and integrate within the whole style of government. And ultimately, it did take a long time to get everybody on board, to get all of the information that was needed to really understand the different social and ecological dimensions of economic activity, to organize planning sessions where citizens could come and put little dots where they would want a park, or where they would want a different kind of store, or public transportation mechanisms.
But in the end, it's now been 30 years. And the Envision Utah program is still going strong. And it's a core part of the government process, and indicating really the power of this participatory approach to bring people together and to support a different form of strategy design.
The next step, and this one is quite radical. So in working in economic policy, predominantly there tends to be this horizontal approach. Right? And I mean this in terms of how do we create an enabling environment for economic activities through free trade initiatives or business-friendly regulations? But if we're talking about intentionally changing the structure of an economy, you'll need to identify which of those activities are really working in service of ecological and social wellbeing so that you can proactively support them through different policy instruments.
And I think a really good example of how intuitive this process as can be was with COVID when it took almost no time for governments to identify the economic activities or sectors that they believed were really essential, right? Essential for maintaining the wellbeing of the society. And they weren't the hedge fund managers, right? And the CFOs and these things that are paid a ton of money, but really the farmers, and the teachers, and the grocery clerks, and those people who really provide the things that we need on a day-to-day basis.
So if we can identify that so quickly, right? I have faith that as a society, we can go through a process of discussing and identifying those areas of economic life that really do contribute to the wellbeing of our people and planet. And then developing strategies on how do we really foster and build those activities as the foundation for the future. Because one of the things that limits us all often in system change is this belief that any other economic system is going to be worse than this one.
But there was that interesting study that showed that out of all of the activities that people identify as the most enjoyable, they were all carbon neutral. They were free kind of activities, of ways in which we connect with one another and love one another. So there is going to be a correlation if we think about those areas of life we really like, and think about building that as a foundation for a different economic system. I think it can bring the hope and the excitement needed to transform the system.
But this is not to say, and this is quite important, that this is all going to be very easy, right? Because in order to grow certain activities, it'll often require others to decline. So this is where really considering how do we manage these trade offs and critically power dynamics as well. Because we have encouraged and rewarded really large investors and incorporations for a long time, because we viewed them as the most efficient at generating wealth.
But as we think about how can we efficiently generate wellbeing, different kinds of enterprises and activities will be important. So as we rebalance this power, there will be tensions. So we need to think about what are those tools and processes like the just transition, that are being utilized to mitigate the short-term challenges and painful consequences of sunsetting certain industries for example. That in the just transition like to coal or oil and gas, which are destroying our planet, right? And our very survival.
So with this, we then actually get to the policies themselves. So policy is really the way in which we influence collective behavior. And there are always a lot of different kind of policies that you can use and different approaches that can achieve the same means. So in different contexts, you will want different kinds of instruments. And ultimately, it's really about the collection of instruments and how they work together, to build and maintain different kinds of economic architecture.
But these are some examples, right? Of different kinds of instruments such as regulations. So where we actively ban certain kinds of economic activities or require certain kinds of ones. You can use incentives or disincentives, right? So providing subsidies or tax exemptions to encourage certain kinds of activities, or taxing the ones that we don't want, or putting tariffs or other kinds of disincentives to discourage them.
You also have information campaigns. So where we use information and training, communication, and ideals like by local, in order to encourage certain kinds of activities or behaviors. And then there's also when the government just steps in and becomes its own economic agent, right? So it directly produces or provides things that are needed for a society themselves.
And then this is something which is not often considered enough, but really important new growing spaces. Government can also just get out of the way altogether and allow for community and society to govern and make decisions and rules regarding how they want to produce and provide one another themselves through the commons. So there always a lot of different ways in which we can encourage and reward those economic activities. And considering them all is important so you can find the one that suits the best for your context.
So as we look towards assessing which of these approaches make sense and how is our current suite of policies influencing our economic system, there's a need to really move beyond not just GDP, right? But so many of the tools that we have that have old economic thinking embedded in them, like cost benefit analysis, right? Where we determine priorities purely on the basis of their revenue potential, or how much monetary cost they have.
And one place where I really love, again a WEGo country that's I think doing incredible work in this area is Iceland because they have focused a lot on gender equity and equity as a value that they really want to put at the heart of their decision-making.
And they recognize for example that a lot of their logic, even in with cost benefit analysis was influenced by gendered thinking where physical infrastructure like roads, and buildings, and whatnot were viewed as an investment. But social infrastructure like education, health, and other kinds of care was viewed as a cost.
And that came from the fact that men traditionally worked in the more physical infrastructure fields and women worked in the more social ones. So taking into consideration these kind of ideas and putting equity at the center of the decision-making, a value as opposed to a monetary cost or benefit. They have started to develop much more progressive gendered policies to really support the areas of life that are going to allow for all people regardless of sex or biological imperatives to flourish and to have equal opportunities.
So finally, one of the really exciting things we're seeing all of over the world right now is a Renaissance in democracy. So I was speaking with a woman from the OECD recently who works on participatory democratic processes and research on it. And she said, "We look after the past 50 years. And there have been of course, really exciting experimentations and more deliberative policy-making. But the last year or two," she said, "It's exploded. There's just been an exponential growth."
And this is really a desire and demand for people wanting to have a voice. And a great example of this is in Barcelona where after the financial crisis, people were really frustrated, right? Really frustrated with government, with processes of decision-making. So the government created this online platform where all citizens could propose policies that they thought were important for the city. And the government promised that if a certain amount, they could discuss them, vote on them. If they got a certain amount of support, that they would immediately be passed, no questions asked. And this has really revived civic participation and led to one of the first city climate policies that is actually in line with the Paris Agreement and has really social justice at its core.
So as we see this revitalization and wellbeing economy policymaking, it's about how do we build those processes so that people can have a say in building the types of policies that make sense for them in their context as opposed to just theoretical policies that people believe might work in an ivory tower somewhere.
So then we come to the process of implementation, and assessments, and really building localized processes for evaluating and continuously learning and experimenting. So taking and looking at once we build these indicators of social and ecological wellbeing, monitoring that over time to understand what kind of intersection there is between these dimensions, to understand how certain kinds of policies or initiatives impact that wellbeing. So we can continuously learn and develop along the way. And that's really I think what at the core, one of the biggest challenges and one of the most important principles and processes for this. Is for us all to embrace a spirit of experimentation. To realize we're trying to achieve something that hasn't been done before. So we want to realize that there's as much to learn from success as there is from failure. And to allow our policy makers to fail by acknowledging that we ourselves are policy makers as well, so that we can collectively really work together to build the policies that make sense for our economies and for our collective societies now and for generations to come.
So with this, this is sort of a summary of this vision, this guide that we've developed. Which really begins with the question, how can we develop and internalize new definitions of progress? And moves to how do we expand our understanding of what the economy is and can be? And to then develop policies to transform our system in line with that vision, and to foster really participatory context, appropriate bottom up policymaking. And how can we continuously learn and adapt on our journey towards a wellbeing economy, right?
So these are the questions that guided this process. And now, we are at a wonderful point where we have these exciting next steps where we're actually working with local governments in Scotland, New Zealand, Canada, California, and more to really test these processes, to see what this looks like in action, to bring people together to be a part of economic strategy making, and to think about what are those concrete policy changes needed for a wellbeing economy. We're building this wellbeing economy policymakers network, so that no matter what level of government or what country you're from, you can meet and connect with other passionate policy makers who are committed to learning, and growing together, and building a wellbeing economy. We're increasingly seeing our membership around the world growing and building more place-based hubs so that they can work together to advocate for these changes in their specific location. And all the while also, we're going to be focusing this year on thinking about what are the necessary changes and policy transformations also needed at the global level, so that we can build an economic architecture and support governance reforms that are needed to make space for self-determination, right? And for wellbeing economy policymaking at a local level and at the national level.
So I really hope that if you're interested or inspired by this, that you will join us. Get involved, become WEAll member if you want to as an organization or an individual. Join our policymakers network if you're a policymaker, or if you're a government agency and want to learn about doing this in your place, reach out to me, let me know. And please follow us on any of our different channels and see what our incredible membership is up to. So with that, I'll say thank you so much.