Wellbeing Economy Alliance (WEAll) and Earth Charter International have a lot in common. Most importantly, both initiatives have similar missions: to contribute to achieving sustainability. Just as the Earth Charter movement is working in the transition for a more sustainable world, WEAll is well-aware that our home – the Earth – is in crisis, resulting from humanity’s unsustainable lifestyle which focuses heavily on economic growth. In this context, WEAll started out its unique business with the aim of creating “Collective Wellbeing,” and “The economy that serves people and communities first and foremost.”
Born out of various local and global movements, WEAll has been fostering the global collaboration of alliances to transform the current unsustainable economic system into one that delivers human and ecological wellbeing. It now has more than a hundred organizational members and over fifty renowned academics in its network. Its work boils down to the following five areas:
- Place-based hubs: To bring key actors of all sectors together to influence and inspire changes in policy, values and norms. The hubs will expand to many different regions to support local level changes.
- Clusters: To establish clusters which develop strategies and activities for change. WEAll catalyzed governments to work on a wellbeing economy agenda as well as business to implement the alternative model to business as usual.
- WEAll Citizens: To urge changes in societal norms and attitudes through the Youth Movement.
- Narratives: To disseminate stories that have an invisible power to shape people’s expectations. WEAll shares new common narratives of the feasibility and desirability of a wellbeing economy.
- Knowledge: To build an interactive bank of knowledge and practice guides for a new wellbeing economy.
By connecting and amplifying the work of different groups and organizations, sharing stories and knowledge of individuals who are striving to build a wellbeing economy, WEAll endeavors to create a new power base to exert pressure for change at all levels. Very much in line with the Earth Charter movement “Turning conscience into action,” what WEAll has been focusing on is also about taking actions by promoting movements to adopt the healthy economic system which can replace the current one that is no longer desirable for the future. Besides, in the sense that the ethical goals are embedded in the core of all its movements, it would be fair to say that WEAll shares the same roots with Earth Charter when looking into details.
Under the new partnership with WEAll, ECI expects that the ethical principles articulated in the Earth Charter can motivate and guide WEAll’s activities. The work of WEAll is becoming very influential in putting in tangible ways what the principles under Pillar 3 “Social and Economic Justice” mean. Earth Charter International is looking forward to working in synergy with WEAll.
