An Ecosystem of Thriving

Many organizations and governments have followed the path of the capabilities and SDOH paradigms and have moved away from conceiving of thriving in narrow economic terms. For instance, there is the Wellbeing Economy Alliance (WEALL), consisting of Finland, Canada, New Zealand, Scotland, Wales and Iceland. According to the Alliance, a “Wellbeing Economy is an economy designed to serve people and the planet, not the other way around.” This requires a fundamental shift from economic growth to shared wellbeing—to an economy “designed to ensure everyone has enough to live in comfort, safety, and happiness,” while simultaneously using “their creative energies to support the flourishing of all life on this planet” (Wellbeing Economy Alliance). Then, there is the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). It created the OECD Well-being Framework, which attends to three distinct components: current well-being, inequalities in well-being, and resources for well-being. The OECD Centre on Well-being, Inclusion, Sustainability and Equal Opportunity (WISE) aims, as its name suggests, to ensure that delivering better lives for “all” is the highest priority as the world recovers from the pandemic (WISE). As a final example, the U.S. Federal Plan for Equitable Long-Term Recovery and Resilience (ELTRR) is a “whole-of-government plan” that links and catalyzes collaboration among dozens of agencies and departments. The plan leverages the “Vital Conditions Framework,” which identifies “a small but comprehensive set of conditions that all people depend on to reach their full potential for health and well-being” (Milstein et al and Rippel Foundation).