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This year, I represented Belfast Healthy Cities at the second Wellbeing Economy Forum in Reykjavik, Iceland. Hosted by the City of Reykjavik and “Health Promoting Community Icelandic National Network for Health Cities”, in collaboration with the WHO European Healthy Cities Network, the forum brought together over 150 global delegates to focus on health and wellbeing. The event included distinguished speakers including the Prime Minister of Iceland, Sandrine Dixson-Decleve, Iiona Kickbusch, Lorenzo Fioramonti, Lord Richard Layard, and Dr. Katherine Trebeck. Their insights highlighted the crucial need to reshape our economic and social priorities towards a “Wellbeing Economy”.

The World Health Organisation endorses the creation of a A Wellbeing Economy – which essentially places human and planetary health at the heart of policy and legislation. A wellbeing economy views economic growth not as an end but as a means to achieving overall wellbeing. This requires a shift from traditional economic indicators to those that genuinely reflect what matters to people – like housing, food/nutrition, safety, health, mental wellbeing, and environmental sustainability.

A striking takeaway from the annual forum was the stark reality of wealth distribution. Recent data indicates that the poorest 50% of the population receive less than 15% of total earnings, while the richest 10% take over 40%. This growing inequality underscores the urgent need for policies that promote more equitable wealth distribution which will in turn lead to healthier, happier communities.

Health, we were reminded, is largely shaped by our living, working, family, and recreational environments. The Care Economy, encompassing both paid and unpaid labour that supports caregiving services, is fundamental to societal wellbeing and prosperity. Here in Northern Ireland, the question is therefore how could we rethink and reorganise how care is integrated into our society, to ensure it supports a Wellbeing Economy effectively?

Lorenzo Fioramonti further emphasised that the world’s current economic measurement and model is out of sync with wellbeing, contributing to rising loneliness, family breakdowns, and mental health issues among young people. He passionately argued that this generation has the power to make a significant difference, urging a shift from using GDP – a metric that was never intended to measure societal welfare – to more comprehensive indicators that include environmental and social health.

We learned that the role of local government is crucial in this transformation. Enabling policy and decision-making is essential for driving systemic change. Investing in and measuring beyond GDP to protect global public goods like water, food, and clean air is not just necessary – but urgent.  We were encouraged to equally think about the power of people and the absolute importance of engaging people and communities at grassroots levels. Examples of countries that are embedding a wellbeing economy approach were powerful and Iceland described well-being as being necessary to consider environmental and social factors that affect people’s daily lives, such as health, housing, employment, education, income, communications and air and water quality. They have made significant strides to interweave this in their Governmental strategies.

As the CEO of Belfast Healthy Cities, I see an immense, unique opportunity for Belfast. Significant work has already been taken and there is now an opportunity to kickstart a broad-based conversation involving all stakeholders including community groups, businesses, and citizens about what we could be doing to promote our city as a sustainable, healthy capital. Our organisation wants all of us to have access to green spaces and utilise healthy transport, to support and promote health literacy, and address health inequalities. Our aim is to foster an environment where everyone can live healthy, happy lives.

The Wellbeing Economy Forum underscored the reality that quality relationships and a healthy environment are the bedrocks of what lots of us would call a “good life”. It is time for Northern Ireland to embrace this vision, to reimagine our economic and social systems, and to work collaboratively towards a future where wellbeing is at the forefront of all our activities.