Bellagio Initiative
The Broker is proud to have contributed to the Bellagio Initiative by hosting a lively online debate about human wellbeing and inclusive economics….
| August 31, 2025
The Broker is proud to have contributed to the Bellagio Initiative by hosting a lively online debate about human wellbeing and inclusive economics….
| August 31, 2025
The Broker is proud to have contributed to the Bellagio Initiative by hosting an online debate.
The Bellagio Initiative was a series of global consultations that aimed to rethink the framework for philanthropy and development, seeking to be inspired by innovative trends and new opportunities from a wide range of disciplines and practices. The initiative addressed the challenges of promoting human wellbeing in today’s world that is changing ever more quickly. The project was led by the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) and theResource Alliance, and supported by the Rockefeller Foundation. With a Summit in November 2011 the Bellagio Initiative came to an end.
Throughout 2011, the initiative engaged a diverse international cast of practitioners, opinion leaders, social entrepreneurs and donors to deliberate on the nature of the challenges and the opportunities for philanthropic and development action. The initiative featured consultation meetings with key constituencies around the world, commissioned think pieces on the challenges, opportunities and new directions, and a summit conference at the Rockefeller Bellagio Center.
The Broker’s contribution to the Bellagio Initiative consisted of an online debate on a series of questions related to the promotion of human wellbeing in general, and the transformation towards a global sustainable and inclusive economy in particular. It was our challenge and objective to cross traditional boundaries between thinking and practice, as well as between disciplines. This was how we aimed to maximize the reach of our discussions, so that they could lead to new ways of thinking and inform sound ethical choices in the future.
We are very pleased with the result (22 blog posts, 2 articles and 41 comments) and quality of the discussions! A full summary of the debate can be read here! We thank all the participants for their contributions.
This morning I took part in a very interesting session that reignited my enthusiasm for the Bellagio Initiative. People, power, politics was the title of our get-together.
▶My worries, phrased in yesterday’s post, have been taken away today. I was afraid that the concept of wellbeing might create more confusion, instead of serving as a unifier that creates a broad and common target to work towards.
▶Today was the start of the final two weeks of the Bellagio Initiative. Forty people from across the world have been invited to the beautiful Lake Como in northern Italy to talk about how we can act more strategically towards achieving hu…
▶Our economy is shaped by our culture, Michiel Schwarz argues. The "sustainist" culture that is emerging will fuel a shift in economic orientation and the rise of an "ethononomics".
▶According to Henk Molenaar, we are in need of a single, powerful concept to rival growth as development paradigm.
▶Socio-environmental conflict is a powerful mechanism that has great potential to push for the paradigm shift that we urgently need, argues Diego Murguía.
▶It is time to refocus our energy and place our trust in the power and creativity of the people, argues Manuela Monteiro.
▶"At this stage, we are getting what we measure: outputs not outcomes, GDP not wellbeing", Russell Lewis argues.
▶Patricia Almeida Ashley advocates for a participative policy making approach that embraces complexity thinking: from the mechanical view of "dots" towards the quantum physics view of "waves"
▶According to Claudio Shuftan, the changes needed in the current economic climate are so drastic that mega philanthropies and their sponsors will never accept them.
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