A series of new videos launched this month highlight the key themes that emerged from the Bellagio Initiative Summit on the future of philanthropy and development in the pursuit of human wellbeing.

The Summit, which took place in November 2011 at the Rockefeller Bellagio Initiative Center in Bellagio, Italy, aimed to produce an action plan for strengthening collaboration between philanthropists and those working in international development. It brought together leading figures from the worlds of development, philanthropy, politics, economics, business and civil society.

Key themes

Across panels and throughout discussions, several themes emerged:

• the urgency of collaboration - across sectors, between organisations and communities, and across geographies;
• the importance of engaging communities in defining their wellbeing, the potential to engage with diverse partners to support a community-centred innovation ecosystem; and
• the need to become more sophisticated about balancing risk and opportunity.

As Rt Hon Malcolm Bruce MP, Chairman of the UK Parliament's International Development Select Committee, noted: working together gives us the opportunity to achieve far more than if we work in separate boxes. One of the greatest achievements of the Bellagio Initiative Summit was in bringing together people from different institutions and giving them the opportunity to collaborate on ideas.

Find out more

• Watch Bellagio Initiative Summit participants speak on collaboration
• Watch Bellagio Initiative Summit participants speak on risk
• Watch Bellagio Initiative Summit participants speak on community participation

The closing report of the Bellagio Initiative will be released in the coming weeks.