International Development needs a practical concept of wellbeing if it is to reach and then go beyond the Millennium Development Goals. It enables us to address the major and interlinked challenges of poverty, conflict and sustainability that confront us both in specific development contexts and globally.
The Research Group on Wellbeing in Developing Countries (WeD) was funded by the UK ESRC to research the relationship between poverty, inequality and quality of life. Despite some global economic success and growth for some developing countries, poverty persists and even has deepened for many people in global society. While there is considerable consensus on this view, there is much less willingness to grasp the nettle of explaining why this is so and what can be done about it.
This paper argues for the adoption of a practical concept of wellbeing and the integration of wellbeing audits into all levels of development policy processes.
