200 organisations call for action to create Wellbeing Economy in Scotland
VoiceAbility has signed an open letter, calling on First Minister Humza Yousaf to deliver a wellbeing economy to serve the needs of people and planet.
Civil society leaders and academics define a Wellbeing Economy as one that “delivers good lives for all people and protects the health of our planet.”
Yousaf has stated that delivering this is a key priority for Scottish government.
However, the Wellbeing Economy Alliance Scotland has drawn together over 200 charities, economists, businesses, trade unions and academics to call for direct action, not words.
What is needed to create a Wellbeing Economy
The letter urges the First Minister to:
- transform Scotland’s National Performance Framework into a Wellbeing Framework and strengthen its power and reach
- use devolved tax powers to share wealth more evenly
- invest in social security, universal basic services, public sector wages and environmental improvements
- reshape the business support landscape to prioritise the kind of enterprises that enhance our collective wellbeing
The open letter states:
“A Wellbeing Economy would provide every person in Scotland with the means to live in dignity and safety, rapidly reduce environmental impacts to within planetary boundaries, and become nature-positive.
It would do this while eliminating structural inequalities with regard to race, gender, sexual orientation and disabilities, and while recognising our responsibilities towards future generations and people in other countries amid surging humanitarian needs and displacement.
“A Wellbeing Economy would prioritise the things that really matter to us, like undervalued care, rather than following an outdated economic logic and then attempting to patch up the damage.”