Wellbeing Policies

Although, the wellbeing of the population has long been a concern of governments, in recent years, momentum has been building for governments to consider wellbeing as a measure of success and progress alongside traditional economic measures like Gross Domestic Product (GNP). This movement has led to the adoption of strategies and policies which make quality of life or wellbeing a priority area for policy in jurisdictions including New Zealand, Finland, Scotland, Wales, and Canada. These policies have often taken the form of “wellbeing budgets” in that they are tied to the budgetary process and make government initiatives and programs accountable to their terms. In this context, it becomes relevant to consider the links between wellbeing policies and public health mandates and what role public health might play in the development and implementation of wellbeing policies.

In this section, you will find documents, webinar recordings, and other resources on wellbeing budgets and other related policy initiatives. These resources describe and analyze various existing policies and consider the contributions public health has made and can make to these policies.

To view our resources from the Wellbeing Policies project, click on the links below:

Publications

Presentations and webinars