“A healthy economy should be designed to thrive, not grow.” – Kate Raworth

Doughnut Economics Action Lab (DEAL @doughnuteconomics) is an organisation I deeply admire. It was founded by one of my lecturers at Oxford, Kate Raworth. She is the author of the book “Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st-Century Economist” (2017), which proposes a framework to perceive sustainable development. It is an alternative metric to measure human well-being, contrary to the traditional GDP metric that only considers economic success.

The centre ring represents our basic social and developmental needs, while the outer ring is the ecological ceiling. The doughnut framework assesses how well we meet the basic needs of our most vulnerable communities while keeping human development within the planetary boundaries. The most ideal scenario is a regenerative and distributive economy lying in the doughnut, hence the safe and just operating space for humanity.

DEAL turns the economic concept into an action-oriented approach, working with cities to integrate this model into their city-planning. In April 2020, she succeeded in persuading the Amsterdam city government to adopt the doughnut model into their post-Covid city planning.

To date, the global economy has been driven by continued growth, but it’s important to question if that’s needed in the world today. Echoing Kate, a healthy economy should be designed to thrive, not grow. We should focus on how systems interact with one another, and design innovative solutions which benefit both humanity and other species.

*Adapted from my interview with @ecobusinesscom in 2020