Wales Wellbeing of Future Generations Act

Summary: Wales is pioneering a legally mandated, future-focused model of systemic risk governance through its Wellbeing of Future Generations Act (2015). Drawing on its parliamentary legacy and industrial past, the Act requires all public bodies to balance current needs with the rights of future generations, embedding long-term, integrated decision-making across sectors.

Wales’ model promotes Complexity-informed governance, Universal Responsibility, and Cross-Scale alignment—from local councils to international forums like the U.N.. While implementation challenges remain, especially in measuring long-term outcomes, the Act offers a globally relevant framework for institutionalizing transformation, resilience, and equity across generations. This case study is part of ASRA’s Systemic Risk Response Case Studies series—find out more in From Benches to Boardrooms: Responding to Systemic Risks.

Case Study: Wales Wellbeing of Future Generations Act

Overview: Wales, drawing on a long parliamentary tradition and shaped by the environmental and health costs of early industrialization, became the first country to legislate a framework guiding public services on sustainable development (Davidson, 2023).

In 2015, Wales enacted the Wellbeing of Future Generations Act, requiring public bodies to act in ways that meet present needs without compromising future generations. The Act defines: seven national wellbeing goals that span economic resilience, environmental sustainability, public health, governance, and social cohesion (Wales, n.d.); and, Five Ways of Working (Wales, 2015, Section 5(1)); Davidson, 2023).

The Future Generations Commissioner for Wales ensures implementation, holding public bodies to account through advice, research, interviews, progress reports, and recommendations. The Act is a model for systemic risk governance, legally mandating that public institutions embed future-focused, integrated, and participatory approaches in their decisions.

Highlights in Systemic Risk Response

A systemic risk response encompasses any action that deliberately seeks to mitigate, prepare for, adapt to, and/or transform away from the harms of systemic risks. This case study illustrates how national legislation can be leveraged to institutionalize long-term decision-making, embedding legal accountability and future-focused planning into the core functions of public institutions.

Complexity

The Future Generations Commissioner for Wales defines systemic risk and polycrisis as “a period of multiple, interconnected crises. These disruptive events—be they health crises, climate change, financial downturns, or conflicts—also tend to exacerbate one another, creating a self-perpetuating system of destabilization” (Foundations for Tomorrow, n.d.). The Act responds to this complexity through the seven wellbeing goals. The Cymru Can strategy (Wales 2030) deepens this approach by outlining interventions across each goal (Wales, n.d.).

Described as the “greatest cultural change program the Welsh public sector has ever gone through” (Wales, 2020, p. 9), the Act imposes a statutory duty on public bodies to adopt and report on the Five Ways of Working (Wales, 2020, p. 94). It also highlights key leverage points—what the Commissioner calls the "machinery"—required to realize the Act’s vision, fostering continuous learning and adaptive governance across systems (Wales, 2020, n.p.).

Universal Responsibility

The Act affirms a legal and moral duty to intergenerational fairness , as well as to the planet. It holds public bodies accountable for actions that respect shared global responsibilities, as part of its ‘Globally Responsible Wales’ goal. As noted in the Future Generations Commissioner’s Policy Leader’s Toolkit, “a globally responsible nation is one that, when doing anything to improve the economic, social, environmental, and cultural wellbeing, also takes account of whether doing such a thing may make a positive contribution to global wellbeing” (Foundations for Tomorrow, n.d., Episode 1).

By law, each public body must publish wellbeing objectives aligned with the Act’s seven goals, and take all reasonable steps to achieve them (Wales, 2015, Part 2). This ensures that responsibility is not abstract but operationalized through measurable commitments, legal obligations, and cross-generational accountability.

Mainstreaming and Cross-scale

The Act demonstrates how systemic risk governance can be coordinated across local, national, and global levels. It applies to all Welsh public bodies, from local authorities to national institutions, and holds Welsh Ministers to account. Its influence extends beyond Wales, inspiring collaboration with governments in Scotland, Ireland, Canada, France, Germany, Gibraltar, Japan, and New Zealand. The Future Generations Commissioner has also advised the U.N. on integrating future generations into global governance frameworks. These engagements create feedback loops that enable the co-design of scale-appropriate strategies by linking local actions to global goals and reinforcing systemic resilience across jurisdictions.

The Act serves as a cross-scale mechanism to embed systemic approaches to wellbeing and risk management across the Welsh public sector. The Future Generations Commissioner mainstreams impact by developing tools, training, and resources to institutionalize long-term thinking.

Key initiatives include the Three Horizons Toolkit for strategic foresight, the Future Generations Policy Leader’s Toolkit to support systems-based policymaking, and the Future Generations Leadership Accelerator to empower youth as future generations advocates. Additional resources such as the Communities and Climate Change Storybook & Toolkit, How to Apply Long-term Thinking to Reduce Health Inequalities; and a Maturity matrix, support implementation and deepen integration of the Act’s principles.

Transformation

The Act mandates all Welsh public bodies to implement and report on policies, practices, and resource allocations aligned with its seven wellbeing goals. Relationally, it reshapes how power and responsibility are shared by engaging both local and national authorities through legal obligations and recommendations issued by the Future Generations Commission. At its core, the Act introduces a new mental model of wellbeing by legislating future-focused, integrated thinking as part of the public sector’s culture. By embedding this shift in law, governance, and institutional norms, Wales is actively confronting historic patterns of exploitation—of people and planet—and steering toward more equitable, resilient systems.

In terms of achieved transformation to date, here are some notable examples:

Key Insights and Lessons Learned

The Wellbeing of Future Generations Act together with the appointment of a Future Generations Commissioner and Commission represents one of the most transformative responses to systemic risk in public policy globally, revealing key insights:  

1. Leverage public policy as a powerful vehicle for transformation: Wales’ Wellbeing of Future Generations Act is the first national legislation to embed sustainable development into the core of public governance. It offers a practical roadmap for how governments can operationalize long-term, integrated decision-making. Its design, particularly the Five Ways of Working, embodies many of the principles of systemic risk, making it a relevant model for navigating today’s complex and uncertain challenges (Wales, 2021).
2. Mainstreaming is critically important: lessons learned, toolkits, and frameworks that have been developed as a result of implementing the Act are shared and discussed in the public domain. These activities and materials provide inspiration to a range of different audiences and governments in other countries and sectors. 
3. Establish mechanisms to learn and measure progress: As the Act matures, there is a pressing need to strengthen mechanisms for learning (including from failure), measuring progress, and auditing resources to ensure they support the intended transformation (Davidson, 2023).