Relational Wellbeing applied

The importance of context to RWB means that we don’t simply apply a standard template

We are always curious to extend the reach of relational wellbeing. In each of our projects we therefore develop our approach a little further. Here we describe some of the key issues we have successfully addressed.

How can NGOs conduct wellbeing surveys at low cost?

Our first use of RWB in practice was in 2012 with Traidcraft PLC, a UK-based non-governmental organisation working in international development.

With Traidcraft we pioneered using group meetings to conduct wellbeing surveys in India. Traidcraft went on to use this approach to evaluate the multi-dimensional effects of their projects in Bangladesh and East Africa.

How can RWB aid consistency in grant-making?

Our first contract as the RWB Collaborative was with Fondation Botnar, a Swiss philanthropic foundation working to improve the health and wellbeing of young people living in cities around the world.

This was an extended collaborative process, running from 2020-2023, in which the foundation adopted RWB as the wellbeing approach throughout their global grantmaking. We engaged with the management office in a participatory way to co-design an RWB theory of change to guide their activities and enhance their strategic alignment. We also designed a set of tools to enable staff, applicants and grantees to understand and integrate in their programmes a relational approach to wellbeing. As a result of our collaboration, Foundation Botnar launched a major five year research programme into young people and relational wellbeing in the global south, U’Good.

How do you apply a relational approach in a digital ecosystem?

This was the challenge we faced in our developmental evaluation of Yoma, a digital marketplace under Unicef’s innovation portfolio, which aims to expand the opportunities available to young people in Africa and beyond.

Working from November 2021-April 2022, we acted as learning partner, providing real time analysis and reflection to envision the ecosystem as a whole and devised a Theory of Change to guide future development.

How can qualitative perspectives enhance quantitative analysis?

In November 2022 and October-December 2023 we advised the UNDP Regional Services Centre for Africa on integrating qualitative and mixed methods in research to generate a local multi-dimensional poverty index (MPI) in four countries in West Africa. This involved delivering training on qualitative and mixed methods research design, engaging with the in-country project teams and responding to their suggested local modifications to the Global MPI framework.

How can you promote the wellbeing of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) staff?

Our pilot project with an NHS hospital trust in England, November 2022, began with this question. We explored how racism is expressed relationally, through everyday interactions which conduct currents of inclusion and exclusion. We also co-created a contextually grounded definition of wellbeing for BAME staff in the Trust and criteria for its assessment.

It was great to see how the RWB process proved an empowering experience for the BAME staff who participated in the workshop. This was also our first opportunity to see that the RWB approach works just as well in the global North as in the South.

How can we promote wellbeing throughout an institution?

Our research with ESF Renaissance College, Hong Kong (August-December 2023) brought a new breakthrough in our RWB journey: a chance to see relational wellbeing working at a whole school level.

This enabled us to distil the principles of wellbeing-informed practice, which combines: structures and processes that engender positive relationships; person-centred practice that enables individuals to flourish; and specific initiatives that demonstrate the commitment to wellbeing.

We were also able to show how the international school was enabled and constrained by the wider systems to which it belongs. This helped the leadership team to identify more precisely their scope for action and the limits of their influence.

When we first entered into discussions about wellbeing, our thoughts were very much grounded in our current work.

We believed, as many other organizations, that if we were catalysts or facilitators to people’s individualized and community needs, they would eventually achieve wellbeing.

…In working with RWB-C we have shifted the way we conceptualize holistic development and the achievement of wellbeing.

We look forward to continuing to learn from their expertise as we evolve in our own programmatic impact.

Sonya Funna, Senior Director, Programmes and Innovation ADRA International, April 2022

How can an organisation capture and quantify that elusive factor which distinguishes their approach from others’?

This was the question that ADRA International was wrestling with when they approached us to work with them. ADRA is the humanitarian arm of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, a global network with the purpose of delivering relief and development assistance in more than 118 countries.

We began in 2020 with a review of alternative concepts of wellbeing and potential options to guide decision-making going forward. The main project in 2023-4 was to develop a bespoke model of wellbeing and toolkit, which would reflect ADRA’s values and distinct approach. The brief was challenging: to encompass the wellbeing of staff and clients; to ensure buy-in across the network, from global leadership team to workers at local level; and to combine the essential unity of ‘being ADRA’ with the flexibility to reflect very diverse regional and country contexts. We achieved this through an agile, deeply consultative process, both online and in-country, using a wide range of qualitative and quantitative tools.

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resources for practitioners

See case studies of how RWB has been applied in practice, plus videos and other resources for practitioners.

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What is
Relational Wellbeing?

Our research shows that wellbeing is not just about feeling good but also being able to care for your family and share with others.