‘Y Gymru a garem - The Wales we want’ national conversation

In Wales, in 2014,  a year-long public consultation was held whereby the government asked its citizens “What kind of Wales do you want to leave for your children and grandchildren?”. 

​​The National Conversation was initiated by the Minister for Communities and Tackling Poverty in association with the development of the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Bill. It followed in the footsteps of the United Nations’ global conversation on ‘The World We Want’, with the aim of replicating this conversation in Wales. For over two years Cynnal Cymru (Sustain Wales) worked with the Welsh Government and the former Commissioner for Future Generations, Peter Davies, to help organise Wales’ biggest National Conversation on ‘The Wales We Want’.

The Conversation was launched on 18 February 2014 with the support of award-winning Welsh actor Michael Sheen, at a high-profile event in Cardiff. Over the course of a year, the National Conversation engaged nearly 7 000 people across Wales through their communities and groups (in addition to contributions via social media, postcards and online) and tested different approaches to engage people.

A key feature of the consultation process was the recruitment of Futures Champions whose role was to take the National Conversation forward into their specific areas, hosting dialogues on ‘The Wales Women Want’, ‘The Wales Carers Want’, ‘The Energy We Want’ and ‘The Wales Young Farmers Want’, and so on. Over 200 organisations took the conversation forward as ‘Futures Champions’. Each Futures Conversation helped to inform the joint vision for ‘The Wales We Want’.

Before diving into the Conversation, it was important for participants to be aware of ‘The Wales We Have’. To support this, Cynnal Cymru prepared a series of fact sheets and a range of supportive materials, building on the Welsh Government’s Understanding Wales’ Future report, which provided a stock-take of Wales’ assets set against a backdrop of global trends that will drive change in the future. 

Throughout the Conversation there was some frustration that successes and achievements were not often celebrated. The importance of a strengths-based approach was highlighted: “We need to celebrate and value our culture, language and heritage as assets on which to build learning platforms for our future generations. These assets therefore need to be at the centre of our well-being plans” (Cynnal Cymru, 2015, p. 19).  

Alongside the Conversation, additional insights were gathered through ‘The Wales We Want’ survey, which highlighted climate change as the most important issue facing future generations, as well as a postcard campaign that invited people to finish the sentence “I want a Wales where …”.

The result of ‘The Wales We Want’ public conversation was the identification of seven wellbeing goals: a prosperous Wales, a resilient Wales, a more equal Wales, a healthier Wales, a Wales of cohesive communities, a Wales of vibrant culture and thriving Welsh language, and a globally responsible Wales. These goals are being monitored through a set of National Indicators and form the foundation for the Well-being of Future Generations Act, which has redefined the purpose of the Welsh government to work collectively towards these seven goals. 

You can find out more about the Welsh Well-being of Future Generations Act in Module 8.

References: 

Cynnal Cymru (2015). The Wales We Want report. A report on behalf of future generations, https://cynnalcymru.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/The-Wales-We-Want-Report-English-Final.pdf.