By Joanna Levitt Cea, former Director of Buen Vivir Fund (an investment fund that thrived from 2018-2023)

The inspiration behind the Buen Vivir Fund is to re-imagine our economy–and our investment practices–with the concept of buen vivir at the center.  

The concept of buen vivir comes from Latin American indigenous movements and implies “right living” or life in balance with community, natural systems, and future generations.

How can an investment fund build economic prosperity hand-in-hand with buen vivir?

This was the question and call to action put to Thousand Currents by our grassroots partners over a year ago. When we considered together what was needed for innovators around the world to build alternative economic solutions, we kept coming back to the same starting point – for grassroots solutions to thrive and grow, a very different kind of investment was needed:

• Investment that was deeply aligned with the values, decision-making, and community-driven timelines of the grassroots groups themselves.  
• Investment that did not bring fear and stress over repayment, but instead reinforced hope, resilience and joy.  
• Investment that mirrored grassroots realities on the ground, rather than forcing their situations to fit within the confines of conventional investment norms.

What if grassroots innovators from Asia, Africa, and Latin America came together to co-design a different kind of investment fund, along with investors who were deeply committed to supporting an economy of wellbeing and balance? Could that different process for fund formation match the needs and aspirations of grassroots groups and investors to all take part in building an economy of buen vivir?

We saw the need and the potential. We felt the exhilaration of the risk and what this could mean, and then…we jumped.

We being Thousand Currents and the 18 organizations who joined the Buen Vivir Fund (BVF) as founding members. Together, over the course of a full year, we poured in hard work, careful analysis, learning exchange, and a collective total of 2,934 hours to co-design a fund.

And it turns out, we indeed created something very different. We explain in our handy infographic here and table below.

The five innovations above are some of the ways the Buen Vivir Fund exchanges grassroots brilliance. Financial capital is used, shared, and–yes–increased, but it is not at the center. It is one resource in a rich, interconnected ecosystem that can generate buen vivir.  

It is the shared dream of the founding members of the Buen Vivir Fund that these innovations can be shared, adapted, and adopted by many other groups and funds. It is also our shared desire to keep learning and exchanging with the many other groups around the world who are reimagining our economy.

From the very first discussions in our co-design process, our grassroots partners have consistently reminded us that our Fund must be contributing to a movement. Because it will take all of our ingenuity and bravery, whether walking along rural roads in Nepal or Guatemala or down Wall Street, to remake our global economy with buen vivir at the center.