statement of purpose

The Fondation du Devenir was created in January 1995. It aims to:

• identify the transformative processes relevant to quality of life;
• bridge the intellectual, decision-making and executive domains in order to favor coherent, efficient and sustainable models of action pertaining to quality of life;
• reinforce Geneva’s international renown.

activities of the Fondation du Devenir since 1995

Raising the level of awareness and information

Dedicated to the promotion of quality of life towards authorities, communities, citizens and businesses, the FdD provides since 1995 a whole range of activities to facilitate the implementation of this notion. It has elaborated to this end a quality of life charter, presenting it as an ethical standard rallying together an international reflexion-training-action platform. The FdD works with complementary partners and agents to achieve its objectives.

Bringing methodological support and training to quality of life initiatives

Quality of life is not understood as a school of thought, but as a research field open to critical analysis and geared to the production of tangible actions, which call for the elaboration of scrupulous methodological tools. How to measure quality of life, and consequently evaluate projects purporting to be associated with it ? How to create a collective experience from singular ones and how to reconcile, when it is necessary, diverse individual aspirations with the common good ? How to create and further the dynamics of dialogue between agents meeting as partners for the first time ? The way to quality of life is that of consultation and debate, associated with a reflexion on the major societal challenges of our times. Since 1992, the FdD thus contributes to organising and animating a programme of national and international conferences.

Establishing state of affairs diagnostics for action

The FdD conceives quality of life as a practical goal, endeavoring to bring about its fulfillment through tangible projects. Within those different projects, as an interface and facilitator of exchanges between citizens, experts and public authorities, the FdD offers to spawn proposals relating to quality of life, promoting their implementation and elaborating decision-making tools to assist professionals and authorities.

means of action

FdD activities include several means of action:

• operational studies conducted among economical, political and associative leaders;
• raising awareness, providing information and training to agents of sustainable development at the local, national, cross border and international levels;
• publishing articles, reports and working guides;
• organising and animating workshops, conferences, colloquies and public debates;
• developing web sites;
• designing and creating French and multilingual multimedia content;
• animating regional and international reflexion/concertation networks;
• creating databases on agents and experiences in the field of quality of life;
• formulating development strategies;
• directly helping developing and emerging countries, essentially in French-speaking Africa.