Announcing the Launch of the Global Well-Being and Impact Leadership Certification (GWILC)

A New Era of Leadership Grounded in Happiness and Impact: Today marks the inspiring launch of the Global Well-Being and Impact Leadership Certification (GWILC) – a pioneering joint initiative by the World Happiness Foundation, World Happiness Academy, and the UPEACE Centre at the United Nations-mandated University for Peace. This executive certification program represents more than just a new course; it is the evolution of a movement. Building on seven years of success with the Gross Global Happiness (GGH) program, GWILC is set to expand and elevate how we develop leaders by intertwining well-being with strategic impact on a global scale.

From Gross Global Happiness to GWILC: A Seven-Year Evolution

For the past seven years, the Gross Global Happiness (GGH) program has been training heart-to-heart change-makers and creating a thriving community of over 1,000 global leaders. GGH was born from a partnership between the UPEACE Centre for Executive Education and the World Happiness Academy, and it quickly became an innovative executive education event in leadership development. Leaders from all over the world came to Costa Rica to learn and tackle big questions about happiness, well-being, and leadership. The GGH experience revolutionized experiential education – participants would “learn, unlearn, and share experiences” on happiness, combining cutting-edge research with real-world practice. This hands-on, heart-centered approach positioned happiness and peace as strategic leadership assets, not just personal ideals. As Luis Gallardo, Founder of the World Happiness Foundation, famously noted, “Today, more than ever before, we need new leaders able to dream and work towards a world with fundamental peace, starting with inner peace. And happiness is a key driver to achieve it.” GGH’s impact has been profound – connecting leaders “heart to heart” in pursuit of a world of freedom, consciousness, and happiness for all.

Under the GGH program, over the course of seven years, more than a thousand change-makers from around the globe have been empowered with tools to drive positive change in their organizations and communities. This vibrant alumni network spans business executives, government officials, social entrepreneurs, educators, and community leaders – all united by a common training in leading with well-being, empathy, and purpose. GGH’s legacy is a testament to the idea that happier people make better leaders. It proved that concepts like mindfulness, compassion, and inner peace are not “soft” skills, but powerful, strategic assets for anyone tasked with leading teams or shaping policies. In fact, the GGH summit demonstrated how bringing happiness front and center in leadership discourse can transform perspectives: participants explored how to lead “happier, more meaningful lives” and build more peaceful organizations and societies. This groundbreaking approach has redefined leadership training by showing that well-being is not a mere afterthought, but a cornerstone of effective leadership and global impact.

Now, as we enter the next chapter, the lessons and successes of GGH are being taken to new heights. The Global Well-Being and Impact Leadership Certification (GWILC) is the next step in this evolution – a program designed to carry forward the torch of GGH into a broader, more systemic arena. GWILC is not a replacement but an expansion; it embraces GGH’s heart-centered ethos and amplifies it for even greater impact.

Blending Well-Being with Impact: Leadership for the Next Seven Years

With GWILC, we are embarking on a new seven-year journey that aligns leadership excellence with the urgent needs of our time. This certification program is uniquely crafted for decision-makers and change-makers in business, government, foundations, and education who operate on a multinational stage. It recognizes that leaders at the highest levels face complex global challenges – from public health crises to sustainable development and social justice – and that well-being must be integrated into the very DNA of how we lead and make decisions.

What does this mean in practice? GWILC expands on the GGH philosophy by explicitly blending personal well-being with impact-driven leadership strategies. Participants will delve into how to infuse well-being principles into governance, corporate strategy, public policy, and educational leadership. The program goes beyond personal development; it targets systemic change. Just as GGH brought together diverse experts in well-being science, GWILC will convene a multidisciplinary faculty to explore how happiness, resilience, and compassion can drive measurable impact in organizations and communities. This approach is in sync with a growing global consensus that happiness and well-being are not ancillary, but central to progress. The United Nations itself has recognized that happiness is a fundamental human goal and a key component of an inclusive, balanced approach to growth. Around the world, there’s a movement to redefine success beyond GDP – to include wellness, sustainability, and equality in the metrics of prosperity. GWILC positions its graduates to be at the forefront of this movement, equipping them to lead in a world where global well-being is paramount for public health, economic resilience, and peace.

Crucially, GWILC is tailored for high-level professionals – the executives, public servants, and institutional leaders who can trigger ripple effects across nations and industries. Whether you’re a corporate CEO, a government minister, a foundation director, or an education leader, GWILC is designed to help you embed well-being into your leadership playbook. This means learning to apply wellbeing concepts to strategic planning, policy design, and organizational culture. Imagine government policies designed with citizen happiness in mind, or a Fortune 500 company whose business strategy explicitly fosters employee well-being and community flourishing – these are the kinds of systemic shifts GWILC is aiming to cultivate, building on the foundation laid by GGH’s extraordinary community of practice.

Program Highlights and Benefits of GWILC

GWILC offers a suite of benefits that make it a one-of-a-kind executive leadership certification. Participants will gain:

• Transformative Leadership Skills Rooted in Well-Being and Impact: Develop as a leader from the inside out. GWILC centers on transformative learning that begins with personal well-being – cultivating self-awareness, emotional intelligence, empathy, and resilience – and then translates those qualities into effective leadership of others. Graduates will be equipped to lead with both head and heart, inspiring their teams and stakeholders through authenticity and compassion. In the tradition of GGH, the program emphasizes that inner transformation drives external impact. As Gallardo emphasized, achieving “fundamental peace” starts with inner peace , and GWILC builds leaders who can harness happiness as a strategic driver for meaningful change.
• Executive-Level Training Integrating Well-Being into Governance, Business and Social Impact: GWILC is an executive-caliber program that bridges the gap between well-being science and real-world leadership practice. Participants will learn from global experts in positive psychology, leadership coaching, public policy, and business innovation on how to integrate well-being principles into their organization’s DNA. This isn’t just theory – it’s practical executive training. From designing happiness-driven workplaces to formulating policies that prioritize citizen welfare, GWILC provides the skills to weave well-being into the fabric of corporate strategies, government initiatives, philanthropic programs, and educational models. Notably, the World Happiness Academy has already demonstrated the demand for such training through programs like the Chief Well-Being Officer certification, which has built the world’s largest community of Well-Being Officers with over 945 professionals from 520+ cities worldwide. GWILC takes this to the next level, preparing top leaders to champion well-being at the executive and institutional level.
• Coaching and Leadership Frameworks Aligned with Public Health and Global Sustainable Development Goals: Participants will master coaching techniques and leadership frameworks that align with the broader goals of public health and sustainable development. In an era where burnout and mental health challenges are on the rise, and where the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) call for Good Health and Well-Being (SDG3), GWILC’s curriculum is designed to produce leaders who can be change agents for wellness in society. The program draws connections between individual well-being and societal outcomes – exploring, for example, how workplace well-being programs tie into public health, or how national happiness indices can inform policy. It incorporates insights from global public health research and the happiness movement. (The World Health Organization’s very definition of health is “a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease” – a principle that GWILC embeds into leadership training.) Through GWILC, leaders will learn to design initiatives that improve both organizational metrics and human outcomes, aligning profitability or institutional success with the wellness of employees, citizens, and communities. This systems approach ensures that GWILC graduates can align their leadership practice with global goals like the SDGs, creating strategies that are sustainable, ethical, and deeply human-centric.
• Cutting-Edge Paradigms and Philosophies for the Future – Including Happytalism: GWILC introduces participants to emerging paradigms that will shape the future of leadership and economics. A prime example is Happytalism, a visionary philosophy that places happiness and well-being at the core of socio-economic models. Happytalism has been described as a new development paradigm seeking to achieve “Fundamental Peace, defined by the triad of freedom, consciousness, and happiness.” As a GWILC participant, you will engage with concepts like Happytalism to understand how the economy and governance of tomorrow can be reimagined to prioritize human and planetary well-being. This includes learning about the ROUSER framework (a concept of “conscious catalysts of well-being” proposed by Luis Gallardo) and other groundbreaking frameworks that challenge traditional notions of capitalism and success. By grappling with these new ideas, GWILC leaders will be prepared to implement forward-thinking practices in their roles – championing values of happiness, sustainability, equity, and holistic growth. In short, GWILC isn’t just teaching best practices; it’s helping leaders contribute to and shape the next practice– the paradigms that will define the next era of business and governance.

Each of these benefits is delivered through a mix of expert-led seminars, hands-on workshops, coaching sessions, and experiential projects – very much in line with the experiential roots of the GGH program, but scaled up to executive levels. Participants will also have access to a

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