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This article investigates the evolution of social inclusion among indigenous peoples in Ecuador. It highlights how some policies have deepened social problems like poverty and inequality and reviews the literature on social inclusion to define the reference framework of the investigation, also considering some qualitative aspects, like cultural and linguistic barriers that are crucial for the effectiveness of the policies and essential to understand the indigenous social system. The article compares the actual indigenous condition with the period prior to the Revolución Ciudadana to highlight if notable changes occurred in the quality of life of the Ecuadorian indigenous peoples.

The debate on growth and development that has been going on over the last decades has clearly highlighted a number of flaws and contradictions that the theory, as well as the practice, of International Development Cooperation (IDC) has failed to address in a convincing and effective way. IDC, once the prime tool for promoting a change in the livelihoods of the poorest and most vulnerable, is increasingly under scrutiny and does not seem to have provided an effective response to the current crisis. Buen Vivir (good life), Latin America’s new concept for collective well-being, which has emerged over recent years from the traditional cosmovisions of Andean indigenous peoples and translated into political and institutional practice, offers elements of reflection on economy, environment and social life that are useful for reframing the way ‘well-being’ is conceived within the current development setting: a fresh perspective on the most urgent global concerns is particularly useful as the debate regarding the successors to the Millennium Development Goals post-2015 starts to heat up. The new approach to IDC developed in Ecuador in recent years represents an attempt to put some of these elements into practice. However, beyond the experiences in Latin America, that can claim a closer link, albeit not without tensions, with the indigenous peoples with which the Buen Vivir culture has its roots, these suggestions can show an interesting convergence with alternative views on development emerging from the reflections and practices of Western social movements.

The aim of this article is to outline the relationship between Ecuador and China, highlighting its main threats to the development of the Ecuadorian Republic, and in particular how the implementation of the buen vivir economic paradigm which Ecuador is experimenting with may be affected if it does not change the terms of engagement with the Asian giant. The article is structured as follows: in the introduction, we present an overview of the historical framework of the Chinese relationship with Ecuador. There follows an analysis supported by data on the commercial situation between the two countries and its implications for the development of the Latin-American state. In our final remarks, we present the possible routes that Ecuador could follow to secure its path to development, while highlighting possible conditions under which Ecuador could cooperate with China while avoiding a state of dependency.

This article raises a simple question. In the debate between GDP and other indicators of well-being (e.g., MEW, HDI, GNH), it is forgotten that these are all external indicators that purport to privilege different goals as reflective of human welfare. The larger question is whether it is possible to shift the focus of policy from a battle between competing paradigms to a mechanism for eliciting information on well-being directly from the population.

The aim of this article is to evaluate the policies carried out by the Government of Ecuador regarding the management of natural resources in the context of the Revolucion Ciudadana, which was designed to create a society based on Buen Vivir. The choice of intensifying the mining sector shows a change in the government’s philosophy (from Sumak Kawsay to neo-extractivism) and requires an analysis that highlights the possible risks outlined by the extensive literature on the Resource Curse Hypothesis. This article analyzes the conditions, which are essential for avoiding the Resource Curse Hypothesis, in order to assess the economic effectiveness of the change of perspective, operated, under the Revolucion Ciudadana.

In recent years, sustainable development has represented one of the most important policy goals at the global level. How to design specific policy actions and how to measure performance and results continue to present a challenge. The aim of this paper is to identify a numerical measure of ‘sustainable human development’ by enlarging human development with more specific environmental aspects. The sustainability condition has been directly analysed on the well-being side. Building a complex Sustainable Human Development Index may be a hard task because of data availability. European countries represent a useful pilot area for testing the methodology. The key factors of effective sustainable human development are emphasized, comparing a Sustainable Human Development Index with existing traditional indicators such as the Gross Domestic Product and the Human Development Index.