In this episode, Victoria Kioi, editor in residence at the welsh agenda, talks to actor Gabin Kongolo about the creative sector in Wales, learning Welsh later in life, his Congolese heritage, and navigating the creative industry. Gabin Kongolo is a poet and actor. His work includes film-poem Ndako and he was recently featured in Bariau (2024).…

In the seventh episode of our series Wales: A Work in Progress, the IWA's Policy and External Affairs Manager Joe Rossiter talks to Steph Coulter from the Bennett Institute for Public Policy. Wales: A Work in Progress is the companion piece of our project on the constitutional future of Wales supported by the Legal Education Foundation. In this ser…

This is a recording of Building from the Bottom: Delivering wellbeing and resilience through community ownership held by the Institute of Welsh Affairs in partnership with Bangor University. Despite our best efforts, we apologise that part of the recording is unintelligible due to equipment issues on the day. A transcript of the episode is availabl…

You can now listen to the launch of our latest report, Sharing Power, Spreading Wealth. Read the full report here: https://www.iwa.wales/our-work/work/sharing-power-spreading-wealth/Av Institute of Welsh Affairs

Welcome to the welsh agenda podcast. In this episode, our resident editor Matthaus Bridge reflects on his journey as a bilingual English and Welsh speaking journalist as he enters the professional world after learning the language in school. A few words from Matthaus: 'Like many people my age, I learnt Welsh in school, and am now the first and, to …

Welcome to the welsh agenda podcast. In this episode, our resident editor Matthaus Bridge reflects on his journey as a bilingual English and Welsh speaking journalist as he enters the professional world after learning the language in school. A few words from Matthaus: 'Like many people my age, I learnt Welsh in school, and am now the first and, to …

The IWA are delighted to bring you a discussion between Chris Stark, CEO of the UK Climate Change Committee (UKCCC) and Wales’ Future Generations’ Commissioner, Derek Walker. In this conversation we will touch on where Wales stands on its net zero journey, how we compare to other nations, and how we can accelerate our transition and adaptation to t…

In the sixth episode of our series Wales: A Work in Progress, the IWA's Policy and External Affairs Manager Joe Rossiter talks to Professor Mark Barry about the future of Wales' transport networks. Wales: A Work in Progress is the companion piece of our project on the constitutional future of Wales supported by the Legal Education Foundation. In th…

This week, we release the recording of our recent event Social Security Spotlight with Mairi Spowage. Mairi is a Professor of Practice and Director of the Fraser of Allander Institute, at the University of Strathclyde in Scotland. In this event, she and Auriol Miller discussed Scottish Government's policy on social security. Scotland has a signific…

This week, instead of an episode, enjoy a recorded version of our recent event with Akash Paun, Programme Director at the Institute for Government. Akash came to speak to the IWA's Director Auriol Miller to discuss his recent paper, submitted to the Independent Commission for Wales' Constitutional Future. In it, Akash proposed a comparison of the U…

In the fifth episode of our series Wales: A Work in Progress, the IWA's Policy and External Affairs Manager Joe Rossiter talks to Yvonne Murphy, the mind behind the Talking Shop, an innovative space created for people wishing to learn more about their institutions in order to become more active in their communities. Wales: A Work in Progress is the…

In the fourth episode of our series Wales: A Work in Progress, the IWA's Policy and External Affairs Manager Joe Rossiter talks to the IWA's own Media and Democracy project lead Dylan Moore. Dylan discusses the aims of his research on media and democracy, the causes and impact of the media and information deficit in Wales, and what can be done to a…

Welcome back to Wales: A Work in Progress. In our third episode, we tackle dialogue and democratic renewal. The IWA's director Auriol Miller speaks to Dr Anwen Elias, a member of the Independent Commission on the Constitutional Future of Wales and a reader at the University of Aberystwyth, and to Dr Jennifer Wolowic, Principal lead at Aberystwyth U…

Welcome to the second episode of our podcast series Wales: A Work in Progress, the companion piece of our project on the constitutional future of Wales supported by the Legal Education Foundation. This week, we continue our in-depth exploration of federalism. In this series, we explore options for Wales' future in conversation with experts and peop…

Welcome to the first episode of our podcast series Wales: A Work in Progress, the companion piece of our project on the constitutional future of Wales supported by the Legal Education Foundation. This week, we explore federalism. In this series, we explore options for Wales' future in conversation with experts and people interested in shaping the w…

Today, we kick off a new podcast series to accompany our new project supported by the Legal Education Foundation: Wales: A Work in Progress. In this series, we will explore options for Wales' future in conversation with experts and people interested in shaping the way forward for our country. In keeping with the IWA's independence, we don't take po…

This is a recording of the launch of our report 'Broadcasting Regulation in Wales: What can we learn from Europe?', which took place on 9 March 2023. This event was chaired by the IWA's Director Auriol Miller and included a presentation from the authors of the report, Dr Marlen Komorowski (Media Cymru), Dylan Moore (Media and Democracy Policy Lead,…

Hear from Harry Thompson, author of the IWA's report Beyond Social Partnership? Devolved Levers to support Trade Unions in Wales, which was launched on 16 February 2023. This podcast is a recording of a discussion about the role of trade unions. Harry Thompson, the IWA's Economic Policy Lead, spoke to Hannah Blythyn MS, Deputy Minister for Social P…

This is a recording of the launch of our report Beyond Social Partnership? Devolved Levers to Support Trade Unions in Wales, which took place on Thursday 16 February 2023. This event was chaired by the IWA's Policy and External Affairs Manager Joe Rossiter and included a presentation and Q&A delivered by Harry Thompson, the IWA's Economic Policy Le…

In the IWA's report Fiscal Firepower and Effective Policy Making in Wales, our Economic Policy Lead Harry Thompson argues that reforming the Welsh Government’s borrowing powers is a key option to better enable transformative policy making in Wales. In this podcast, you can hear Harry in conversation with Rebecca Evans MS, Minister for Finance and L…

A new Prime Minister and leader of the Conservative & Unionist Party will be announced on 5th September 2022. The new government formed will take over the promises made in the 2019 Conservative Manifesto around levelling up and regional funding post-Brexit. These include the nascent UK Shared Prosperity Fund and the future of the Levelling Up Fund,…

In this conversation recorded after our event with the Swiss Embassy, Auriol Miller, Co-Chair of the Independent Commission on the Constitutional Future of Wales Laura McAllister, and Swiss Ambassador to the UK Markus Leitner have an in-depth conversation about Swiss Federalism and what we can learn from it in Wales. Our event, The Swiss decentrali…

This was the first of a series of joint events planned as part of the IWA's partnership with Bangor University. The North Welsh population is shifting dramatically. This is not only due to the ageing experienced by other developed nations, but local factors including inward migration of retirees from across the UK and working age people leaving the…

This event was dedicated to the launch of our latest report, Our Land: Communities and Land Use. The project is funded by the Friends Provident Charitable Foundation and the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation. Our report tells a story of Wales severely lagging behind in giving communities a right to access land and other assets, with an arduous and demoral…

On the 30th of November and 1st of December 2021, the IWA held a two-day summit on the future of the Welsh economy. In this episode, our policy team, Will Henson, Harry Thompson, and Dr Jack Watkins, look back on the event and discuss some of its key moments. The first section looks at our Q&As with Vaughan Gething MS, Minister for Economy in the W…

Co-written with Welsh consultancy firm The Means, this report draws on original research and the Understanding Welsh Places online tool to explore how Welsh places responded to Covid-19. We use stories from communities across Wales to understand how residents used local facilities and assets during the crisis, and what we learned about Welsh places…

At this free online event, attendees heard about our latest report, part of our project on the Foundational Economy, funded by CREW. Produced in collaboration with The Means, a consultancy working on economic regeneration across the UK, our report outlines how regulations and their enforcement can disproportionately impact small and medium sized bu…

This event discusses the surge in volunteering during the Covid-19 pandemic, and explores the challenges the sector has faced as well as whether there has been a shift in policy over the past 15 months. Since the pandemic began in March 2020, interest in volunteering in Wales has seen a significant increase. It has played a crucial role in supporti…

This event, jointly organised by the Media Reform Coalition and the Institute of Welsh Affairs, is part of ‘The BBC and Beyond’, an MRC campaign which aims to reimagine public media for the digital age. The event focusses on what a reformed public service media landscape within Wales could look like. The BBC has set out its strategic goal to recrea…

This event discusses changes to how communities in Wales are using banking services, and explores the possibilities of more community-oriented models. One of the most dramatic changes to Welsh high streets in the last decade has been the decline of banking, with the closure of just over 40% of bank branches leaving customers and businesses struggli…

“If you can’t afford a bike, having the freedom to go cycling doesn’t mean anything.” This event discusses access to sport for Welsh communities and how the pandemic has exacerbated inequalities. Whilst elite sport has been able to continue fairly uninterrupted since the first wave, we examine the public’s access to sport and exercise, and explore …

The Welsh Places Charter has been created by the Welsh Places Influencing Group, convened by the IWA. We are a coalition of organisations, practitioners, and academics passionate about creating a Wales in which people’s social, economic, environmental and cultural wellbeing is at the centre of our communities. It is clear that the way in which we l…

Our panel look back at the 2021 Senedd election and assess what the outcome means for the future of Wales. We look at the implications of the Covid-19 pandemic on the results, the impact of young people being given the right to vote for the first time and whether the electoral landscape of Wales has shifted in the wake of the results. Our panel dis…

In December, Professor Gerry Holtham stepped down as an IWA Trustee after nearly twenty years and in this event one of the evergreens of Welsh public life seeks to balance the inter-generational books. Wales has the highest median age in the UK and in 20 years 1 in 4 of the population will be over 65. This figure reflects the fact that educated, yo…

Our panel of transport experts and local leaders discussed how to create a region-wide travel network that works for everybody who lives and works in the capital. Is it time for Cardiff to have a congestion charge? What are the politics of big changes to the transport system? The panel explore the challenges and opportunities for transport in the C…

During this panel discussion we hear from people with a learning disability about their experiences during the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, specifically in regards to relationships and connections. Mencap Cymru have been collecting oral histories which show how important friendships and relationships are for people, often supporting our identity and …

This report presents an analysis of policy and practice in business support in Wales and its impacts on the Welsh economy. We argue that business support needs to be reoriented to be more accessible to firms in the foundational economy, and that doing so will have both economic and social benefits. This launch event will include a presentation of o…

To understand the ongoing impact of the pandemic on individuals, work, the community and the world around us, we need to listen to people’s experiences. That is why the Institute of Welsh Affairs and the Wales Co-operative Centre, alongside 8 other partner organisations, launched a new initiative to gather these stories using the online storytellin…

The topic of this discussion is proposed changes to GCSEs and qualifications for 16 year olds as part of the ongoing reform of the curriculum. How can assessment remain robust whilst supporting the curriculum’s radical vision? How can the new curriculum balance freedom for teachers with public expectations about content, including on Welsh history …

This Rethinking Wales is led by the Bevan Commission and will explore health and care challenges in vulnerable communities and the mental health impacts of Covid-19. The event will also look at the wider picture, outside of the NHS itself, that is having a big impact on population health and wellbeing including; unemployment, poverty, inequality, s…

The IWA Cardiff Media Summit 2021 is a series of four events focusing on the new landscape for media in Wales. O Ebrill 2022 ymlaen bydd y cyfan o arian cyhoeddus S4C yn dod o ffi’r drwydded. Gyda’r broses o drafod setliad ariannu S4C o 2022 hyd 2027 wedi cychwyn, y newyddiadurwr Guto Harri sy’n holi Owen Evans, Prif Weithredwr S4C. Dyma gyfle i gl…

The IWA Cardiff Media Summit 2021 is a series of four events focusing on the new landscape for media in Wales. This event uses a simultaneous translator to translate from Welsh into English. From April 2022 all of S4C’s public funding will come from the licence fee. With the discussion over the funding settlement for 2022 to 2027 underway, journali…

The IWA Cardiff Media Summit 2021 was a series of four events focusing on the new landscape for media in Wales. This, the third event in the series, will focus on news in Wales. Traditional news organisations are finding new ways to deliver content in the face of diminishing revenues and increased competition from online providers. At the same time…

The IWA Cardiff Media Summit 2021 was a series of four events focusing on the new landscape for media in Wales. This, the second event in the series, will look at the screen sector in Wales. The screen sector is a major success story for Wales demonstrating significant economic growth and major reputational gains as a place to make high quality scr…

The IWA Cardiff Media Summit 2021 is a series of four events commencing 11th January 2021, focusing on the new landscape for media in Wales. The first event ‘The State of Play’ will look at the headline findings from the IWA’s 2020 Media Audit and will be followed by a panel discussion looking at the new, post-Covid, landscape for media in Wales. P…

Has Wales actually performed better than other nations so far in our Covid response? Polling suggests that people in Wales think the Welsh Government has done a better job than the UK government in keeping us safe during the pandemic. Statistics show that after the first wave, excess deaths in England were 46% higher than last year, and in Wales on…

This event formally launches the Live Learning Partnership and expands on why we want a better understanding of the impact of the pandemic. To understand the ongoing impact of the pandemic on individuals, work, the community and the world around us, we need to listen to people’s experiences. That is why the Institute of Welsh Affairs and the Wales …

With lockdowns increasing across the UK and winter on its way, how stretched are our public services and the people who keep them functioning on a daily basis? How can we help support the wellbeing of those we are relying on to get us through the pandemic and beyond? In this session we explore: The Covid-19 experiences of our frontline workers What…

As part of the IWA’s Rethinking Wales series, we invited Ken Skates MS, Minister for Economy, Transport and North Wales, to hear views and take questions from representatives of businesses across Wales. In response to the Covid-19 crisis, Chris Nott, as vice chair of the ministerial advisory board, was asked by the Minister to establish 'Ffenics', …

An open, politically independent and inclusive space for discussion and debate is the best way to identify the challenges we face in Wales because of Covid-19, and work out where the opportunities for real change are. We are well placed to bring those voices together, and the IWA #RethinkingWales series (supported by the Carnegie UK Trust) will exp…