Our story

For more than a decade, the Legatum Institute’s experts have analysed what impacts the wellbeing of individuals, communities, and nations around the world. Our research and events programme has explored some of the defining issues of our age, from harnessing African entrepreneurialism to how we support nations transitioning from autocracy. Our analysis of these and other issues has shaped our belief in how we can best see people lifted out of poverty: by fostering inclusive societies, open economies, and empowered people.

This belief is informed by the findings of our annual Legatum Prosperity Index, which measures how institutional, economic, and social wellbeing is evolving around the world. First published in 2007, the Index has become a tool for leaders – and for those seeking to hold them to account – to develop an agenda for transformation.

A think-tank dedicated to promoting global prosperity was the vision of our founders, the Legatum Group, a purpose-driven business partnership with a mission to generate and allocate the capital and ideas that help people live more prosperous lives. The golden thread that runs throughout Legatum’s businesses is a belief that every individual has infinite value and potential, and that true prosperity is the realisation of that potential. During more than three decades of experience of investing in many of the world’s emerging nations, the Group’s partners witnessed many – but not all – of these nations flourish, creating an environment of stability and opportunity for their people. These remarkable stories highlighted the inherent potential of all peoples and nations, but also the need for the right ideas, values, and leaders to deliver lasting prosperity. They also led the partners to examine what conditions are required for individuals, communities, and nations to begin their journey out of poverty – to create the pathway to prosperity.

Since becoming CEO in 2016, Philippa Stroud has focused the work of the Institute on illuminating these pathways, using her extensive experience of fighting poverty to help identify the ideas and initiatives that can help all nations succeed. Today, the Institute is focused on supporting emerging nations on the pathway from poverty to prosperity; creating the strategy and accountability tools to reduce poverty and build prosperity across the UK; and building a network of leaders of character across the public square to restore an ethical vitality to all sectors of society and lift people higher.