ON SOURCE: SDG KNOWLEDGE HUB
UNGA 80 Side Event Explores Road to Intergovernmental Process Beyond GDP
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
The event brought together members of the High-Level Expert Group on Beyond GDP, appointed by the UN Secretary-General in May 2025, and other leading voices in the ‘Beyond GDP’ space.
The Expert Group is tasked with developing “an initial list of corresponding country-owned, universally applicable indicators of sustainable development to form a dashboard that equips governments with the information they need”.
It will also provide guidance on the deployment of the dashboard and outline “priorities for data collection and statistical capacity to operationalize the dashboard and indicators”.
The International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), and the UN University Centre for Policy Research (UNU-CPR) organized a webinar to explore the road to a new intergovernmental process ‘Beyond GDP’ – the push to reorient how societies measure success by placing well-being, sustainability, and resilience at the core of decision making.
Held as a virtual side event in the margins of the High-Level Week of the 80th session of the UN General Assembly (UNGA), the webinar brought together members of the High-Level Expert Group on Beyond GDP, appointed by the UN Secretary-General in May 2025, and other leading voices in the ‘Beyond GDP’ space. The Expert Group is tasked with developing “an initial list of corresponding country-owned, universally applicable indicators of sustainable development to form a dashboard that equips governments with the information they need.” It will also provide guidance on the deployment of the dashboard and outline “priorities for data collection and statistical capacity to operationalize the dashboard and indicators.”
In her opening remarks, Erin Tansey, Director, Sustainable Inclusive Economies Program, International Development Research Centre (IDRC), said evidence and learning are not complementary to policy but essential to driving and sustaining meaningful change. Noting that gross domestic product (GDP) alone doesn’t reflect the complexity of urgent global challenges, she underscored the need for complementary indicators of well-being.
Tansey recalled the Pact for the Future’s commitment to developing a framework on measures that complement and go beyond GDP as the sole measure of progress. She also recalled the outcome from the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD4), which reaffirmed this commitment. She said the Secretary-General’s Expert Group has the opportunity to explore complementary measures to empower governments with actionable data but acknowledged that developing policy based on these indicators “is the tricky part.” She stressed the importance of ensuring the Expert Group’s recommendations are actionable.
Nicole Goldin, Head, Equitable Development at UNU-CPR and non-resident Senior Fellow at Atlantic Council, moderated the discussion. Underscoring the critical role of data in accelerating the SDGs in the five years that remain until 2030, she welcomed the establishment of the Expert Group to lead the process Beyond GDP.
Enrico Giovannini, Professor at the University of Rome, Scientific Director of the Italian Alliance for Sustainable Development, and member of the High-Level Expert Group on Beyond GDP, said several countries have already implemented measures that go beyond GDP, underscoring this is not a technical but a political issue. He said Beyond GDP efforts respond to today’s political questions concerning economic development, environmental sustainability, and social justice, warning that the production boundary established by the national accounts does not fully capture the dimensions of sustainability and inclusiveness.
Giovannini said the Expert Group will produce a report to the UNGA in early 2026. The report is expected to inform a subsequent intergovernmental process.
Naila Kabeer, Emeritus Professor at the Department of International Development and Faculty of the International Inequalities Institute, London School of Economics, and member of the High-Level Expert Group on Beyond GDP, highlighted broad agreement among the Expert Group members that limiting its work to definitions would be a missed opportunity. Stressing the need to draw attention to what is invisible when using GDP, she said the main challenge is to identify indicators that “capture what we want to capture” and have buy-in from all countries.
Kabeer said countries should not only be competing on how well they do on GDP, but also on how well they do by their citizens and the planet. Highlighting the inequities of unpaid care, she cautioned against monetizing – and thus devaluing – such work.
Csaba Kőrösi, 77th President of the UNGA and Co-chair of the UN Open Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals, called attention to SDG target 17.19 (By 2030, build on existing initiatives to develop measurements of progress on sustainable development that complement GDP, and support statistical capacity building in developing countries). Calling country GDP rankings “a beauty contest,” he said each country should measure its progress against an earlier benchmark of its own success.
Kőrösi outlined the five types of capital – financial, built, human, social, and natural – and stressed the need for composite indices to measure integrated impact. He said the new framework should be science-based, flexible, concise, and easily translatable and understood by politicians.
Attiya Waris, Faculty of Law, University of Nairobi, Kenya, and House of Fiscal Wisdom, Kenya, placed “the human being” at the center of Beyond GDP discussions. She queried whether Member States have the appetite for “a rethink and rewrite.”
Waris underscored the importance of understanding perception data, citing the example of how the new Africa Credit Rating Agency is often perceived as less reliable than its US-based counterparts. Giovannini said while perception data should be promoted as a source of information, they don’t replace objective data sources.
In conclusion, the panelists reflected on the most encouraging and challenging aspects of moving Beyond GDP. They welcomed the enthusiasm and hope people are placing on this process and stressed the importance of:
- Developing algorithms to identify danger zones and tipping points;
- Building integrated social, economic, and environmental models to simulate impacts of different policies on well-being; and
- Connecting methodology and data to inform programmatic decision making;
- Capitalizing on digitalization and artificial intelligence (AI) and addressing inequality in access to technology; and
- Managing expectations so that countries use the suggested indicators to complement GDP for their intended purpose in policy design and investments.
The side event convened on 22 September 2022. [Beyond GDP: A Virtual UNGA 80 Side Event] [SDG Knowledge Hub Sources]
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This story is part of a series that seeks to raise awareness of efforts to advance metrics that go beyond GDP, focusing primarily on publications produced by international agencies, peer-reviewed journals, and news stories. By highlighting topics of theoretical and conceptual significance, including suggestions and applications of specific indicators and indices to complement GDP, the series aims to inform and support sustainable development decision makers in their efforts to go beyond GDP. This project was made possible through financial support provided by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC).
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ON SOURCE: SDG KNOWLEDGE HUB