As global leaders gather at the Financing for Development Conference in Seville, the focus on "Beyond GDP" gains prominence, highlighting the necessity of integrating comprehensive measures of social, environmental and economic well-being into financial strategies to foster sustainable development.
Indeed, traditional metrics of economic development do not capture the complexity of global economic interactions and their outcomes for people.
While GDP remains a key indicator of economic output, it is not a comprehensive measure of progress, nor a guide for people-centered and planet-conscious policy. GDP fails to reflect key dimensions of human and environmental well-being, such as ecological vulnerability, informality and job quality, social cohesion and trust, access to quality education, digital inclusion, health disparities, safety and violence or the fairness of income and wealth distribution. It also overlooks intergenerational mobility and equity issues.
There is a growing need for measures and policy objectives, including in development finance, that go beyond how much is produced. Now is the time to embrace and enact a new vision of progress.
This event marks the official launch of the Coalition of the Willing on the Beyond GDP Agenda, a global alliance of countries and partners committed to advancing the integration of more comprehensive metrics of development into policy and financing practice. The coalition will serve as a platform for convergence, mutual learning and action. Most importantly, it will focus on the practical application of new metrics, exploring how they can reshape international cooperation to better respond to the complex challenges of our time.
Rebeca Grynspan, of Costa Rica, became UNCTAD's eighth Secretary-General on 13 September 2021 and is the first woman to lead the organization.
Prior to her UNCTAD appointment, she was the Ibero-American secretary-general from 2014 to 2021, also the first woman to head the organization. During her mandate, she has coordinated the 22-member Iberoamerican Conference and led four key summits of Heads of State and Government.
In 2010 she was appointed Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and Associate Administrator of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and prior to that was UNDP Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean.
Prior to joining the United Nations, Ms. Grynspan served as Vice-President of Costa Rica from 1994 to 1998. She was also Minister of Housing, Minister Coordinator of Economic and Social Affairs, and Deputy Minister of Finance. In 2021 she was named Special International Advisor to the newly created Economic and Social Council of Argentina and invited to join as member of the G20 High-Level Independent Panel on Financing the Global Commons for Pandemic Preparedness and Response.
In addition to her experience as a lecturer and advisor to several international organizations, she has been actively involved in key United Nations initiatives, such as the Millennium Project's Task Force on Poverty and Economic Development and the High-level Panel on Financing for Development.
In 2014 and 2015, she was recognized as one of the 50 leading intellectuals of Latin America. And she was recognized as one of the 100 most powerful women in Central America by Forbes magazine.
Ms Grynspan holds a degree in Economics by the University of Costa Rica and a MSc in Economics by the University of Sussex. She has been awarded a Doctorate Honoris Causa by the University of Salamanca, the University of Extremadura and the European University of Madrid in recognition of her outstanding professional achievements.
