Independent experts shine a new light on ways to complement traditional economic measures with metrics that reflect human wellbeing, inclusiveness and sustainability.
© Shutterstock/R.M. Nunes | A fishing village in Myanmar.
Recently at the World Summit for Social Development 2025, the UN Secretary-General’s High-Level Expert Group on Beyond GDP shared their first analysis, with the release of their interim report.
The group, mandated by the UN’s landmark Pact for the Future, is tasked with developing recommendations for a set of universally relevant indicators that countries can own and use to guide policy.
UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD) serves as co-secretariat to the “Beyond GDP” expert group, alongside other entities including the Executive Office of the UN Secretary-General, the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs and the UN Development Programme.
This initiative stems from the urgent need for measures of progress that enable more balanced and integrated pursuit of sustainable development.
GDP does not capture progress in well-being, equity, inclusiveness or sustainability – and it was designed as a measure of economic activity.
“Our approach will emphasize how better well-being and its drivers, such as health, social capital and the quality of the environment, are not only good for societal welfare but also contribute in an integral way to economic prosperity,” the interim report argues.
But how can the world go about it differently?
The “Beyond GDP” agenda, increasingly gaining traction among UN member countries, is about complementing traditional economic measures, rather than replacing them.
To do so, five principles are important.
First, countries need to look at more than GDP to gauge material well-being more accurately.
Second, it takes more than income to capture all aspects of well-being.
Third, when addressing inequality and exclusion it’s necessary to look beyond average figures.
Fourth, the need to think in the long term, to ensure economic, environmental, social and institutional sustainability for future generations.
Additionally, well-being is interconnected across countries in today’s world. This makes cooperation all the more crucial, in setting global norms of measurement, unlimited to specific countries or regions.
What will happen next?
The interim report launched a three-week online consultation that ended on 30 November, gathering perspectives on what progress means to people and communities worldwide.
Governments, researchers, businesses and civil society organizations participated in the process.
Their feedback is helping shape a more comprehensive set of metrics, to be outlined in the expert group’s final report to the UN General Assembly in the spring of 2026.
“This is a challenging and ambitious task, entailing major changes in measurement, policy, decision-making and behaviour,” said the expert group.
“We aim to rise to this challenge.”
UNCTAD contribution to ‘Beyond GDP’ agenda
As part of the co-secretariat, UNCTAD is focused on providing technical and statistical support to the experts in the analysis of available indicators, statistical methodologies, and data and capacity gaps across countries.
The work also builds on discussions during UNCTAD16, the organization’s most recent quadrennial ministerial conference, including a high-level session entitled “Reshaping progress – moving beyond GDP for inclusive and sustainable transformation”.
UNCTAD is committed to supporting Member States to build the analytical and statistical capacities in measuring what matters, in line with its mandate from the UNCTAD16 outcome document, the “Geneva Consensus”.
This means supporting technical work, coordinating consultations and ensuring that developing economies have a strong voice in shaping the new metrics.