Beyond GDP: A virtual UNGA80 side event

The increasing concern about our reliance on conventional economic indicators to evaluate national development, particularly GDP, is prompting a global shift toward alternative metrics for measuring national progress and success.

World leaders accelerated this shift by including Beyond GDP as a commitment in their September 2024 Pact for the Future agreement. In July 2025, the outcome from the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD4) further reaffirmed the commitment to urgently develop a framework of measures of progress on sustainable development that complement or go beyond GDP.  

In response to the Pact for the Future, the UN Secretary-General appointed a High-Level Expert Group and arranged for a subsequent intergovernmental process to be set up. 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 offer guidance on the deployment of the dashboard and outline “priorities for data collection and statistical capacity to operationalize the dashboard and indicators."

IISD and UN University Centre for Policy Research (UNU-CPR) convened this timely virtual discussion during the UN General Assembly High Level Week to engage with Expert Group members and other leading voices to further understand and inform the approach and explore the road to a new intergovernmental process Beyond GDP.

Speakers

• Nicole Goldin, Head, Equitable Development at UNU-CPR and non-resident Senior Fellow at Atlantic Council (Moderator)
• Enrico Giovannini, Professor at the University of Rome and Scientific Director of the Italian Alliance for Sustainable Development
• Naila Kabeer, Emeritus Professor at the Department of International Development and Faculty of the International Inequalities Institute, London School of Economics
• Csaba Kőrösi, 77th President of the UN General Assembly and Co-chair of the UN Open Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals
• Attiya Waris, Faculty of Law, University of Nairobi, Kenya, and House of Fiscal Wisdom, Kenya
• Erin Tansey, Director, Sustainable Inclusive Economies Program, International Development Research Centre

In Partnership With