Policy Workshop: Inclusive and Sustainable Growth Beyond GDP in Zambia

Over the past decade, major institutions and reports—including the World Economic Forum, UNEP, the World Bank, and the UK’s Dasgupta Review—have highlighted GDP’s limitations. The UN Secretary-General’s 2023 brief similarly argues GDP “summarizes too much and reveals too little” to guide sound policy. Despite many proposed alternatives over the years, none have displaced GDP as the dominant signal used by decision makers.

What to Measure Alongside GDP

There is broad agreement that “beyond GDP” means complementing—not replacing—GDP with indicators that account for environmental limits, care systems, and broader societal well being. To advance this, the UN Secretary-General appointed the High-Level Expert Group (HLEG) on Beyond GDP in 2025. The HLEG has since delivered recommendations outlining an overall approach and a set of indicators to be used together with GDP to track sustainable development progress.

Workshop Objectives

The workshop aims to catalyze a strategic shift by linking improved measurement with better policymaking. It will:

• Introduce core concepts, global approaches, and key components of Beyond GDP and assess their relevance for the country.
• Present international and national data to illustrate trends beyond GDP and their policy implications.
• Identify data, institutional, and capacity needs and outline near term priorities.
• Develop a roadmap that clarifies opportunities and challenges for government, researchers, civil society, and development partners in applying inclusive growth metrics.
• Inform the international Beyond GDP agenda by providing feedback on HLEG approaches to refine methods and ensure relevance, feasibility, and policy usefulness across contexts.

The workshop is part of a series on key aspects of beyond GDP efforts across countries. IISD is an implementing partner for UNCTAD’s beyond GDP work.