By Livia Bizikova and Bingying Lou, IISD

There is increasing global acknowledgment that current financial and economic systems fail to adequately reflect the true well-being of our societies and ecosystems, which is essential for a sustainable future for all. The Pact for the Future, adopted at the September 2024 UN Summit of the Future (SoF), emphasizes the necessity of redefining prosperity beyond traditional economic metrics like Gross Domestic Product (GDP). It calls for the redesign of our economic systems to prioritize social and environmental values, moving towards a regenerative economy.

A workshop held on 26 March 2025 in Geneva, Switzerland, titled, ‘What’s Next on Beyond GDP: A Roadmap to Inclusive and Sustainable Economies for People and Planet,’ brought together over 100 representatives from national governments, international agencies, the private sector, students, and civil society to examine how governments can shift to new measures that encompass comprehensive wealth and long-term sustainability. Organized by the Beyond Lab at UN Geneva and International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), in partnership with Thinking Ahead on Societal Change (TASC) platform of the Geneva Graduate Institute, the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), Rethinking Economics, and the International Development Research Center (IDRC), the workshop also explored how societies can ensure intergenerational equity in the transition beyond GDP and how international collaboration can aid countries in implementing these changes.

Opening the event, leaders of the convening agencies Özge Aydoğan, Director of the Beyond Lab, and Nathalie Bernasconi, Vice-President of IISD, outlined the need for a mindset shift in how we think about development and progress, particularly in moving from why we need to move beyond GDP, to how to transition towards other measurements of progress.

Ambassador Matthew Wilson, Permanent Representative of Barbados to the UN Office at Geneva, emphasized that efforts to move beyond GDP are intrinsically linked to resolving pressing current-day challenges, including increasing debt, dwindling development assistance, and overall reform of the international financial system. He noted these challenges limit the ability of many countries to finance critical sectors for well-being, such as education and healthcare.

Karin Goebel, Minister-Counsellor, Permanent Mission of Germany to the UN Office at Geneva, emphasized the broader positive impacts of using different metrics of progress that promote sustainability and thus create complementary spillover effects with benefits for communities.

From L-R: Karin Goebel, Minister-Counsellor, Permanent Mission of Germany; Ambassador Matthew Wilson, Permanent Representative of Barbados; Özge Aydoğan, Director of the Beyond Lab; and Nathalie Bernasconi, Vice-President of IISD

The workshop examined various tools and approaches to complement GDP, aiming to capture areas that GDP overlooks and promote investments that support long-term sustainability. Brad Olsen, Infometrics New Zealand, discussed the application of the living standards framework and proposed an indicator dashboard to build wealth and enhance the well-being of individuals and collectives. Despite the challenges in collecting data on well-being, he emphasized the potential to use existing data as proxies to capture aspects of well-being and integrate these tools into policymaking.

Lara Fleischer, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Centre on Well-being, Inclusion, Sustainability and Equal Opportunity (WISE), presented OECD’s approach to measuring well-being. This approach helps governments monitor societal progress and inform policy decisions across multiple dimensions that matter for people, the planet, and future generations.

Livia Bizikova, IISD, highlighted the need for universal approaches to move beyond GDP. She presented the application of comprehensive wealth measures to complement GDP in Indonesia, Ethiopia, and Trinidad and Tobago, using national data from these countries’ statistical offices. The findings indicate slight growth in wealth, primarily driven by investments in fossil fuel-related infrastructure, overexploitation of natural capital, and limited progress in human capital. Bizikova also underscored the importance of supporting policymakers by sharing experiences and providing access to policy and planning tools to prioritize measures that support sustainable development pathways.

Panel discussion during the event, from L-R: Karin Goebel, Germany; Ambassador Matthew Wilson, Barbados; Özge Aydoğn, Beyond Lab; Nathalie Bernasconi, IISD; Bingying Lou, IISD; Anu Peltola, UNCTAD; and Livia Bizikova, IISD

Anu Peltola, UNCTAD, emphasized the advances that will be brought about by the 2025 System of National Accounts following the Summit of the Future, including a stronger focus on net measures that account for the depletion of natural resources due to production, and their extension to well-being and sustainability considerations. She also called for other strong metrics to balance economic considerations by measuring what we value, such as well-being, equality, sustainability, participatory governance, ethical and innovative economies, and resilience. Additionally, she said a group of experts is expected to be announced soon to spearhead the development of indicators to complement GDP.

A critical aspect of moving beyond GDP is to account for the needs and rights of future generations. Emiliana Rickenmann, climate and gender activist, and co-founder of Latinas for Climate, emphasized the importance of incorporating youth perspectives as well as underrepresented populations in the transition beyond GDP. She highlighted the need to ensure a just transition, including better integration of climate and social justice in economic accounting. She underscored the importance of including future generations in decision-making processes, not as mere tokens, but as real participants and change makers.

Audience at the event

Underscoring the challenges and increasing uncertainty the global community is currently facing, participants emphasized the need to sustain the growing momentum to use beyond GDP measures. Among key next steps, they identified the need to integrate and commit to use indicators to complement GDP in other global initiatives, such as the outcome documents and reporting and monitoring efforts for the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD4) in June and the Second World Summit for Social Development in November.