High Level Forum on Official Statistics: Beyond GDP: Rethinking Progress in a Changing World (57th Statistical Commission Side Event).
The High Level Forum on Official Statistics will explore the connections with the wider statistical landscape and consider options and ideas to build on existing statistical frameworks, as appropriate. It will also examine country capacities and needs to develop metrics for Beyond GDP, building on national experiences with the SDGs and other frameworks in this regard. The UN Statistical Commission will also deliberate on its role in advancing the Beyond GDP agenda.
- Opening Session: Keynote speech: Intergenerational perspective on the Beyond GDP agenda
- Session 1: The Global Push Beyond GDP - Frameworks and Principles
- Session 2: The Role of the UN Statistical Commission in Advancing Beyond GDP - Partnerships, Cooperation and Standards
- Closing Session: Stocktaking and way forward
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The measurement of gross domestic product (GDP), while useful for economic analysis, is not a comprehensive measurement of progress that fully aligns with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Through an excessive policy focus on income per capita and GDP levels, progress on all three dimensions of sustainable development has been obscured, distorting international development cooperation, and eroding trust in governments and institutions due to a growing disconnect between economic growth and perceptions of peaceful society, well-being and living conditions.
Efforts to move beyond GDP have gathered steam. The development of the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) indicator framework, and many well-being and environmental indicator frameworks at national and international levels, show that there is a growing richness of data covering human progress and environmental sustainability. SDG target 17.19 of the 2030 Agenda aims to "build on existing initiatives to develop measurements of progress on sustainable development that complement GDP and support statistical capacity-building in developing countries" by 2030.
The Pact for the Future, adopted by Heads of State and Government in September 2024, provided further political momentum to develop metrics beyond GDP (A/RES/79/1). Member States mandated the SG to establish an independent high-level expert group (HLEG) to develop recommendations for a limited number of country-owned and universally applicable indicators that go beyond GDP. The work and recommendations to be developed by the HLEG constitute a pivotal moment for the statistical community to lead the way in delivering on the Beyond GDP metrics and facilitating their uptake by policymakers. The HLEG is converging on a tripartite conceptual framework comprising three pillars, namely: wellbeing, inclusiveness and equity, and sustainability. At the heart of this framework is to make the invisible visible (e.g. the destruction of the environment) and give voice to the voiceless (e.g. assessing the well-being of those left behind and future generations). They identified several domains that will be at the core of their conceptual framework and criteria for the selection of related outcome indictors.
Prior to the mandate from the Pact, the Expert Group on Well-Being Measurement (EGWM) was established by the 55th session of the United Nations Statistical Commission (UNSC) in 2024 to take forward the recommendations of the "Beyond GDP" sprint 2023, organized by the Network of Economic Statisticians, and develop a framework for measuring inclusive and sustainable well-being (UNSC decision 55/108). The Group has since achieved considerable progress in its conceptual thinking and framing, which is reflected in its report to the 57th session of the UNSC.
In the meantime, many countries have also proceeded to develop Beyond GDP dashboards and indicators and to insert a well-being lens in their policymaking. Their experiences, including in developing national wellbeing measurement frameworks, provide valuable insights to other countries and policy makers.
The 2026 High-level Forum on Official Statistics will provide an opportunity for the Statistical Commission and a broader set of stakeholders to take stock of and reflect upon the work of the Secretary-General's HLEG on Beyond GDP, the EGWM and other international and national efforts, both in terms of conceptual frameworks and metrics to go Beyond GDP. It will explore the connections with the wider statistical landscape and consider options and ideas to build on existing statistical frameworks, as appropriate. It will also examine country capacities and needs to develop metrics for Beyond GDP, building on national experiences with the SDGs and other frameworks in this regard. The UN Statistical Commission will also deliberate on its role in advancing the Beyond GDP agenda.
Side Event at the 57th session of the United Nations Statistical Commission, scheduled to be held in New York from 3 to 6 March 2026.View less
Related Sites and Documents: Concept Note (pdf) &Website
Economic and Social Council
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