High-Level Expert Group on Beyond GDP Events
Second Member States Briefing, 4 March 2026
Annalena Baerbock, President of the General Assembly, Amina J. Mohammed, Deputy Secretary?General, and the Co?Chairs of the High?Level Expert Group on Beyond GDP held a briefing to Member States on 4 March 2026 on the progress on the Group¡¯s work and emerging thinking on measures that extend beyond GDP. The briefing outlined the development of a conceptual framework focused on equitable, inclusive, and sustainable well?being, alongside a streamlined dashboard of indicators intended to complement GDP, and highlighted the Group¡¯s extensive consultations with governments, international organizations, civil society, and academia.
In their interventions, Member States welcomed the Experts¡¯ progress and reiterated support for more comprehensive approaches to measuring progress, emphasizing the need to build on existing global frameworks such as the SDGs, ensure country ownership, strengthen national statistical capacities, preserve policy relevance and usability, and avoid duplication or additional reporting burdens. Member States also expressed readiness to engage constructively in the forthcoming intergovernmental process following the release of the High?Level Expert Group¡¯s final report.
Summary of High-Level Forum on Official Statistics: Beyond GDP: Rethinking Progress in a Changing World (57th Statistical Commission Side Event), 2 March 2026
The High?Level Forum on Official Statistics: Beyond GDP ¨C Rethinking Progress in a Changing World was held on 2 March 2026 as a side event of the 57th UN Statistical Commission convening Chief Statisticians and the wider statistical community to engage directly following a presentation by Nora Lustig and Martine Durand, and Pham Khanh Nam on the work of the High?Level Expert Group on Beyond GDP. The session focused on discussing the Group¡¯s emerging recommendations, including proposed concepts, measurement approaches and implications for national statistical systems. Additionally, discussions centered around conceptual and practical challenges of measuring human, social, environmental and institutional capital. Key outcomes included consensus that the Beyond GDP work should proceed iteratively, strong support for building on intergovernmental and inclusive processes to ensure legitimacy and shared recognition that indicators must be accompanied by clear narratives to be usable in policy, budgeting and public communication. Several countries and organizations highlighted ongoing national examples - such as quality?of?life frameworks - and reaffirmed their commitment to supporting collective implementation of the Beyond GDP agenda through the UN system.
Second In-Person Retreat in Geneva, mid-January 2026
In mid-January 2026, the High?Level Expert Group on Beyond GDP convened its second in-person retreat in Geneva to advance its mandate to propose measures of progress that complement and go beyond GDP. Building on extensive consultations conducted over recent months, the retreat marked a critical milestone in refining the conceptual framework, advancing the measurement approach, and discussing uptake and implementation, alongside other remaining elements of the work plan. An exchange with UNCTAD Secretary?General Rebeca Grynspan helped anchor the discussions in current global economic and social developments as the High-Level Expert Group moved towards the delivery of the final report.
Emerging Pathways Beyond GDP: Presentation of the High-Level Expert Group¡¯s Emerging Recommendations and Intergenerational Dialogue with Youth Moving Beyond GDP
At the Second World Summit on Social Development, the ¡°Emerging Pathways Beyond GDP¡± Solutions Session, co-organized with the Beyond Lab UN Geneva, unveiled the High-Level Expert Group on Beyond GDP¡¯s interim report and the recommendations by the Youth Network on Beyond GDP, followed by an interactive dialogue.
Opening remarks from the UN Deputy Secretary-General highlighted the necessity to re-evaluate how we define progress, while the Minister of Human Development and Social Inclusion of Costa Rica outlined how multidimensional measures can help achieve progress on well-being, equity, and sustainability.
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The Co-Chairs of the High-Level Expert Group, Professor Emerita Nora Lustig and Professor Kaushik Basu, presented the Group¡¯s interim report, emphasising that the goal is not to discard GDP but to complement it with recognised and respected indicators that capture progress more comprehensively.
The Youth Network on Beyond GDP representative, Ms. Palakh Khanna, shared the recommendations of the Youth Network. The Open Floor Discussion addressed youth involvement, trade-offs and complexity of selected indicators, the role of human rights, technological progress and digitalization, and the need to explore new domains in line with changing conceptualizations of well-being, present and future.
The High-Level Expert Group has now launched online consultations to hear your perspectives, ideas, and experience: a crucial step that ensures transparency, embraces diverse viewpoints, and helps us jointly shape metrics that truly measure what matters. Please follow the link below to find out more and submit your input. The survey will close on 30th November 2025. Write to us with questions!
UNCTAD16 Event discusses importance of Beyond GDP across different economic contexts
As part of the 16th session of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD16), which took place from 20 to 23 October 2025 at the Palais des Nations in Geneva with the theme ¡°Shaping the future: Driving economic transformation for equitable, inclusive and sustainable development¡±, a side event on Beyond GDP was co-organized by UNCTAD and the Beyond Lab. Speakers included the Secretary-General of UNCTAD Rebeca Grynspan, and Co-Chair of the High-Level Expert Group, Ms. Nora Lustig, who emphasized the importance of indicators that reflect people¡¯s realities in different contexts.
The event emphasized the need for the Experts to identify a set of 15-20 indicators that strike a balance between being nationally adaptable and internationally comparable.
Expert Roundtable highlights human rights in Beyond GDP agenda
An Expert Roundtable hosted by the UN Human Rights Office in Geneva brought together governments, experts, and civil society to explore how human rights indicators can inform measures of progress beyond GDP. Co-organized with the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD), the United Nations Office at Geneva (UNOG) Beyond Lab, and others, the event emphasized accountability, participation, and equity in data systems and called for justice- and sustainability-focused metrics to advance a more human-centered vision of development under the Pact for the Future.
High-Level Expert Group on Beyond GDP holds first in-person meeting
Asia and Europe are home to 14 LLDCs that grapple with a series of unique but interconnected development challenges. Their full participation in global trade is hindered by their remoteness and limited infrastructure. Over the course of two days, senior UN and government officials, representatives from transit countries, development system partners, international financial institutions and the private sector gathered to assess the progress made by Landlocked Developing Countries (LLDCs) in eastern Europe, central Asia and south Asia over the past decade. They also proposed new partnerships and alliances as well as innovative solutions to accelerate their path to development.
Leaders and Experts Advance Beyond GDP Vision at UN High-Level Political Forum
A High-Level Political Forum side event co-organized by the UN Secretariat for the High-Level Expert Group on Beyond GDP, together with the Permanent Missions of Spain, Morocco, and the Philippines, brought together governments, experts, and youth to explore new measures of progress beyond Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The event counted with the co-chairs of the Expert Group, Ms. Nora Lustig and Mr. Kaushik Basu, and highlighted the Group¡¯s mandate under the Pact for the Future to develop country-owned and universally applicable indicators that capture equity, sustainability, and well-being.
Speakers emphasized that moving beyond GDP is not only a technical but also a political and cultural shift. The discussions underscored inclusivity, intergenerational equity, and strong statistical capacity as key to ensuring that new metrics reflect what truly matters to people and the planet.
