The High-Level Expert Group on Beyond GDP has released an interim progress report proposing a framework to complement GDP by incorporating sustainability across economic, environmental, and social pillars, alongside resilience, institutional quality, and international cooperation. The report outlines illustrative indicators covering material well-being, health, education, environmental quality, subjective well-being, social capital, and governance, while also recommending adjustments to GDP to better reflect inequality and sustainability. It emphasizes that political commitment and strengthened capacities are essential for governments to effectively integrate well-being data into policymaking.
Established in May 2025 following the Summit of the Future, the Expert Group was mandated by the UN Secretary-General to lead a consultative process aimed at developing practical recommendations for countries and institutions to measure progress beyond GDP. This effort reflects growing recognition that GDP alone does not adequately capture sustainable development outcomes or long-term well-being.
Since 2016, the International Institute for Sustainable Development has contributed to this agenda by advancing expanded wealth frameworks that complement GDP, including the World Bank’s comprehensive wealth framework and UNEP’s inclusive wealth approach. Through collaborative work in countries such as Indonesia, Ethiopia, and Trinidad and Tobago, IISD has examined how economic, environmental, and social assets that underpin well-being can be measured, while also identifying data gaps, capacity constraints, and policy relevance at the country level.
Drawing on this experience, the article highlights the importance of comprehensively capturing changes in nature when measuring progress beyond GDP. While pollution and biodiversity indicators are important, equal attention must be paid to natural capital stocks, which underpin essential ecosystem services such as clean water, food production, climate regulation, and cultural value. Evidence from 2000 to 2020 shows that many countries underinvest in protecting natural capital, despite progress in environmental-economic accounting through initiatives such as SEEA supported by the World Bank and UNEP.
The article also cautions against overly complex dashboards with too many indicators. GDP’s influence partly stems from its simplicity and ease of communication, and replicating this clarity is difficult when addressing multidimensional aspects of well-being. Experience suggests that limiting the number of headline indicators placed alongside GDP can enhance usability and policy relevance, rather than relying on expansive dashboards that may only engage technical audiences.
Ensuring strong country ownership is identified as a critical factor for success. Moving beyond GDP requires more than new metrics; it demands institutional integration into policy design, budgeting, and evaluation. Countries that have successfully adopted complementary frameworks, such as New Zealand, the Netherlands, Canada, and Ecuador, benefit from strong statistical systems and clear coordination mechanisms. Practical guidance on leadership roles, inter-agency coordination, and entry points across the policy cycle is essential to support broader adoption.
The article further stresses the need to link beyond GDP metrics directly to national and global development challenges, including poverty, food insecurity, health, education, and environmental sustainability. Alternative metrics can reveal how GDP-driven growth strategies may undermine long-term development, such as overreliance on fossil fuels or underinvestment in human capital and agriculture. Aligning sectoral priorities like climate action and biodiversity protection with beyond GDP approaches can help shift decision-making toward more sustainable outcomes.
Overall, the analysis underscores that complementing GDP is not an abstract technical exercise but a necessary step toward embedding long-term sustainability and well-being into economic decision-making. Reinforced by global commitments under the Pact for the Future and international financing and social development conferences, widespread adoption of beyond GDP metrics has the potential to reshape policy priorities and support more resilient, inclusive, and sustainable development pathways.
