Bridging the gap

A second key takeaway was that the design of metrics beyond GDP is not just about improving measurements, but fundamentally about rethinking of what the economy is for.

As reminded by the Ambassador of Honduras, Marcela Arias Moncada, ministers of finance around the world make human rights decisions every day including through budget allocations, tax reforms, and investment strategies. Yet these decisions often remain invisible in GDP-focused approaches.

Participants called for new measurement frameworks to include human rights indicators related to fiscal policy, reflecting States’ legal duty to raise and maximize resources for health, education, and other economic, social, and cultural rights. Many underscored the importance of also integrating the right to development to capture cross-border human rights obligations and the impact of economic and climate decisions on other countries.

The limitations of GDP as a measure of economic progress are especially felt by developing countries. Access to concessional development and climate finance is often restricted to low-income countries, excluding middle-income countries with high levels of poverty or vulnerability to climate change.

“For Small Island Developing States (SIDS) like The Bahamas, the promise of beyond GDP is more than a slogan, it’s a lifeline,” said Patricia Hermanns, Ambassador of The Bahamas.

Investing in inclusive and disaggregated data

Another central theme was the critical role of data, statistics, and indicators in building robust measurement frameworks that go beyond GDP and reflect human rights, sustainability, and equality.

New metrics should avoid past exclusions and reveal inequalities. To truly measure what matters and to ensure no one is left behind, there was broad agreement on the need to balance investment on economic data with greater focus on data disaggregation, training for statisticians, and stronger national statistical systems to reveal both horizontal and vertical inequalities.

Experts emphasized that the new framework should use innovative data sources and methods grounded in a human rights-based approach. This process should be inclusive, engaging civil society and disadvantaged groups such as Indigenous Peoples, who often bear the greatest costs of growth-driven economic policy choices.

Data creation and policymaking should prioritize young people to ensure that new frameworks reflect long-term sustainability and intergenerational justice. 

The roundtable stood out for the active participation of Member States, including Mexico, Morocco, the Philippines, and Honduras, who shared examples of national beyond GDP metrics. They highlighted how such metrics, often embedded in legislation, effectively guide policymakers in managing difficult trade-offs and ensuring more equitable and sustainable outcomes.

Many of the countries in attendance are also part of the Beyond GDP Global Alliance — a collaborative space launched at the Fourth Financing for Development Conference in Sevilla, Spain, to foster dialogue, coherence, and convergence across existing beyond GDP initiatives.

Responding to the guiding question of the final panel — why should this time be different? — HLEG-member Enrico Giovannini pointed to the presence of a clear political mandate.

“The Pact for the Future explicitly calls for moving beyond GDP,” he said. “The key message is that we must go beyond the purely economic dimension of well-being and consider the broader factors that make well-being equitable and sustainable.”