Event Summary | World Social Summit Official Solutions Session: "Emerging Pathways Beyond GDP"

Overview

The official Solutions Session “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 marked a milestone in the global effort to redefine progress. In a full room with over 100 participants and many more online through UN Web TV, the High-Level Expert Group on Beyond GDP presented for the first time their interim report, directly followed by an  intervention by the Youth Network on Beyond GDP, as part of the “Youth Moving Beyond GDP” collaboration between the Beyond Lab at UN Geneva, UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and Rethinking Economics International.

The event featured opening remarks by the H.E. Amina J. Mohammed, UN Deputy Secretary-General and H.E.Yorleny León Marchena, the Minister of Human Development and Social Inclusion of Costa Rica as well as an engaging open floor discussion. It was co-moderated by Özge Aydoğan, Director at the Beyond Lab, and Ricardo Fuentes, Lead of the Secretariat of the High-Level Expert Group on Beyond GDP, who facilitated this dialogue across diverse stakeholders and generations.

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Key Takeaways:

• The gap between GDP metrics and lived experience keeps increasing, eroding trust in governments. GDP is ill-suited to capture the needs and aspirations of our world.
• Beyond GDP is not a technical fix but rather about the legacy we want to co-create, as metrics are never neutral; what we measure signals what we value.
• The High-Level Expert Group shared the findings of their Interim Report: the seven domains being initially proposed, as well as the discussions around adopting a composite index versus a dashboard of indicators.
• The Youth Network on Beyond GDP shared their recommendations for three guiding principles and five domains. The principles are values that guide the interpretation of each domain, the latter being concrete areas which should be measured as part of Beyond GDP to resonate with the Youth Network. The Youth Network also stressed that young people must be co-creators of Beyond GDP metrics, not afterthoughts.
• Indicators must be culturally relevant: Progress means different things in different contexts; one-size-fits-all solutions risk exclusion.

H.E. Amina J. Mohammed, UN Deputy Secretary-General, set the tone by recalling the legacy of Copenhagen’s Social Summit 30 years ago: a call for societies to respond to both material and spiritual needs. She emphasized that GDP, while versatile, is “woefully ill-suited” to capture human dignity, equity, and sustainability.

“Citizens should no longer be told that the metric for the success of their society can be expressed in a single number. We need a visionary proposal for how to conceptualize a dignified and good life today and tomorrow.” _{H.E. Amina J. Mohammed, UN Deputy Secretary-General}

She urged stakeholders to engage with the Expert Group’s consultations, support the intergovernmental process, and operationalize Beyond GDP frameworks globally. Her remarks highlighted three lessons from the SDG process: inclusive consultations, patience for systemic change, and ambition to meet people’s aspirations.

H.E. Yorleny León Marchena, Minister of Human Development and Social Inclusion of Costa Rica, shared her country’s success following the adoption of a Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI). By measuring five dimensions (education, housing and internet access, health, labor and social protection) instead of only assessing poverty by someone’s income, the Government has a nuanced understanding of where the needs are. This allows for a more targeted approach and efficient use of public resources. The MPI also allows to track changes in a country’s efforts to address people’s needs, in the case of Costa Rica’s Multi-Dimensional Poverty rate reduced from 21.8% in 2008 to 9.9% in 2025.

This was followed by the Co-Chairs of the High-Level Expert Group, Professor Emerita Nora Lustig and Professor Kaushik Basu, presenting the Group’s interim report. They stressed that the goal is not to discard GDP but to complement it with recognized indicators that capture progress more comprehensively. Key points include:

• The dilemma of aggregation: Should the goal be a composite index or a dashboard? A single number offers simplicity but risks masking inequalities and trade-offs. A dashboard provides nuance but may lack political traction.
• Proposed dimensions: The interim framework identifies seven domains for measuring progress: Material well-being; Education; Health; Subjective well-being; Social capital; Governance; and Environmental quality.‍

Professor Basu proposed to tweak the “GDP Game” by proposing several different GDP complements to reflect how GDP is distributed to factor equality and inclusion, while capitalizing on the existing GDP competition between political leaders.

“Changing the target can change the world we create.” _{Prof Kaushik Basu, co-chair of the High-Level Expert Group on Beyond GDP}

Professor Emerita Lustig stressed the importance of talking to sceptics and clarifying that this initiative won’t harm the agenda of growth but rather will complement it.

Ms. Palakh Khanna, as the Youth Network on Beyond GDP representative, shared the recommendations of the Youth Network, anchoring its vision in the three guiding principles of human rights, intergenerational justice, and country-owned yet globally relevant. These principles are cross-cutting across the five domains identified as most important for the Youth Network:

• Participatory and fair governance: calling for transparent, accountable, and inclusive governance, ensuring meaningful youth participation and intergenerational decision-making.
• Resilient well-being building societies that thrive in the face of uncertainty by fostering social, economic, and environmental resilience at every level: individual, community and national.
• Planetary boundaries & Environmental Justice: placing nature at the center as a rights-bearing entity and respecting ecological limits and thresholds. Progress must reflect maintenance and renewal, not depletion.
• Equity, inclusion, and knowledge justice: demanding that progress be rooted in fairness and diversity, ensuring intersectional equity across age, gender, geography, and ability. It calls for future-proof education systems that embrace epistemic inclusion, valuing Indigenous knowledge and lived experience alongside scientific and technological innovation.
• Spillover accountability: ensuring that progress within one country does not come at the expense of others or future generations

Their message was clear: intergenerational equity and the experiences, expertise and lived realities from young people must guide the Beyond GDP agenda.

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Open Dialogue

The interactive discussion brought diverse voices from youth leaders, human rights advocates, government representatives, and economists. Key themes included:

• Trade-offs and complexity: How to integrate multiple indicators without overwhelming policymakers? And how to consider the interactions between indicators that might influence each other.
• Human rights lens: Metrics are never neutral; what we measure signals what we value. This calls for a systemic framework that embeds rights and accountability.
• AI and data innovation: Opportunities for real-time monitoring, but also concerns about how it will disrupt not only the labor market but also our lives, impacting human connection and mental health

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Closing Reflections

The session concluded with a call to action:

• Continue consultations with the Expert Group; engage with the Youth Network
• Engage with the final report during the 80th UN General Assembly.
• Support operationalization of Beyond GDP frameworks at national level.

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‍Learn More

• Expert Group's Interim Report: https://www.un.org/en/beyondGDP/documents

Watch the full official Solutions Session “Emerging Pathways Beyond GDP” here: