Youth Moving Beyond GDP at the High-level Forum on Official Statistics

The High-Level Forum on Official Statistics "Beyond GDP: Rethinking Progress in a Changing World," an annual side event of the United Nations Statistical Commission was held on 2 March 2026. Organized by the Statistics Division of the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, the Forum explores topics that address the evolving needs and emerging challenges faced by national statistical offices and national statistical systems. The 2026 Forum focused on the global movement to go "Beyond GDP," ensuring that what matters to people, the planet and the future is fully recognized.

‍Special thanks to the Statistics Division for including the Youth Network on Beyond GDP as the keynote speech, helping ensure intergenerational pespectives were meaningfully represented.

Keynote Speech by Nathalie Delorme, lead of the Youth Moving Beyond GDP initiative

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Distinguished Chair, Madam Deputy Secretary-General, Excellencies, Colleagues,  

It is an honor to join you at this High-level Forum on Official Statistics at such a crucial moment for the global Beyond GDP movement.

Today, as national statistical offices, expert groups, and policymakers reflect on how to measure progress on sustainable development, we are not simply refining indicators. We are redefining what matters for people and planet, for current and future generations. And crucially, we are deciding who gets to shape that definition.

At the Beyond Lab our mandate is to bring together diverse actors to experiment, co-create, and test forward-looking ideas, solutions, and methods. We are a collaborative and creative space, a ‘do-and-think tank’ advancing social innovation for long-term sustainable development, grounded in the Sustainable Development Goals, and intentionally looking toward regenerative development.

One of the initiatives I lead is “Youth Moving Beyond GDP,” in partnership with Rethinking Economics International and UN Trade and Development. The initiative was born back in 2023 from a simple but urgent recognition: if we are redesigning how we measure development and progress, young people, who are not just the inheritors of these systems but today’s changemakers, must be in the driving seat as co-architects.

This is not about symbolism. It is about systemic coherence. It is also about inclusion, participation, and future-proofing the way we shape our systems by putting intergenerational equity as a key defining principle at the heart of it.  

The initiative’s Youth Network on Beyond GDP now brings together over 1,000 young people from over 90 countries, mostly from the Global South. I want to make one point clear: It is about ensuring that space exists for young economists, statisticians, activists, and community leaders from around the world to directly shape global economic discourse. Space for those who operate in contexts where fiscal constraints, climate vulnerability, and demographic change are not abstract debates, but lived realities.

And they have. Throughout the process.

From representatives of the Youth Network speaking at the very first consultation of the Secretary-General’s High-Level Expert Group on Beyond GDP during the High-Level Political Forum. To co-hosting our joint side event at the World Social Summit, where both the Expert Group’s interim report and the Youth Network’s recommendations were presented, with participation of the Deputy Secretary-General.

Most importantly, their recommendations have been carefully considered and integrated by the Expert Group.

This is intergenerationally equitable policymaking in practice. A bridge between grassroots action and expertise, and high-level decision making. It demonstrates that structured, evidence-based youth engagement is not only possible, but it strengthens the process. It is also a model for participatory policymaking that be scaled up to other processes and groups.  

Today, I would like to contribute the Youth Network’s guiding principles and substantive contributions on Beyond GDP, to the critical work of national statistical offices, to ensure relevance with young people’s priorities and experiences on the ground.  

Three pillars underpin our approach:

1. First, a human rights-based rationale. Indicators must uphold dignity, equality, and justice for all. Measurement cannot be neutral if it invisibilizes exclusion.
2. Second, intergenerational justice. Decisions today must safeguard the well-being of both present and future generations. This requires long-term horizons in statistical design and embedding sustainability into measurement systems.
3. Third, country-owned yet globally relevant. Solutions must respect local realities and capabilities, while contributing to our shared Global Goals.

These principles resonate strongly with the High-Level Expert Group’s integrated, universal framework for well-being, equity and inclusion, and sustainability.  

Building on these principles, the Youth Network identified five thematic areas that we believe must be made visible by Beyond GDP metrics to resonate with current and future generations.

1. Participatory & Fair Governance. Ensuring transparent, accountable governance that empowers young people and fosters intergenerational decision-making.  
2. Equity, Inclusion & Knowledge Justice. Guaranteeing intersectional equity and inclusive knowledge systems for all generations. It means future-proof education and epistemic inclusion, including Indigenous knowledge and lived experience. And it means digital inclusion and data dignity.
3. Resilient Well-being. Promoting social, economic, and environmental resilience across individual, community, and national levels. At the individual level: mental and physical health, happiness, and dignity. At the community level: social cohesion, trust networks, and cultural vitality. At the national level: adaptive capacity, crisis preparedness, and the care economy.
4. Planetary Boundaries & Environmental Justice. Respecting ecological limits and recognizing nature as a rights-bearing entity. This implies integrating circular economy and regenerative capacity metrics into national frameworks, and valuing and preserving natural assets, so that progress reflects renewal rather than depletion.
5. Spillover Accountability. Tracking and mitigating transboundary impacts and spillover effects to uphold global fairness and responsibility.  

For national statistical offices, these thematic areas reinforce your work. They invite alignment with existing frameworks, such as the SDG indicators, environmental-economic accounting, and wellbeing measurement, while asking: are we making the invisible visible? Are we giving voice to the voiceless, including young and future generations? Are we measuring what truly matters for humans to thrive on a healthy planet?

Colleagues,

The experience of the Youth Network, enabled through champions across the system, such as today's organizers, shows that intergenerational equity can be institutionalized. That young people engage constructively and with an equal voice with expert bodies. That their recommendations not only inform high-level deliberations, they enrich them.

As we move into the intergovernmental phase, following the High-Level Expert Group’s recommendations, the question is not whether young people should be included. The question is how to embed structured, meaningful, and sustained engagement within national statistical systems and global processes.

Because ultimately, going Beyond GDP is about aligning our measurement systems with the kind of present and future we intend to build.

Intergenerational equity can no longer be an afterthought. It must be a key design principle of the process moving forward.  

The statistical community has the tools. The political momentum is here. And the voices of young people are ready to contribute.

Let us ensure that when we redefine progress, we do so together. For current and for generations yet to come.

Thank you.

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Watch the full High-level Forum on Official Statistics “Beyond GDP: Rethinking Progress in a Changing World” here:

High Level Forum on Official Statistics: Beyond GDP: Rethinking Progress in a Changing World (57th Statistical Commission Side Event) | UN Web TV

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