At the launch of the operational phase of the Global Alliance on Beyond GDP, UNU-CPR Head of Equitable Development Dr. Nicole Goldin delivered a short intervention drawing on a recent UNU-CPR convening in Geneva. The workshop brought together researchers, policymakers and practitioners working on how progress is measured and used in policy and finance contexts.
The intervention pointed to a few key considerations for the Beyond GDP agenda, including the need for measures that are decision-relevant, coherence across existing frameworks, and attention to the political and societal conditions that shape implementation and uptake.
Statement by Dr. Nicole Goldin, Head of Equitable Development, UNU-CPR
Thank you, Chair, and warm thanks to the co-hosts for launching the operational phase of the Beyond GDP Global Alliance.
From UNU CPR’s perspective, the timing of this Alliance could not be more important and we are glad to be a part of it. Just last month in Geneva, UNU CPR convened a two-day expert workshop ahead of the UN intergovernmental process on Beyond GDP, bringing together researchers, policymakers, and practitioners to reflect on how this agenda can meaningfully shift how progress is measured—toward people, planet, and future generations. That discussion strongly affirmed the relevance of this Alliance and its direction.
Three insights from that engagement may be useful as you move forward:
First, Beyond GDP must be more than an expanded dashboard—it must change decisions. Participants emphasized the need for a UN-wide standardized, credible measures that value economic growth but go beyond GDP’s blind spots, including informal labor, environmental degradation, governance and distributional impacts—while remaining usable for finance ministries, development banks, and international cooperation actors. Operational relevance will be key to uptake, and we therefore welcome the expression from the EOSG that the intergovernmental process on Beyond GDP is expected to be a multi-year process, in order to ensure strong inputs and engagement with relevant stakeholders.
Second, coherence matters as much as innovation. Governments are already navigating overlapping indicators across climate, biodiversity, inequality, and intergenerational justice. Beyond GDP can add real value by providing technical coherence—helping policymakers understand trade-offs and synergies across priorities, particularly in financing and investment decisions. The Alliance is well placed to support this convergence, including with other initiatives such as the Coalition of Finance Ministers for Climate Action, and the Network for Greening the Financial System.
Third, this is ultimately a political and societal transition, not just a technical one. The Geneva discussions underscored that broad uptake will depend on whole of society engagement—linking statistical reform with public trust, institutional incentives, and policy narratives that resonate beyond expert communities. We therefore dimensions within the Action Plan focusing on narrative-building and media engagement.
UNU CPR sees its role in this Alliance as helping bridge research, policy, and practice—from shaping evidence-informed analysis, to supporting pilots, to translating the recommendations of the High Level Expert Group into actionable tools aligned with the Financing for Development agenda, including elements like credit ratings, debt sustainability.
We view the Beyond GDP Global Alliance not simply as a measurement initiative, but as a catalyst for redefining what success looks like in international cooperation, and towards developmental models that truly deliver across wellbeing, inclusion and sustainability. UNU CPR looks forward to working with partners here to ensure this agenda delivers real change in how resources are allocated and how progress is judged.
Thank you.
