Global efforts on beyond GDP

👉🏽 This story is developed as part of the Doughnut Economics for Policymakers guide.

Since 2020, multiple intergovernmental bodies have launched coordinated efforts to move beyond GDP as the primary measure of progress. This is achieved through developing alternative measurement frameworks, facilitating knowledge exchange and debate, and urging policy action towards economies that centre people and the living planet. 

Overview 

Many intergovernmental bodies have increasingly recognised the limitations of GDP as a measure of societal progress, and are coordinating efforts to support countries in shifting their economic goals. These global efforts take multiple complementary forms:

Widening the toolbox to monitor societal progress: 

• Since 2011, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has been measuring wellbeing in OECD and partner countries. In 2020, it established the Centre on Well-being, Inclusion, Sustainability and Equal Opportunity (WISE), which develops frameworks and guidelines to support member states in measuring wellbeing and informing policy, in collaboration with UN statistical bodies. 
• In 2024, the UN Statistics Division established the Expert Group on Well-being Measurement, which proposed a statistical framework for inclusive and sustainable wellbeing that can be implemented by member states’ statistical agencies. 
• In 2024, all 193 UN member states adopted the Pact for the Future. As part of the pact, member states reaffirmed ‘the need to urgently develop measures of progress on sustainable development that complement or go beyond gross domestic product.’  In 2025, the UN Secretary-General appointed the High-Level Expert Group on Beyond GDP that has been holding consultations to develop a dashboard of indicators and provide guidance on deployment. The UN also aims to facilitate intergovernmental processes to consider the Group's recommendations.  

Facilitating debate, sharing learning and urging actions: 

• Through its knowledge exchange platform and World Forums on Wellbeing, the OECD WISE Centre facilitates knowledge sharing and wider societal debates to help governments put wellbeing at the heart of policy design.   
• Between 2020 and 2024, the World Health Organisation’s Council on the  Economics of Health for All developed a series of reports and communication materials urging governments to centre the health of people and the living planet in their economic policies. 
• In 2023, under India’s leadership, the G20 launched the Global Alliance for Life Economies Research and Innovation to facilitate dialogue and collaborations across society that advance economies enabling all life on earth to thrive.  
• In 2024, the UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, Olivier De Schutter, called for a decisive shift away from growth-dependent development strategies towards economies that centre the wellbeing of people and the planet. In consultation with a wide range of partners he then led the development of a Roadmap for Eradicating Poverty Beyond Growth that provides policymakers with concrete measures to transform their economies.  
• In 2025, Spain, the OECD, and various UN agencies launched ‘a global alliance of countries and partners committed to advancing the integration of more comprehensive metrics of development in policy and financing practice’. 
• In 2026, building on the High-level Expert Group on Beyond GDP’s efforts, UN Secretary-General  António Guterres publicly urged the overhaul of the world’s ‘existing accounting systems’ for the economy. 

Implementation 

Tools and frameworks proposed by these intergovernmental bodies are recommendations to member states with no legal obligations to apply them, relying instead on voluntary adoption and political commitment. Statistical frameworks and measurement tools are often developed in consultation with member states' national statistical offices and implemented through these offices. Countries can adapt the frameworks to their specific contexts while maintaining international comparability. 

The voluntary nature of these initiatives means that implementation depends heavily on national political will and institutional capacity. 

Impact 

These international efforts have contributed to increased legitimacy and support for beyond-GDP approaches, with a growing number of countries adopting diverse indicators to measure societal progress. Guidelines, tools, knowledge exchange and capacity building support delivered by some of these initiatives have enhanced capacities in many countries to consider beyond-GDP approaches. 

High-level declarations, such as the Pact for the Future, can create normative pressure and legitimacy for countries to adopt beyond-GDP approaches, even without binding commitments. These intergovernmental bodies also have convening power to bring together not just governments but also civil society, academia, business, and Indigenous communities to build broad-based support for economic transformation.

Challenges

• Resource constraints and funding gaps: Existing intergovernmental bodies such as UN agencies are struggling with insufficient funding to provide adequate technical support, coordinate effectively across multiple initiatives, and ensure sustained engagement with member states. This undermines the capacity to translate frameworks into practical implementation support. 
• Lack of binding commitments: The voluntary nature of these international frameworks means countries face no consequences for non-adoption. Without mechanisms to hold governments accountable, progress depends entirely on political will, which can shift with electoral cycles.
• Limited and uneven uptake: Despite high-level political commitments, actual adoption of beyond-GDP approaches remains patchy. Many countries have signed declarations but not meaningfully changed their economic policymaking or budget allocation processes. For example, some countries have adopted wellbeing measurement frameworks but continue to prioritise GDP growth in their core economic policies.
• Tension between universal frameworks and local context: Developing measurement frameworks that are both internationally comparable and locally meaningful is inherently difficult. Economic goals and meaningful measurements may vary across cultures and diverse national and local contexts. 

Reference and further reading 

• The Wellbeing Economy Policy Design Course provides an overview on societal momentum behind the wellbeing economy, including intergovernmental support. 
• The OECD WISE Centre tracks the development of wellbeing monitoring and policy frameworks across OECD countries. 

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