Consultations by the High-Level Expert Group on Beyond GDP

Consultations are a crucial step for the success of our initiative. They ensure transparency and allow for diverse perspectives to be heard.

Throughout their mandate, the Expert Group has held extensive consultations with governments, civil society, academia, and the UN system.

On the occasion of publishing their interim report in November, the Group launched a months-long online consultation to hear different perspectives, ideas and experiences via the Group's survey, so that together we can shape a more comprehensive set of metrics that truly reflect what matters to people.

Below is a summary of this process that reached over 6,000 stakeholders.

Insights from the online consultations of the High-Level Expert Group on Beyond GDP

What we did:

  • Citizens and community-based organisations
  • Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and civil society
  • Academia and research institutions
  • Private sector actors and entrepreneurs
  • Government representatives, policymakers and statisticians (beyond existing channels through Permanent Missions)
  • Anyone with a stake in how we measure progress, well-being, and sustainability (added value)

What we heard:

From the hundreds of inputs, several key messages stood out:

  • Broad endorsement of the direction of the Beyond GDP work and the three pillars of well-being, equity and inclusiveness, and sustainability
  • The need for conceptual clarity of the interaction of the pillars, domains and overarching framework
  • More prominence to the environment, climate change as issues of major concern to many stakeholders
  • More consideration of operational aspects, including different capacities, and provision of implementation pathways, including the need for capacity development and financing for data as integral to operationalizing Beyond GDP.

What it meant for the Group’s work:

  • The consultations provided crucial input for the finalization of the Group’s final report.
  • Key issues, such as the role of the environment, the need to reduce duplication and to be aligned with the 2030 Agenda, as well as addressing statistical capacity constraints influenced the Group’s thinking towards its final report.