How FfD4 Helped Reinvigorate Political Will to Move Beyond GDP

The conference, which took place from June 30 to July 3, reaffirmed the global community’s commitment to tackling pressing development challenges, such as poverty, malnutrition, human rights, and access to health care across the globe—but especially for countries in Africa, land-locked countries, Small Island Developing States (SIDS), and others. It also addressed systemic issues like global economic governance, illicit financial flows, and the lack of inclusion of experts from developing countries in decision-making processes. In the conference’s outcome document, heads of state reiterated their dedication to achieving sustainable development, particularly through the effective implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. This commitment is especially critical given the estimated USD 4 trillion annual financing gap needed to meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030.

Among many solutions proposed to help close the financing gap, there has been a growing call to move beyond GDP as the primary measure of progress, and therefore, public investment. The shortcomings of GDP for sustainable development have been well known for many decades. It is addressed in the Global Goals, with SDG target 17.19 recognizing that measuring economic growth alone is not sufficient for achieving the SDGs. 

In September 2024, the UN Summit of the Future (SoF) specifically stressed the need to complement and go beyond GDP, given its failure to account for inequality, environmental degradation, unpaid care work, and the well-being of people and communities. In May 2025, the UN Secretary-General appointed an independent High-Level Expert Group on Beyond GDP to develop recommendations that will help countries and institutions adopt more comprehensive measures of sustainable development progress beyond traditional GDP metrics. Ff4D built on these efforts, creating an opportunity to chart a new path for development financing and long-term sustainability.

This article highlights the key recommendations from FfD4, with a particular focus on moving beyond GDP as a measure of progress. It also shares insights from young people and leading experts on the actions and strategies needed to advance this agenda.

What Is Covered in the FfD4 Outcome Document

The Seville conference brought into focus a long-standing global debate on the limitations of GDP as the dominant measure of national progress. The FfD4 outcome document reaffirms the commitment outlined in the Pact for the Future to develop a complementary framework of progress, including alternative indicators beyond GDP. It also anticipates the forthcoming recommendations of the UN High-Level Expert Group, which will propose a concise set of country-owned, universally applicable indicators for sustainable development (Section III, paras. 62 and 64). Additionally, the document emphasizes the need to support national development strategies that foster inclusive and sustainable economic growth while safeguarding developing countries from the disproportionate impacts of external shocks (Section I, para. 7). Achieving this vision requires a long-term approach to economic growth—one that incorporates an asset-based perspective that seeks to leverage and build on local environmental, social, and economic assets for long-term sustainable development (Section II, para. 51).

The FfD4 recommendations urge development partners to collectively double their support to developing countries by 2030 (Section II, para. n). It is proposed that this increased support be aligned with complementary measures to GDP, enhancing existing policies and practices to better reflect sustainability. These alternative metrics should also inform decisions on access to development finance and technical cooperation, promoting a more inclusive approach to international collaboration (Section III, para. 38). Furthermore, beyond-GDP indicators are recommended for use in monitoring and evaluating the design, implementation, and effectiveness of current policies and development cooperation strategies, including eligibility for concessional financing (Section II, paras. 31, q).

Beyond critical access to financing and rethinking economic and financial systems, a major shift in mindsets is required to enable the transformative change the world urgently needs. 

Efforts to Build Momentum on Beyond GDP at FfD4 

In an effort to bring this issue to the fore, the Beyond Lab, in partnership with IISD, Rethinking Economics, the UN Conference on Trade and Development, the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), UN Youth, the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), and the governments of Germany and Zambia jointly hosted a side event titled Youth Moving Beyond GDP: Intergenerational Equity to Finance What We Value.  

High-level panellists, including Dr. Bärbel Kofler (Parliamentary State Secretary to the German Federal Minister for Cooperation and Development), Prudence Kaoma (Permanent Secretary in Zambia’s Ministry of Finance and National Planning), Mónica Colomer de Selva (Spain’s Ambassador-at-Large for Financing for Development), Felipe Paullier (UN Assistant Secretary-General for Youth Affairs), and Alexandre Pupo (Secretary-General of the International Youth Organization for Ibero-America) underscored the importance of young people as a central driving force in the push to move beyond GDP, calling for deep reforms in global financial institutions with young people at the centre of new development narratives and embedded into policy and decision-making processes.

Youth representatives, including Antoine Kallab (Associate Director at the American University of Beirut) and Georgia Gadotti dos Anjos (Economistas Sin Fronteras), alongside experts Erin Tansey (Director of the Sustainable Inclusive Economies Program at IDRC), and Anu Peltola (Director of Statistics at UNCTAD) emphasized the need to rethink what we value, how we measure it, and who gets to shape the global development agenda. This work includes supporting the capacity of national policy-makers to better understand and use beyond-GDP metrics, as well as assisting countries in measuring both the quantity and quality of growth and the value it brings to people and planet.

Other panellists, including Noemí Espinosa Madrid (Secretary General of the Association of Caribbean States), Borja Santos Porras (Vice Dean at IE School of Public and Global Affairs), and Amal Ridene (Climate Finance and Policy Specialist) further emphasized the need for beyond GDP efforts to account for local vulnerabilities and challenges, enabling countries to define well-being indicators that reflect their own contexts. Marcella Favretto (Chief of Sustainable Development at OHCHR) pointed to the move beyond GDP as ultimately reflecting a transition toward the "human rights economy," enabling countries to measure the rights and well-being of societies. Bing Lou (Senior Policy Advisor at IISD) summarized discussions under three key levers to move the dial on beyond GDP, including international collaboration to generate political momentum; establishing a common knowledge base of alternative metrics; and equipping countries to integrate alternative metrics into national policy frameworks,  thus helping governments better align financial investments with long-term sustainability.

FfD4 also generated new partnerships and alliances on beyond GDP work. This included the announcement of the Youth Network for Beyond GDP, a joint initiative by the Beyond Lab, UNCTAD, and Rethinking Economics International to ensure young people are not just observers in the process but are embedded into intergovernmental policy and decision-making processes. Additionally, the Beyond GDP Global Alliance was launched as part of the Seville Platform for Action—led by Spain, the OECD, UNCTAD, and the Ibero-American General Secretariat (SEGIB), and in partnership with a number of governments and international organizations. The alliance aims to serve as a platform for international dialogue and action, facilitating the integration of multidimensional indicators into national policy-making, international cooperation, and financing frameworks.