Submission to the Beyond GDP process calls for greater Global South ownership and new metrics that account for inequality, vulnerability and financing conditions
Plataforma CIPÓ has submitted a contribution to the United Nations’ intergovernmental Beyond GDP consultation process, which is exploring new ways to measure development and prosperity beyond Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Titled “Measuring development without reproducing inequalities: a Global South contribution to the Elements Paper of the Beyond GDP intergovernmental process,” the submission was prepared under the New Economy for Brazil initiative, a joint effort by Plataforma CIPÓ and Transforma.
The document advances a central argument: going beyond GDP should not simply mean replacing one indicator with a larger set of metrics. For CIPÓ, it is essential to consider who defines these metrics, how they will be used, and how they may affect countries’ access to finance and their ability to design public policies.
The submission recommends that inequality and vulnerability be treated as core dimensions of the new framework and that the debate be explicitly linked to international financial architecture reform, climate and development finance, just transition and international tax cooperation.
CIPÓ also argues that developing countries should have meaningful participation in the design and implementation of new metrics, with enough flexibility to reflect national priorities and with long-term support to strengthen statistical capacity and data systems.
The document highlights a key risk: an agenda designed to address the limitations of GDP could end up creating new forms of external conditionality for the Global South. The success of the Beyond GDP process, therefore, will depend on its ability to connect new ways of measuring development with financing and public policy decisions without reproducing existing global asymmetries.
