Measuring what matters for people and the planet

Gross domestic product, as a metric of economic wellbeing, is extremely flawed. It cannot tell us whether people can access healthcare, whether women’s unpaid care work is properly valued, or whether economic activity is damaging the environment. As governments develop a new approach through the UN’s Beyond GDP intergovernmental process, CESR has submitted recommendations for a framework grounded in human rights, gender justice and ecological well-being.

Our submission argues that measuring progress differently must also change the decisions governments make. A rights-based framework should guide taxation, debt management, budgeting and public investment, while holding governments, corporations and international financial institutions accountable for their impacts on people and the planet. 

We call for a dashboard of indicators that tracks human and environmental rights, using data disaggregated by gender and other characteristics so inequalities cannot be hidden. Civil society, feminist movements and affected communities should help shape and assess those measures, and our Decoding Injustice tools offer a practical way to connect data with policy choices and accountability.

The Beyond GDP process is an opportunity to define progress by whether economies enable everyone to live with dignity on a thriving planet.

Read the full submission below.