Youth Moving Beyond GDP

"On their deathbed, no one will regret not having contributed enough to GDP"
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Sustainable development, as outlined in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), is grounded in the principle of intergenerational equity. This principle asserts that the needs of the present must be met without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. However, political, social, and economic decisions often prioritize short-term gains over long-term sustainability.

A clear example of this is the traditional reliance on gross domestic product (GDP) as the primary measure of progress, development, and well-being. Such models risk failing to generate true, inclusive prosperity, as they overlook critical aspects of sustainable development—namely social, human, and natural capital—and fail to account for future implications. By prioritizing short-term, extractive economic goals, the GDP measure neglects these vital dimensions of sustainability, contributing to unsustainable practices, negative long-term spillover effects, and a “debt to future generations” which compromises both human well-being and the planet’s long-term viability.

At the Summit of the Future, all UN Member States agreed to develop a framework on measures of progress on sustainable development to complement and go beyond GDP, as outlined in Action 53 of the Pact for the Future. How do we ensure intergenerational equity?  

As those who inherit our economic systems, young people and the needs of future generations must play a central role in shaping the transition to a framework on measures of progress on sustainable development to complement and go beyond GDP.

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In partnership with Rethinking Economics International and UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the objective of the “Youth Moving Beyond GDP” initiative is to foster inclusive and transformative engagement of young people and to promote the needs and interests of future generations in designing measures of progress on sustainable development to complement and go beyond GDP.

Specifically, the initiative seeks to empower young people through meaningful engagement in policymaking, and integrate their perspectives and policy recommendations as well as the needs of future generations into global convenings, dialogues, and processes on measures that complement or go beyond GDP—thereby “breaking the intergenerational glass ceiling” in economic discourse. At the national level, the initiative aims to strengthen engagement with national statistical offices and integrate the perspectives of young people and the needs of future generations into processes for measures that complement or go beyond GDP.

In alignment with the Pact for the Future’s Action 53, this initiative aspires to advance intergenerational equity for long-term sustainability by:

1. Promoting youth-led policy recommendations on measures that complement or go beyond GDP;

2. Establishing opportunities for youth engagement and bringing in the needs and interests of future generations at major convenings and intergovernmental/national processes (e.g., national accounting processes);

3. Bridging grassroots and high-level policymaking to integrate the perspectives of young people and the needs of future generations in shaping new development frameworks.

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