Transforming Economies beyond GDP

Towards a caring and feminist future with people, wellbeing and planet at the centre.

A Summit of the Future side event

Save the date and join us on 21 September, 9:15–10:45 EDT (UTC-4) — register here to join online https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_pmurQXRqTlqJFa4Ysp_AFA

Our current economies don’t work for everyone: gender gaps at work are ever widening, care and social services are being cut in the name of austerity, and climate change continues on a dangerous and untenable path. We urgently need a transformative shift toward economies and societies that centre care and wellbeing of people and planet, that ensure decent and dignified work, rather than increasing wealth for a few.

To reorient our economies for sustainable, human rights-based, and gender-just futures requires collectively reimagining measures that see development through a decolonial feminist lens, to move beyond GDP. To be effective, we must design and deliver beyond-GDP metrics to reflect the realities of women in all their diversity, and be accountable to them.

Chaired by the UN Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and the Director of Oxfam Mexico, panellists from Akina Mama wa Afrika, the ILO, Public Services International, and Member State governments will examine the Pact’s potential for concrete action and identify ways forward, discussing:

• Given the minimal language on care in the Pact, how do we steer the vital transformative shift away from the current exploitative economic model toward economies and societies that instead centre care and wellbeing of people and planet? What aspects of the Pact, and other commitments, can we draw on to ensure States act to situate care as a social good and a cornerstone of sustainable futures?
• How can we use the Pact’s commitment to develop beyond-GDP metrics to drive this transformative shift? What do these metrics need to capture — in both design and delivery — to help reorient our economies around care for people and planet?

See you soon!