1. What this webinar was
An information session, not a negotiation. Three UN agencies presented a new support offer for countries that want to test the Beyond GDP dashboard. No member state spoke. The audience typed questions into the Zoom Q&A, and the moderator read them out.
Why it matters. The UN now runs a country track next to the General Assembly process. Countries can join it before any resolution.
The Deputy Secretary-General, Amina J. Mohammed, opened by video. Anu Peltola (UNCTAD) hosted. Daniel Hopp (UNCTAD) presented the dashboard and moderated the questions. Heriberto Tapia (UNDP) presented the policy side and the next steps. Shantanu Mukherjee (UN DESA) spoke on the statistical and intergovernmental track.
UNCTAD
UNDP
UN DESA
Deputy Secretary-General
The UN held the same session twice for different time zones. This readout covers the first session. The second session ran on 22 October at 07:00 UTC with the same programme.
2. Executive summary
Five months after Counting What Counts, the UN moves part of the work from New York to the countries. UNCTAD, UNDP and DESA offer pilot support, an online hub and a peer-learning network. The intergovernmental process continues in parallel, but the speakers gave no date for its next step.
- A country track starts now. The offer is voluntary. Pilot support goes to a limited number of countries. Every country can use the hub.
- The next deadline is 30 November 2026. Countries send an expression of interest by then. Focus pilots start in December. The hub launches in December or January.
- The General Assembly track waits for co-facilitators. DESA says the President of the General Assembly has not yet appointed them for this session. The elements paper is out.
- There is no reporting obligation and no global data release. The UN calls the dashboard a proposal for country testing. It holds back country data so that countries can check their own figures first.
- The headline-index question stays open. The elements paper lists three options and picks none. The pilots can give evidence for the choice.
3. What is new since the July panel
Each item is checked against the three earlier Beyond GDP readouts. New means the earlier readouts do not carry it. Update means it changes an earlier item. Through-line means it continues an earlier theme.
| Item | Status | What was said | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|---|
| Country track | New | The Deputy Secretary-General describes a voluntary platform, led by UNCTAD and UNDP. It offers pilot support to a limited number of countries, a community of practice and an online repository (full quote below). | Work at country level starts before a General Assembly decision. |
| Dates | New | The expression-of-interest form opened at 15:30 UTC on 21 October. The first deadline is 30 November 2026. Later forms are taken on a rolling basis. Focus pilots start in December 2026. The hub launch is marked for December 2026 to January 2027. Tapia says the pilots scale up in 2027. | This is the next deadline after the 10 August elements-paper input. |
| Who does what | New | UNCTAD: statistical guidance, compilation tools and the hub. UNDP: policy applications and country case studies. UN DESA: global follow-up and the Statistical Commission. A slide lists the donors as “China, 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Sub-Fund of the UN Peace and Development Fund”. | Readers know whom to contact for data, for policy and for the global process. |
| State of the GA process | Update | Tapia says the elements paper came out “just a few weeks ago”, from “way more than 100 contributions”. Mukherjee says the co-facilitators for this session are not yet appointed (full quote below). Peltola says member states decide the next steps, and she is unsure how far this session gets (full quote below). | In July, Spain and Guyana co-facilitated and the input call was open. The process now sits between two co-facilitation terms. The aim is still a GA resolution. |
| Headline index | Update | A UNDP slide: “The Elements Paper records the options — none, a few, a single aggregate — without settling them.” Tapia says the pilots can show how countries use composite indicators. Mukherjee asks how valid a composite is for its intended use. | In July the question was raised. It is now written into the negotiating text as three options, and country pilots become an evidence source. |
| What member states ask for | New | A UNDP slide sums up the consultations in four asks. Coherence: “Dock into the existing data ecosystem (SDGs, MVI, HDI, SNA, SEEA)”, with the Statistical Commission as the technical venue. Ownership: “A common, comparable core with a flexible national periphery: country-owned additions, not modifications. The point with the broadest agreement.” Policy relevance: planning, budgets, finance allocation. Capacity: “Sequencing and support, not lower ambition.” | This is the first UN summary of the consultations. It names national ownership as the widest common ground, which matches the May consultation. |
| No reporting obligation, no global data yet | New | Hopp calls the dashboard a proposal for country testing, not a universal reporting obligation (full quote below). Peltola says the UN reviewed data availability but does not publish country data yet. There is no intergovernmental decision on when reporting starts (full quote below). | This speaks to the concern, raised in May, that the metrics could be imposed on countries. |
| The data behind the 31 indicators | New | Hopp shows coverage per indicator, from public international sources as of
April 2026. He calls the figures “preliminary and indicative”. Examples:
|
These figures put numbers on the capacity concern that delegations raised in March and May. Hopp says countries can start with a small set of indicators (full quote below). |
| A 2027 target | New | Hopp recalls that the HLEG report asks governments to “establish national progress measuring initiatives by 2027”. | The earlier readouts do not carry this date. It is in the report, and the pilots run inside that window. |
| Finance link | Through-line | No speaker discussed the finance link head-on. It appears in three places: the Global Alliance, which aims to inform “development financing considerations”; the “finance allocation” line on the member-state slide; and Tapia’s point that the use of pilot results for international cooperation is “an open question”. | The finance link was the main fault line in May. The country track does not settle it, so it stays with the General Assembly process. |
| Poverty data | New | Tapia says the latest global Multidimensional Poverty Index update, released “a few days ago”, shows multidimensional poverty “increasing for the first time”. He notes that more than 50 countries use a national MPI. | Tapia uses it to show what income figures can miss. Check the HDRO/OPHI release before citing the figure. |
| Tools and partners | New | A five-phase self-assessment toolkit; practice examples from Canada (budget proposals), Italy (fiscal planning), Bhutan (policy screening) and Wales (statutory objectives); the Youth Moving Beyond GDP network (Beyond Lab at UN Geneva, UNCTAD, Rethinking Economics International); IISD and OECD as partners. | This is what a country gets when it joins. |
Repeats from earlier readouts are left out: GDP alone is not enough; 31 indicators in four components, 15 from the SDGs; the history from SDG target 17.19 to the Pact for the Future; the existence of the Global Alliance.
4. What was presented
One row per speaker, in speaking order. Times are minutes from the start of the session.
| Speaker | Role | What they set out |
|---|---|---|
| Amina J. Mohammed 2:30, video |
UN Deputy Secretary-General | The initiative answers member-state calls from 18 months of consultations. It is voluntary and country-driven. She asks countries to send an expression of interest and to join the peer-learning network. |
| Anu Peltola 0:04 and 5:28 |
Director of Statistics, UNCTAD; host | The session has three aims: introduce the dashboard, introduce the support offer, and start a peer-learning network. The goal is measures that national statistical systems produce and that governments use in “decisions, plans, budgets and policy”. |
| Daniel Hopp 8:28 |
Data scientist, UNCTAD; member of the HLEG co-secretariat; moderator | The framework and the dashboard, component by component. Tiers follow the SDG model. Foundational principles: 5 indicators (3 Tier I, 2 Tier II). Current well-being: 14 (10, 4). Equity and inclusion: 6 (3, 3). Sustainability and resilience: 6 (4, 2). The data gaps per indicator are in section 3. He closes with the HLEG asks to governments, the statistical community and civil society. |
| Heriberto Tapia 22:34 |
Head of Research, Human Development Report Office, UNDP | The aim is better policy, not better indicators for their own sake (full quote below). The country pilots are bottom-up and look at seven areas: policy relevance of existing indicators; links to plans, budgets and sector strategies; composite indices; subnational and disaggregated data, designed in from the start; AI and satellite data; people’s own view of their lives (a slide cites “7 in 10 people” who feel they have little influence on government decisions, from HDR 2023/24); and communication, with Beyond GDP figures reported as often and as prominently as GDP figures. The pilots are built so that results can be combined for the global process. |
| Anu Peltola 42:13 |
UNCTAD | The Beyond GDP Data for Action and Innovation Hub has three pillars: data (framework, metadata, data availability), policy (country experience, community of practice) and toolkits. Countries can engage as pilots, through a national focal point (usually in the statistics office), through peer learning, or by sharing resources. Pilots do not need to test every indicator. The Global Alliance (Sevilla Platform for Action; Spain, OECD, UNCTAD, SEGIB) and the youth network also feed the hub. |
| Shantanu Mukherjee 1:14 and 1:18 |
Director, UN Statistics Division, UN DESA | Measurement changes as new data arrives; the MPI is his example. National measures can serve national policy, but DESA must keep measures comparable across countries (full quote below). The Statistical Commission runs the technical track. The co-facilitators for the GA track are not yet appointed. He names the HLPF and the voluntary national reviews as places to reach a wider audience. |
| Heriberto Tapia 1:20 |
UNDP; next steps | The dates in section 8. The self-assessment toolkit has five phases: institutional setup, mapping national agencies, data availability and quality review, data collection and validation, and dissemination. Its results can be combined to inform the intergovernmental process. Academics can join as individuals or as expert groups. |
5. Audience questions
Hopp read the questions from the Zoom Q&A in groups. The questions are paraphrased and numbered. Askers are not named. Some answers came from more than one speaker.
| # | Question | Answered by | Answer |
|---|---|---|---|
| Audience question 1 | What are the next steps of the intergovernmental process? | Peltola | Member states decide. An elements paper guides their talks. There is broad support, “but of course, there will be areas for debate.” |
| Audience question 2 | Is there a schedule for the first hub webinars? Can countries present their work? | Peltola | Yes. The first webinars show country good practice and come “towards the end of this year”. The UN also briefs the resident coordinator offices in all countries. |
| Audience question 3 | Is the hub open to local and regional governments? | Peltola | Yes. The UN wants indicators that can be localised and disaggregated below country level. It will share subnational practice on the hub. |
| Audience question 4 | How can organisations inside or outside the UN add their tools to the hub? | Peltola | Write to beyondgdp@un.org. The team reviews the tool and shares it. |
| Audience question 5 | Should governments set up teams? Which departments should take part? | Peltola | Form a cross-agency team. Each country decides who joins, because mandates differ. The national statistics office is usually well placed to coordinate. |
| Audience question 6 | Is there a global dashboard with the existing data? | Peltola | No. The UN checked data availability. It gives countries time to review their own data before it shares any data globally. Countries can start compiling now. |
| Audience question 7 | What if hard data improves but people say life is worse? Which signal guides policy? | Tapia | The dashboard exists to examine such gaps. Sometimes the objective indicator misses what people feel. Sometimes the perception is wrong and people need better information. Either way, perceptions “inform their own action”, so they count. The pilots will test this. |
| Audience question 8 | Should a composite index use equal weights or national weights? | Tapia, Mukherjee | Tapia: still open; there is a trade-off between richness and ease of communication (full quote below); “stay tuned”. Mukherjee: decide first what the composite is for, then test its validity for that use. |
| Audience question 9 | How is this not a duplicate of the SDGs, the Better Life Index and other dashboards? | Tapia, Peltola, Mukherjee | Tapia: member states ask for coherence, and the HLEG built on earlier work. The pilots will show which indicators add value and which “bring additional burden”. Peltola: the framework connects the national accounts, environmental accounts and well-being work. Mukherjee: Statistical Commission expert groups already develop methods for these measures. |
6. Where this fits in the Beyond GDP sequence
4 Mar 2026
GA briefing
Interim dashboard presented. Broad, soft support. Capacity already a shared concern.
7 May 2026
Open consultation
27 delegations react to the report. Fault lines on the finance link, subjective indicators and venue.
Jul 2026
HLPF panel
Talk turns to implementation. Spain and Guyana open the elements-paper input call.
21 Oct 2026
Country-phase launch
The UN opens a country track. The GA track waits for new co-facilitators.
The sequence now has two tracks. The General Assembly track decides the political questions, including the finance link and any headline index. The country track tests the indicators in practice and feeds evidence back. Speakers say both tracks inform each other, through the Statistical Commission and the elements paper.
7. Key quotes
“Your message has been clear: new metrics are only as strong as the data, systems, skills and institutions behind them.”
“We will offer technical and policy support to a limited number of countries that will be piloting beyond GDP metrics.”
“This dashboard proposed by the HLEG is a proposal for country testing and refinement, and does not represent a complete universal reporting obligation.”
“Data gaps should inform statistical development plans rather than discourage countries from beginning.”
“The main goal of this Beyond GDP agenda is not to develop a better set of indicators that have value in themselves. The ultimate goal is to be able to improve the way countries conduct policies.”
“It remains to be seen how much they will be able to advance that discussion during this session of the General Assembly, which was just launched in September.”
“There’s no commitment and there’s no decision yet from the intergovernmental process as in when that should start.”
“The dashboard is way richer. The composite indicator is much easier to communicate.”
“It may be perfectly adequate to use national measures, because that helps their policymaking. But we also have a responsibility on the international comparability side.”
“We are waiting for the appointment of co-facilitators by the President of the General Assembly, who will lead the discussions leading to a resolution on how to take forward the work of the high-level group.”
“This is not only a technical or statistics or data agenda. More than that, this is linking data to decision making and policy needs.”
Quotes come from a local Whisper transcript of the session recording. Each quote was checked against the audio. Punctuation is added for reading.
8. Next steps for readers
21 Oct 2026Expression-of-interest form opens (15:30 UTC)
30 Nov 2026First deadline. Later forms are taken on a rolling basis.
Dec 2026Focus pilots start (indicative)
Dec 2026 – Jan 2027Hub launch and peer learning (indicative)
2027Pilots scale up. HLEG target for national initiatives.
- Start here: basic information on the project is on the UNCTAD Beyond GDP project page.
- Countries: name a focal institution, usually the statistics office, and send one coordinated expression-of-interest form. The form is where a country shares its priorities and requests statistical or policy support. A downloadable questionnaire helps coordination across agencies. The background note is on the UNCTAD event page.
- Organisations with tools or case studies: write to beyondgdp@un.org.
- Readers who track the process: watch for the appointment of GA co-facilitators, and for how the elements paper handles the headline-index options and the finance link.