Why We Need to Address the Foundations of Accounting to Go Beyond GDP: SVI’s Response to the UN High-Level Expert Group Public Consultation
As the UN’s High-Level Expert Group invites global input on how to move “beyond GDP”, SVI argues that the conversation must go deeper than new indicators or wellbeing metrics. In our response, we highlight a critical problem: the accounting systems that shape what gets measured in the first place.
For decades, the world has measured “progress” with GDP, a number that tells us whether economies are growing but not whether people’s lives are improving. The UN’s High-Level Expert Group on Beyond GDP, which was appointed earlier this year, has released its interim report alongside a global public consultation to rethink how we define and measure progress. It’s a crucial step in asking the kind of future we want to build together.
At SVI, we’ve been making the case for some time that the conversation can’t stop at new indicators or domains of wellbeing. The real problem goes deeper, to the way accounting systems themselves define what counts as costs, what doesn’t, and who pays the price. If company accounts continue to leave out relevant costs that a company creates or depends on to operate, then the data feeding into GDP (or any new indicator) will remain incomplete, biased and misleading.
SVI’s flagship initiative, the True & Fair Project, is built on this very notion. We challenge traditional notions of profit calculations by highlighting the costs of doing business that are often confined to a sustainability report. That’s why we’re calling for a shift, not just in what we measure at the national level, but in how value is recorded and reported by businesses and governments at every level.
Our response proposes three urgent changes required to the accounting system: to have the relevant costs of resources that businesses depend on – and the harm they create – recognised in company accounts; to consider whether the purpose of company accounts is in line with investors’ expectations; and to initiate a global approach to wellbeing accounting for public services. More detail on these proposals can be found in the full response.
The High-Level Expert Group’s consultation is open until 30 November 2025. This is a rare chance to challenge the assumptions baked into our economic systems and help build a framework that truly reflects what matters, for people and the planet.