For decades, governments have relied on economic growth and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to judge whether their countries are making progress. But a new United Nations expert report warns that economic growth can occur alongside worsening inequality and environmental degradation, with Eastern Africa cited as an example of the disconnect between rising incomes and the health of the environment.
The report by the UN Secretary-General’s Independent High-Level Expert Group on Beyond GDP says Eastern Africa has continued to experience biodiversity loss and ecological damage despite consistent growth in GDP per capita. “Eastern Africa has seen continuing rates of biodiversity loss and ecological damage despite consistent per capita GDP growth,” the report states.
The finding is significant for countries such as Uganda, where economic growth is occurring alongside increasing pressure on forests, wetlands, water resources and other natural systems. The UN report, however, does not attribute those pressures specifically to Uganda; its observation concerns the wider Eastern African region.
The experts say the Eastern African experience illustrates why economic output cannot by itself provide a complete picture of progress. A country can record rising national income while the natural systems that support people’s livelihoods and future economic activity are deteriorating.
The report therefore calls on governments to complement GDP with a broader set of measures showing whether people are actually living better, whether economic gains are being shared, and whether development can be sustained for future generations.“
“GDP growth has coexisted with persistent inequality, environmental degradation, and declining trust in public institutions,” the report says. The experts stress that they are not proposing that countries abandon GDP.
“GDP is an indispensable measure of economic activity, but it was never designed to capture the full range of outcomes that shape people’s lives,” the report says.
It adds: “We have come to expect answers from it that it was never designed to give.” The proposed alternative is a dashboard of 31 indicators covering current well-being, equity and inclusion, and sustainability and resilience.
The measures include household income and employment, health, education, security, life satisfaction, loneliness, social cohesion, public services and environmental quality.
The framework would also track inequality through measures such as poverty, income inequality, the share of wealth held by the richest one percent, gender differences in earnings, regional inequalities and multidimensional deprivation.
The experts want governments to measure whether the foundations of today’s well-being are being preserved for future generations. This includes measuring produced, human, social, institutional and natural capital.
The report says economic activity that increases physical wealth while depleting natural or other forms of capital should not simply be recorded as an unqualified gain.
This is particularly relevant to the Eastern African finding, where the experts say biodiversity loss and ecological damage have continued even as GDP per capita has grown. The report argues that GDP captures economic output but does not account for reductions in the capital base that supports future well-being.
The proposed indicators would also make visible issues often missed by conventional economic statistics, including unpaid domestic and care work, people’s sense of safety, life satisfaction, loneliness, confidence in public services, access to safely managed drinking water and exposure to air pollution.
“We seek to make the invisible visible by measuring neglected or hidden issues, such as environmental degradation, domestic violence and unpaid care work,” the report says. The UN experts say the broader approach is necessary because economic growth can produce very different experiences among people.
They point to a growing disconnect between economic indicators and public perceptions of progress, with societies recording rising output while citizens continue to face insecurity, inequality, poor public services and environmental pressures.“What has emerged is not merely frustration, but a rupture between what governments pursue as policy objectives and what citizens perceive as meaningful progress,” the report says.
The experts caution against replacing GDP with another single measure. They considered indicators that combine income with inequality, health and environmental quality, but say reducing different dimensions of well-being to one number requires choices about how each should be weighted.
Instead, the proposed 31-indicator dashboard is intended to provide a fuller picture.
Close to half of the indicators are drawn directly from the Sustainable Development Goals, meaning many countries already collect the underlying data, although the report acknowledges that important gaps remain, particularly in countries with limited statistical capacity.
The experts want governments to establish and regularly publish their own progress dashboards and use them in policymaking, planning, budgeting and accountability. “The value of any measurement framework lies entirely in whether and how it is used,” the report says.
The report’s message for governments is therefore not to stop measuring economic growth, but to put that growth alongside measures of human well-being, equity and environmental sustainability. “The question is not whether GDP has done useful work, rather, it is whether GDP alone remains the right instrument to measure what we value.”
The experts conclude that what governments choose to measure influences what they prioritise. “What we measure shapes what we value. This report does not ask the world to abandon GDP. It asks something more ambitious: to look at the full picture, and to act accordingly.”-URN. Give us feedback on this story through our email: kamwokyatimes@gmail.com
