South By North Strategies, Ltd.

Partha Dasgupta and Anantha Duraiappah point out the limitations of using statistics tied to gross domestic product as measures of social well-being.

The 2010 Report by the Commission on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress, commissioned by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, echoed the current consensus among social scientists that we are mismeasuring our lives by using per capita GDP as a yardstick for progress. We need new indicators that tell us if we are destroying the productive base that supports our well-being.
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The United Nations University’s International Human Dimensions Program (UNU-IHDP) is already working to find these indicators for its“Inclusive Wealth Report” (IWR), which proposes an approach to sustainability based on natural, manufactured, human, and social capital. The UNU-IHDP developed the IWR with support from the United Nations Environment Program, to provide a comprehensive analysis of the different components of wealth by country, their links to economic development and human well-being, and policies that are based on social management of these assets.
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The IWR represents a crucial first step in transforming the global economic paradigm, by ensuring that we have the correct information with which to assess our economic development and well-being – and to reassess our needs and goals. While it is not intended as a universal indicator for sustainability, it does offer a framework for dialogue with multiple constituencies from the environmental, social, and economic fields.