It is Time to Rethink GDP: Why Quality of Life Matters More

Addis Ababa, 30 October 2024 (ECA) - As the world strives for sustainable development, a pressing question arises: should we rethink what measures human well-being? Sweta Saxena, Director of the Gender, Poverty and Social Policy Division at the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), thinks so. She is calling for African countries to move beyond Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as the gold standard of measuring welfare.

GDP measures in monetary terms the value of goods and services a country produces over a specific time by capturing the level of economic output. It does not measure the quality of life, social welfare, inequality and differences in human experience. For instance, a country's GDP may rise but the health or environmental quality of its citizens are declining.

Speaking at a side event on, "Beyond GDP growth: Quality of Life Matters", at the 9th Statistical Commission, Ms. Saxena said when we think of the quality of life, GDP does not come to mind as the most appropriate measure.

"We need to move beyond GDP to capture the aspects of our lives that are more important and to capture the factors that matter more for the quality of life of 1.4 billion people living in Africa," said Saxena, emphasizing that the real meaning of quality of life must be understood.

In an effort to promote a rethink on the measurement of human well-being, the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) launched an ambitious project known as the Quality of Life Initiative (QoL) focusing on what really matters to people and gives value to their lives.

The ECA is a partner of the QoL Initiative, which aims to develop a comprehensive, human-centric concept of quality of life, including objective and subjective factors, and to promote it as a primary urban development objective. Human well-being has been identified as one of the key transformative shifts needed to achieve the UN's Sustainable Development Goals. The QoL will contribute by helping subnational governments in urban areas achieve progress towards a prosperous and fulfilling life for individuals and communities.

The Quality of Life Initiative supports local authorities and decision-makers in understanding how their current investment and policy priorities improve the well-being and quality of life of the individuals and communities they serve and how to make tangible, long-term improvements in the lives of urban populations.

To better internalize the issues, the ECA launched an experimental survey which focused on what staff at ECA consider to be quality of life. From the survey, it was found that identities related to gender, age, race, nationality, education and origin pale compared to identity as humans.

"We all have the same basic needs and yes needs are few and wants are unlimited," Saxena said, noting that, "The most human aspect that stood out from our survey was that we do not need much to have a good life. So much that is counted in the GDP is immaterial to us humans at a larger scale."

Giuseppe Tesoriere, Economic Affairs Officer - Urbanization and Development Section, at the ECA, said the motivation of the survey was to go beyond the traditional measure of GDP to focus on subjective measures to try to understand how people live, something GDP does not measure.

"Quality of life is related to basic human needs and to have a quality of life we need to look at basic human needs and these can be a guide for establishing a new measure," said Mr. Tesoriere commenting on the results of the survey. He added that "The perception of quality of life was that income does not matter and priorities are always the same across income layers as most people prioritize and connect perception of quality of life with service infrastructure and social environmental factors."

Wandia Riunga, a statistician with the UN-Habitat, said the UN-Habitat has developed the QoL Index which measures quality of life through several domains across domestic and global layers with indicators focusing on governance, public satisfaction, housing, mental health and social cohesion.

"Nearly half of the SDGs are off track and the QoL Initiative is set to align the quality of life with SDGs looking at the work happening in the cities," said Ms. Riunga, explaining that the Index will assist policymakers in making decisions and cities to take ownership of local indicators to better serve communities.

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