The Secretary-General of the United Nations has appointed Leonard Wantchekon, Professor of Politics and International Affairs at Princeton University and founder of the African School of Economics, to an independent High-Level Expert Group on “Beyond GDP”, established to develop recommendations for measures that complement or go beyond Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Wantchekon joins 13 other distinguished experts and scholars from around the world in this prestigious appointment. The Group reflects gender and geographical diversity and will be co-chaired by economists Kaushik Basu and Nora Lustig. It is supported by a technical secretariat made up of staff from the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), UNCTAD, UNDP, and the Executive Office of the Secretary-General (EOSG).
The appointment follows a request by Member States through the ‘Pact for the Future’, which reaffirms the urgent need to move beyond traditional economic metrics that fail to capture key dimensions of human well-being and sustainable development. GDP, while long used as a universal measure of prosperity, provides only a partial view of social progress, particularly in today’s complex and interconnected world.
Leonard Wantchekon, recipient of Kiel Institute’s 2023 Global Economy Prize, is a globally recognized economist whose research bridges political economy, development, and historical institutional analysis. At Princeton, he is affiliated with the Department of Politics and the School of Public and International Affairs. As founder of the African School of Economics (ASE), headquartered in Benin, Wantchekon has been instrumental in expanding access to advanced economic education and research across the African continent.
In his earlier career, Wantchekon served as a professor at New York University and Yale University, and he is widely published in areas including democratic governance, economic history, and policy impact evaluation. A former political prisoner in Benin, he has also played a leading role in promoting democratic reforms in West Africa. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a member of the Econometric Society.
His appointment to the UN Expert Group affirms his longstanding commitment to research and policy that centers inclusive development, historical context, and equity in economic planning and measurement.
The High-Level Expert Group will elaborate a conceptual framework and dashboard of indicators that help countries better measure sustainable development, consult closely with Member States and stakeholders, and present its findings during the 80th session of the UN General Assembly.
The High-Level Expert Group members include:
- Assem Algursan
- Kaushik Basu (co-chair)
- Martine Durand
- Haishan Fu
- Enrico Giovannini
- Carol Graham
- Naila Kabeer
- Damien King
- Nora Lustig (co-chair)
- Pham Khanh Nam
- Mavis Owusu-Gyamfi
- Mari Pangestu
- Joseph E. Stiglitz
- Leonard Wantchekon
