Our economies are broken. The ongoing, intersecting crises of the Covid pandemic, spiralling levels of debt, inequality, climate change, conflict, and rising food and fuel prices expose the need for a fundamental reorientation of our economic approach. The dominant economic model and the precedence it places on economic growth, corporate profits and privatisation of public services and the commons has proved to be detrimental to women and girls’ rights. It is also a system built on exploiting and neglecting nature and carers, making them invisible and ignoring their role in sustaining our economies. It is driving the destruction of the planet whilst fuelling inequalities rooted in colonialism and racism, which see resources shift from the global South to the global North through systems and actors that are undemocratic, unrepresentative and unaccountable.
A core feature of this economic system is its focus on gross domestic product (GDP) as the primary indicator of economic and social progress. GDP is the signifier for a pervasive narrative that unlimited, unquestioned GDP growth is the key to achieving other political goals, such as greater equality, wellbeing and an end to poverty. Through such myths, GDP has moved from being an instrument and indicator of some limited value to being a goal in itself. GDP growth can take place in a manner that is inclusive and that tackles inequality, but as a metric, GDP on its own has no way of examining what is being produced, how it is being produced, and who it benefits.
In its latest research, Oxfam calls for a move beyond GDP; which means abandoning a dysfunctional economic indicator as a guiding metric for policy and a broader invitation to think about living in an economy that focuses on social prosperity – and on a liveable planet – rather than pursuing GDP growth for its own sake. This requires metrics that can serve as a compass to tell us where to go, how we are progressing, and how well different policies will serve us in getting there. Importantly, it requires centring Indigenous knowledge systems and values, and the voices, solutions, and perspectives of feminist and decolonial thinkers from the global South. Movements and thinkers from the global South have been calling for radical alternatives for years, and there is increasing public support in high-income countries to move beyond GDP.
ActionAid’s research has shown how in Malawi, as elsewhere, the pursuit of a neoliberal approach to economic development has not resulted in the eradication of poverty, inequality, decent job creation, or greater financial stability. For ActionAid, feminist wellbeing economy offers a much-needed decolonial, rights-focused paradigm that centres the wellbeing and care of people and the environment in ways that seek to redress intersecting systems of oppression based on gender, race, class, location, sexual orientation and gender identity. A FWE approach aims to repurpose macroeconomic policy frameworks towards the full realisation of human rights and climate justice for all.
This meeting will commence with the Annual General Meeting of the CPG on International Development.