Beyond GDP Workshop by the Malaysian CSO-SDG Alliance

The Malaysian CSO-SDG Alliance ("Alliance") organised this workshop entitled "Beyond GDP: Measuring Malaysia's Progress Beyond Ringgit and Sen" on 6th July 2023 in Petaling Jaya.

The workshop gathered a range of civil society organisations and NGOs from across Malaysia to map out some of the problems that arise from the narrow focus on GDP as a measurement of the country's progress, as well as to hear about existing efforts to develop alternative indicators for progress and development government agencies.

This effort arose from an input paper on the need to go "Beyond GDP" submitted by the Alliance to the Ministry of Economy recently in connection of the government's mid-term review of the 12th Malaysia Plan. This led to us finding out that the Department of Statistics Malaysia and PLANMalaysia have been working on such alternative indicators. As we discovered more interest on this issue, we decided to convene some of these parties in this exploratory workshop.

Edit: To learn more about the workshop and the Alliance's Beyond GDP agenda, go to our blog post in the link below.

Background on the Malaysian CSO-SDG Alliance:

The Malaysian CSO-SDG Alliance is a network of civil society organisations committed to the achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. It was formed in 2015, shortly after the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development was launched. The Alliance then went on to form the secretariat to the All- Party Parliamentary Group Malaysia on the SDGs (APPGM-SDG). Presently, the Alliance has more than 90 member organisations. Its co-chairs are Lakshmi Lavanya Rama Iyer and Kiu Jia Yaw.