APRIL 22 2026
Eradicating Poverty Beyond Growth: A Global Roadmap for a New Economy
In July 2024, the Special Rapporteur presented his report Eradicating poverty beyond growth (A/HRC/56/61) to the Human Rights Council, calling for a decisive shift away from growth-dependent development strategies and towards a human rights economy that places the well-being of people and the planet at the centre of economic transformation.
The report set out the why (why such a shift is needed) and the what (what such a shift entails). Building on that foundation, the Roadmap for Eradicating Poverty Beyond Growth now provides the how: a comprehensive set of concrete measures to operationalise this shift. Its recommendations are structured around five pillars – economic systems transformation; labour market policies and the care economy; universal social protection and essential services; climate, environment and resource management; and trade, finance, debt and global solidarity – underpinned by a transversal focus on governance and participatory democracy. These proposals are currently being translated into a multi-level toolbox of short-, medium- and long-term actions tailored to global, regional, national and local contexts.
The Roadmap aims to support international efforts towards reducing inequalities and ending poverty within planetary boundaries. It will be instrumental in shaping discussions leading up to the adoption of the next generation of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at the SDG Summit in September 2027, ensuring a development trajectory for the full realisation of human rights that decentres GDP as the leading measure of progress.
The Roadmap is being co-constructed with a broad alliance of UN agencies, Member States, civil society organisations, trade unions, grassroots movements, and academic experts, who have been collaborating since 2024 to agree on proposals intended to achieve social progress and improve well-being without relying on perpetual economic growth.
The Roadmap will be presented in Geneva on 22 April 2026 at a public conference Eradicating Poverty Beyond Growth: A Global Roadmap for a New Economy, and included as part of the UN Special Rapporteur’s report to the Human Rights Council in summer 2026. It is hosted online by New Economies for Eradicating Poverty Beyond Growth (NEEP), an initiative led by the Special Rapporteur to advance alternative development pathways that can end poverty and inequalities on a liveable planet.
The recommendations laid out in the Report on Democracy at Work prepared for the Spanish government have been integrated into the Special Rapporteur’s Global Roadmap.
You can find a draft of the full Roadmap for Eradicating Poverty Beyond Growth: Report of the Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, Olivier De Schutter, HERE