Economic insecurity, staggering levels of inequality, declining social trust and social fragmentation are destabilizing societies worldwide. The World Social Report 2025, reveals trends that are threatening communities and demand immediate, decisive policy action. The report calls for a new policy consensus anchored in three principles—equity, economic security for all, and solidarity—that are essential to strengthen the three dimensions of sustainable development.

The report is the first to be co-produced with the United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER). This collaboration brings new research insights into the report,…

In an era marked by complex and interwoven crises, the role of the United Nations in preparing for the future has never been more critical. This review of UN DESA’s foresight and preparedness efforts shows how the Department’s economic and demographic forecasts, capacity development programmes, and work towards accelerating an inclusive and just transition help governments and people make strategic choices to shape and prepare for the future they want.  

This manual picks up where the previous manual in the series left off. The earlier manual, on the methodology of National Transfer Accounts (NTAs), shows how National Accounts data can be used to construct age profiles of economic production and consumption and to illustrate how resources flow from persons in age groups producing more than they consume to those in age groups producing less than they consume (United Nations, 2013). 

The NTA project calls this system of age-based transfers the “generational economy”. Uncovering and elucidating the role of such transfers has been the project’s major contribution. NTA research has revealed how countries have evolved various means…