GCRI · Economic Development
Economic Development
Economic transformation, inclusive growth, industry, trade and development under systemic risk. Economic Development is an established platform of The Global Centre for Risk and Innovation.
- STEM methods
- 5
- Canonical methods this field applies
- Topics
- 8
- Subject pages in the field
- Counterparts
- 4
- Platforms in shared fields across the network
- Report series
- 2
- Reports series it contributes to
20 pages under Economic Development.
- 01STEM methods5 canonical methods applied
- 02Topics8 subject pages
- 03Counterparts4 platforms in shared fields
- 04Report series2 Reports series
- 05Mandate publisherMandate and publisher
- 06Field overviewField overview
- 07Research evidenceResearch and evidence
- 08Innovation practicalInnovation and practical technology
The areas of economic development this platform takes on.
Economic Development studies how economies grow, transform and share the gains, and how systemic shocks set them back. Its pages cover inclusive productivity, industrial policy and upgrading, trade and external shocks, regional development, the digital economy, public finance and fiscal risk, the economics of food, energy and water, and employment under technological change. They set out data, methods and evidence with every value labelled by its evidence and every limit stated. Finance and planning ministries, central banks and development institutions decide.
Inclusive productivity
How output per worker grows and whether the gains reach workers, firms and regions that lag.
Industrial policy and upgrading
Public action to build capabilities, diversify production and move into higher-value activities.
Trade and external shocks
How commodity prices, demand and finance from abroad transmit shocks into domestic economies.
Regional development
Why some places prosper while others fall behind, and what policies change that.
Digital economy and inclusion
Digital adoption by firms and people, and who is left out of its benefits.
Public finance and risk
Budgets, debt, contingent liabilities and the fiscal cost of disasters and crises.
Food, energy and water economics
Prices, markets and investment in the resources that every sector depends on.
Employment and technology
How technological change reshapes jobs, wages and informality in developing economies.
Shock propagation model.
The screen a team would use to follow this field: its measures, states and decisions. Names are examples and values are illustrative.
Shock propagation model
National economy · Scenario: import price shock
Output impact by channel
Most affected sectors
| Food processing | ▼ 8 | 5403 | Backward |
| Transport | ▼ 4 | 1841 | Forward |
| Construction | ▼ 3 | 2483 | Backward |
| Retail | ▼ 1 | 7402 | Demand |
Fiscal room
local units, billions, illustrative
The questions this field works on.
Inclusive productivity
Productivity, distribution and economic opportunity.
TopicIndustrial policy and upgrading
Capabilities, innovation and manufacturing.
TopicTrade and external shocks
Exports, imports and macroeconomic exposure.
TopicRegional economic development
Regional specialisation and place-based policy.
TopicDigital economy and inclusion
Technology diffusion and inequality.
TopicPublic finance and risk
Fiscal capacity and shock exposure.
TopicFood energy water economics
Critical cost and livelihood dependencies.
TopicEmployment and technology
Jobs, transitions and education.
Stocks, flows, delays and a tipping threshold.
Two stocks, pressure and adaptive capacity, joined by a reinforcing growth loop, a delayed balancing response and damage when pressure outruns capacity; past the threshold the system can tip. Teaching model with stated illustrative values, not a prediction. The map on this page shows Africa; the model itself is not tied to a place.
Controls
- Growth of pressure
- 6.0% a year
- Efficacy of capacity in reducing pressure
- 4.0% a year
- Investment response to perceived pressure
- 20%
- Perception delay
- 4.0 years
- Tipping threshold of pressure
- 60 index
- Amplification past the threshold
- 2.0 times
- Years simulated
- 50 years
Readouts
- Peak pressure
- 113 index
- Capacity at the end
- 186 index
- Years over the threshold
- 15.8 years
Numbers, methods and sources
| Year | Pressure | Capacity | Perceived |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 20.0 | 50.0 | 20.0 |
| 4 | 23.3 | 44.9 | 21.2 |
| 8 | 27.2 | 42.2 | 24.0 |
| 12 | 31.7 | 42.3 | 27.7 |
| 16 | 36.8 | 45.5 | 32.2 |
| 20 | 42.3 | 51.5 | 37.2 |
| 24 | 47.9 | 60.3 | 42.6 |
| 28 | 53.2 | 71.3 | 48.0 |
| 32 | 57.8 | 84.3 | 53.1 |
| 36 | 66.4 | 98.4 | 58.4 |
| 40 | 82.7 | 115.9 | 69.7 |
| 44 | 97.8 | 139.7 | 83.8 |
| 48 | 109.1 | 169.4 | 97.3 |
Methods
- System dynamics Forrester (1961), Industrial Dynamics, MIT Press; Sterman (2000), Business Dynamics
- Critical transitions and tipping points Scheffer and others (2009), Early-warning signals for critical transitions, Nature 461
- Causal loop diagram Sterman (2000), Business Dynamics, McGraw-Hill
- Uncertainty fan (parameter Monte Carlo) Spiegelhalter, Pearson and Short (2011), Visualising uncertainty about the future, Science 333
- One-at-a-time sensitivity (tornado) Saltelli and others (2008), Global Sensitivity Analysis: The Primer, Wiley
Data
No observed data enters this model: it runs on the teaching values set by the controls, to be replaced with a programme’s own evidence.
Across the six pillars, led by Nexus Consortium
- Experiments Labs
- Built in Economic Development in Foundry
- Tested at Economic Development in Universe
- Codified in Finance, Insurance and the Economy in Standards
- Published in Economic Development in Reports
- Taught in Faculty of Finance and Economics in Academy
What the work is read against.
The platform does not set standards. It reads its evidence against the frameworks that competent bodies have adopted, so a finding can be placed where a decision-maker already works.
| Framework or standard | Body | What it sets |
|---|---|---|
| System of National Accounts | United Nations, European Commission, IMF, OECD and World Bank | The international standard for measuring economic activity, including GDP |
| Sustainable Development Goals 8, 9 and 10 | United Nations | Targets for decent work and growth, industry and infrastructure, and reduced inequality |
| Addis Ababa Action Agenda and the Sevilla financing for development outcome | United Nations Financing for Development conferences | Commitments on mobilising public and private finance for development |
| IMF Fiscal Transparency Code | International Monetary Fund | Standards for fiscal reporting, forecasting and fiscal risk management |
| Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability framework | PEFA Secretariat and partners | Assessment of public financial management performance |
| Debt Sustainability Frameworks | IMF and World Bank | Methods for assessing public debt sustainability in low-income and market-access countries |
| System of Environmental-Economic Accounting | UN Statistical Commission | Integrating environmental and economic data, including ecosystem accounts |
| Decent Work Agenda and ILO international labour standards | International Labour Organization | Standards on employment, rights at work, social protection and dialogue |
Model Economic Development as a system. Run the cascade.
Assembled from the Nexus Standards area profile Financial and economic risk standards: the hazards it names, the systems and sectors that carry the loss, the controls that dampen it and the data that observe it. Choose the components, pick an initiating hazard and step through the cascade. The Map view places the run on an example geography with open data. Every coupling weight is a stated assumption you can change. A teaching model, not a forecast, an assessment or a certification. To model a place of your own choosing, open the full System Builder.
Hazards
- Sea-level rise
- Dam failure
- Coastal flood (set off downstream)
- Storm surge (set off downstream)
- High-tide flooding (set off downstream)
- Coastal erosion (set off downstream)
- Saltwater intrusion (set off downstream)
- Estuary flood (set off downstream)
- River flood (set off downstream)
- Flash flood (set off downstream)
- Mass displacement (set off downstream)
- Coastal habitat squeeze (set off downstream)
- Wetland loss (set off downstream)
- Mangrove loss (set off downstream)
- Groundwater flood (set off downstream)
- Widespread power outage (set off downstream)
- Water supply shortfall (set off downstream)
- Climate-driven migration and relocation (set off downstream)
Systems and couplings
Controls
NS-0Constitution and principlesNS-3Risk record UNIs (grammar, legacy crosswalk, allocation authority)NS-9Contextual UNIs (deployments, instances, programme instances)NS-10Policies and clauses (machine-readable obligations: definition, binding, evaluation and enforcement)NS-11Verification and monitoring (evidence, attestations, zero-trust conformance observation)NS-14Conformance and crosswalk to external standardsNRS-H59Hazard family: Economic shocks and governance failure (NHS-1 soc.economic)NRS-H113Hazard family: Financial-system fragility (NHS-1 soc.financial-system)NRS-H118Hazard family: Organised crime and illicit economies (NHS-1 soc.crime)NRS-H114Hazard family: Macroeconomic and fiscal shocks (NHS-1 soc.macro-fiscal)NRS-H61Hazard family: Cascading failure (NHS-1 sys.cascade)NRS-U27Universe platform profile: Sovereign Capital Nexus
Observation
- IMF data services (WEO, IFS, FSI via SDMX) (listed for reference)
- BIS Data Portal (credit, debt service, property prices, banking statistics) (listed for reference)
- World Bank Open Data and World Development Indicators API (listed for reference)
- OECD Data Explorer (SDMX API) (listed for reference)
- Macroeconomic Dashboard
- Debt service as a proportion of exports of goods and services
- Financial Soundness Indicators
Example geography
- Western Europe: 152 hexagonal cells
- Night lights tonight, outages (VIIRS Day/Night Band), NASA GIBS
- Surface water through cloud, 30 m (OPERA DSWx-S1 radar), NASA GIBS
- Rain rate, last half hour (IMERG), NASA GIBS
- Vegetation disturbance alerts, 30 m (OPERA DIST-ALERT), NASA GIBS
What Economic Development does.
Economic development is the sustained improvement in living standards that comes from growth, structural transformation and the wide sharing of gains. Economic Development covers productivity, industrial policy, external shocks, regions, the digital economy, public finance, food, energy and water economics, and employment under technological change. Ministries, central banks and development institutions decide.
Its community
Development economists; policy researchers; economic planners; industry analysts.
Its methods
Economic risk modelling; inclusive indicators; input-output and fiscal analysis.
Its outputs
Development resilience profiles; economic transmission methods; policy briefs.
How Economic Development is modelled, measured and tested.
The model, its assumptions, its data and its uncertainty, in the form a scientist or engineer would check. Structures follow published methods. The values drawn are illustrative, not findings.
Model, equations and assumptions
The model structure used for Economic Development, the assumptions it makes and how each is tested.
Ri = f(Hi, Ei, Vi, Ci)hazard, exposure, vulnerability and coping capacityEAL = ∑k pk · Lkover events k with annual probability pkxt+1 = A xt + B ut + εtA carries the couplings, u the shock, ε the error| Assumption | Why it is made | How it is tested |
|---|---|---|
| Hazard and exposure are independent within an event | Keeps the loss integral tractable | Compare with a copula fit on joint records |
| Couplings are linear near the operating point | Lets shocks propagate through A | Perturb beyond the linear range and compare |
| Vulnerability curves transfer between places | Local curves are rarely available | Validate against observed losses where they exist |
- Inputs
- versioned datasets with provenance
- Outputs
- distributions, never single numbers
- Code
- released with the model card and tests
- Reproduction
- same data, code, environment and seed
Sensitivity analysis
Which inputs move the result for Economic Development most, one at a time across their stated ranges.
What Economic Development studies, and who decides economic policy.
Economic Development, studies how economies grow, transform and share gains, and how systemic shocks set them back. Finance and planning ministries, central banks and development institutions decide; the platform recommends no investment, lends nothing and takes no position on economic policy beyond setting out evidence and trade-offs.
Economic projections shown here are scenario illustrations, never forecasts.
People and exposure in Africa.
Population density, night lights and daytime surface heat over Africa, from NASA GIBS. Each layer carries its own date.
The interactive map needs JavaScript; the layer list and sources are below.
Layers 3
People and exposure, for this page
About this layer
- Evidence
- Estimated
- Source
- Gridded Population of the World v4.11 (NASA SEDAC (CIESIN, Columbia University))
- Provider
- NASA SEDAC (CIESIN, Columbia University)
- Licence
- CC BY 4.0
- Vintage
- null; Census-based estimate, static (2020)
- Resolution
- about 1 km grid
- Uncertainty
- Census-based estimate of people per square kilometre in 2020, shown as exposure context; not a count of people affected by any hazard.
- Reached through
- gibs.earthdata.nasa.gov, only after you allow the live map
About this layer
- Evidence
- Observed
- Source
- VIIRS Black Marble (VNP46A2) (NASA LAADS DAAC)
- Provider
- NASA LAADS DAAC
- Licence
- NASA open data
- Vintage
- daily; Satellite radiance, corrected for moonlight and atmosphere
- Newest at build
- 2026-10-12
- Resolution
- about 500 m grid
- Uncertainty
- Satellite night-time radiance for the date shown; lights are a proxy for electricity use and outages, not a measurement of supply or access.
- Reached through
- gibs.earthdata.nasa.gov, only after you allow the live map
About this layer
- Evidence
- Observed (persistent cloud still leaves gaps)
- Source
- VIIRS NOAA-20 Level 3, 8-day (NASA LANCE)
- Provider
- NASA LANCE
- Licence
- NASA open data
- Vintage
- 8-day; Satellite 8-day composite; persistent cloud still leaves gaps
- Newest at build
- 2026-09-14
- Resolution
- about 1 km grid
- Uncertainty
- Satellite skin temperature of the ground over the 8 days ending on the date shown, a heat exposure indicator; not air temperature, heat index or a heat warning.
- Reached through
- gibs.earthdata.nasa.gov, only after you allow the live map
About this layer
- Evidence
- Observed
- Source
- VIIRS NOAA-20 corrected reflectance (NASA LANCE)
- Provider
- NASA LANCE
- Licence
- NASA open data
- Vintage
- daily; Satellite image
- Newest at build
- 2026-10-14
- Resolution
- about 250 m grid
- Uncertainty
- Satellite image. Satellite or model raster as the provider publishes it. Clouds, swath gaps and retrieval error leave gaps and noise; values are indicators, not measurements at a place.
- Reached through
- gibs.earthdata.nasa.gov, only after you allow the live map
About this layer
- Evidence
- Modelled (latest year GIBS publishes)
- Source
- MODIS Terra and Aqua land cover (MCD12Q1) (NASA LP DAAC)
- Provider
- NASA LP DAAC
- Licence
- NASA open data
- Vintage
- yearly; Satellite classification; latest year GIBS publishes
- Newest at build
- 2024-01-01
- Resolution
- about 500 m grid
- Uncertainty
- Satellite land cover classes for the year shown, including croplands; a classification with known errors, not a farm register.
- Reached through
- gibs.earthdata.nasa.gov, only after you allow the live map
About this layer
- Evidence
- Observed (clouds leave gaps)
- Source
- OMI Aura (NASA GES DISC)
- Provider
- NASA GES DISC
- Licence
- NASA open data
- Vintage
- daily; Satellite retrieval; clouds leave gaps
- Newest at build
- 2026-10-10
- Resolution
- about 2 km grid
- Uncertainty
- Satellite column of nitrogen dioxide in the lower atmosphere on the day shown, mostly from combustion; not a ground-level concentration or a health warning.
- Reached through
- gibs.earthdata.nasa.gov, only after you allow the live map
Keyboard, with the map focused
Hold Ctrl or ⌘ and scroll to zoom
Latest available
NASA GIBS / EOSDIS · ASTER GDEM (METI, NASA) · Blue Marble (NASA) · © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL) · Natural Earth
Loading the latest NASA imagery.
Drag to move. Ctrl or ⌘ and scroll, pinch or the buttons to zoom; hover for the values under the pointer; reset returns to the region.
People and exposure, framed on Africa.Satellite and model products as NASA publishes them, each with its own date. They are indicators, not assessments of any place.
Data: NASA GIBS · ASTER GDEM · Blue Marble · © OpenStreetMap contributors · Natural Earth · NASA EONET · NASA JPL OPERA DIST-ALERTSources and licences
- We acknowledge the use of imagery provided by services from NASA’s Global Imagery Browse Services (GIBS), part of NASA’s Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS). Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into hexagonal cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
- We acknowledge the use of imagery provided by services from NASA’s Global Imagery Browse Services (GIBS), part of NASA’s Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS). Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into hexagonal cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
- Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN), Columbia University. 2018. Gridded Population of the World, Version 4 (GPWv4): Population Density, Revision 11. NASA Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC). Licensed under CC BY 4.0. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into hexagonal cells where shown (modified). doi:10.7927/H49C6VHW. CC BY 4.0
- VIIRS Black Marble night-time lights, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center; distributed by the NASA Level-1 and Atmosphere Archive and Distribution System (LAADS DAAC); imagery via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into hexagonal cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
- VIIRS near-real-time products (flood, land surface temperature, snow cover, corrected reflectance), NASA LANCE; imagery via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into hexagonal cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
- MODIS land products (vegetation indices, gross primary production, land cover), NASA LP DAAC and LANCE; imagery via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into hexagonal cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
- OMI nitrogen dioxide (Aura) and OMPS aerosol index (Suomi NPP), NASA; distributed by the NASA GES DISC; imagery via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into hexagonal cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
- ASTER GDEM is a product of METI and NASA (ASTER Global Digital Elevation Model V003, NASA LP DAAC); imagery via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into hexagonal cells where shown (modified). Cite as: NASA/METI/AIST/Japan Spacesystems and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team (2019). ASTER Global Digital Elevation Model V003. doi:10.5067/ASTER/ASTGTM.003. NASA open data
- Made with Natural Earth. Free vector and raster map data @ naturalearthdata.com. Public domain
- © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), via NASA GIBS (coastlines, boundaries, roads and place names). Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into hexagonal cells where shown (modified). ODbL
- Blue Marble, NASA Earth Observatory; imagery via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into hexagonal cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
- Context on the globe and flat map: coastlines, boundaries, roads and place names from NASA GIBS reference layers (OpenStreetMap data, ODbL, © OpenStreetMap contributors); Blue Marble imagery as an optional base; 3D terrain and the elevation read-out from the ASTER GDEM elevation colour index (5 m to 200 m classes, exaggerated for legibility). Boundaries are drawn as published and imply no position on any territory.
- Live events: NASA Earth Observatory Natural Event Tracker (EONET); events are indicative and keep their original source links.
- Live: NASA EONET Events are indicative, not authority warnings.
- Observed (EO): NASA JPL OPERA DIST-ALERT (contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data 2026). We acknowledge the use of imagery provided by services from NASA’s Global Imagery Browse Services (GIBS), part of NASA’s Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS).
- NASA GIBS: We acknowledge the use of imagery provided by services from NASA’s Global Imagery Browse Services (GIBS), part of NASA’s Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS).
- Air quality forecast, 5 days, PM2.5 (CAMS via Open-Meteo): Contains modified Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service information 2026.
- Weather data by Open-Meteo.com (https://open-meteo.com/), licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
- Optional layers (9 sources in the layer list: live, forecast, observed and context) print their provider credit on the map and here when switched on; forecasts are model output and derived indices are estimates.
Layers and dates
- Population density, 2020: Population: CIESIN, Columbia University, Gridded Population of the World v4.11 (2018), NASA SEDAC, CC BY 4.0 · static
- Night-time lights, daily: VIIRS Black Marble (VNP46A2), NASA LAADS DAAC · 12 Oct 2026
- Land surface temperature, day, 8-day composite: VIIRS NOAA-20 Level 3, 8-day, NASA LANCE · 14 Sep 2026
- True colour: VIIRS NOAA-20 corrected reflectance, NASA LANCE · 13 Oct 2026
- Land cover type (IGBP), yearly: MODIS Terra and Aqua land cover (MCD12Q1), NASA LP DAAC · 2024
- Nitrogen dioxide, lower atmosphere column: OMI Aura, NASA GES DISC · 10 Oct 2026
Development depends on the five domains.
- WaterHow this field couples to itWater scarcity and floods constrain agriculture, industry and cities.
- EnergyHow this field couples to itEnergy access and prices shape productivity and competitiveness.
- FoodHow this field couples to itFood prices drive inflation and household welfare in many economies.
- HealthHow this field couples to itHealth shocks reduce labour supply and productivity.
- BiodiversityHow this field couples to itNatural capital is an asset that national accounts are starting to record.
Where economic evidence goes.
Economic analyses are designed for the Country Systems Risk and Resilience series; fiscal risk questions connect to the work of The Global Risks Alliance (GRA) within its own boundaries. National accounts series would keep their statistical source under the proposed Nexus Standards.
- Economists can contribute evaluations, including null results.
- Statistics offices can share sub-national data.
- Ministries can propose a scoping dialogue.
Development gains are exposed to shocks that arrive together.
Economic development is the long process by which economies raise productivity, diversify what they produce and translate that into better lives: higher incomes, decent jobs, health, education and security. Development economics has learned that this process is neither automatic nor linear. Growth can stall, gains can be concentrated, and progress built over a decade can be lost in a single crisis.
Shocks increasingly arrive in combination. A drought reduces harvests and hydropower, raising food and energy prices; a global slowdown lowers export demand and remittances; higher interest rates raise debt service; and a health emergency closes businesses and schools. Each shock weakens the capacity to absorb the next. Households sell assets or withdraw children from school, firms close, and governments cut investment to meet obligations, which slows recovery.
These are systemic effects. They pass through supply chains, labour markets, prices, public budgets and financial systems, and their consequences are uneven across regions, sectors and social groups. Understanding them requires economic models that represent interdependence and that are tested against evidence, not assumed.
Research on how economies develop, transmit shocks and recover.
The platform is designed to produce method-transparent evidence on development under systemic risk.
Economic risk modelling
Input-output, macroeconomic and agent-based models of how shocks transmit through economies.
Inclusive indicators
Measures of who gains and who loses, beyond averages, by region, sector, sex and income.
Fiscal analysis
Evidence on fiscal capacity, contingent liabilities and the public cost of shocks.
Signature outputs are designed to include development resilience profiles, economic transmission methods and policy briefs, each released with its data and assumptions.
How the platform works with its STEM foundation and the other institutions.
Economic Development is the steward of three STEM methods in the GCRI STEM Commons: economics and development economics, econometrics and causal inference and impact evaluation. It also applies network science and contagion and complex systems and agent-based modelling. Its STEM applications show how each is used.
Economic development is the real-economy field; financial specialisms belong to The Global Risks Alliance (GRA). Its GRA industry counterparts are the Development Finance Nexus, Disaster Risk Finance and Public Finance and Sovereign Debt, which build shared industry understanding without giving advice or arranging transactions. At The Global Risks Forum, the Capital Nexus at The Global Risks Forum (GRF) convenes dialogue on how capital is governed for development. See all counterparts.
The platform’s evidence is designed to feed the Reports Country Systems series and Global Systems series, and a Universe exercise on the economic transmission of a compound shock, described on the platform’s Universe page.
Built on named science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
Every claim on Economic Development rests on methods with a canonical page in the STEM Commons, so readers can see what a finding depends on and where its limits lie.
How work moves in this field.
A question becomes evidence, a governed build, an organised community, a controlled test, a reviewed publication and, finally, a decision taken by the competent authority under its own rules.
- Question Universe National, regional or institutional priority. Question in Economic Development
- Evidence Foundry STEM foundation of the platform. Evidence in Economic Development
- Build Foundry Foundry. Build in Economic Development
- Organise Universe Nexus ecosystem. Organise in Economic Development
- Test Universe Universe (independent site). Test in Economic Development
- Publish Reports Reports. Publish in Economic Development
- Decide Competent authority Competent authorities and institutions, through NXS-RLS (participants, agreements and handoffs). Decide in Economic Development
- Renew Universe Corrections and the next annual agenda. Renew in Economic Development
Each step of the cycle in the pillar it runs in; the decision stays with the competent authority, outside the programme.
- Labs
- Foundry
- Universe
- Nexus Standards
- Reports
- Risk Academy
- Competent authority (outside the programme)
How this works across the six pillars.
Economic Development works through six pillars of one annual programme, led by the Nexus Consortium, with GCRI, GRF and GRA each contributing in its role: explore, experiment and prototype in Labs, build, simulate and prepare in Foundry, convene and test in Universe, codify, correct and apply in Nexus Standards, publish in every format in Reports, teach in the open in Risk Academy.
handoff in playrecorded handoffno direct handoff
Programme yearAll phases
Route
The whole programme
Every pillar hands its work to another; together they close the year’s feedback loops.
L · F · U · S · R · A
- Pillars
- 6 of 6
- Handoffs
- 18 of 18
- Loops
- 17 closed
Handoffs in play
- F01Universe → Foundry · Admitted mission becomes a cycle project with a decision caseReadiness preparation
- F02Foundry → Universe · Core Build Report and go or no-go evidenceControlled build
- F03Foundry → Reports · Sealed observations and indicator series behind a profileCloseout
- F04Universe → Reports · After-action and scenario findings for chapters 10 and 13After-action review
and 14 more
- LabsWhere questions become experiments and prototypes: new methods, data and tools are tried in the open, with their limits on record, before the Foundry builds them, under the Nexus Consortium.Labs
- FoundryWhere methods, data and models become reproducible builds, each run with its inputs, version and limits on record.Economic Development in FoundryFoundry
- UniverseWhere a build is tested under controlled conditions with independent evaluators, so a method’s skill is measured, not assumed.Economic Development in Universeuniverse.nexus
- Nexus StandardsWhere methods, identifiers and data schemas are codified in the open and corrected when a test finds a fault.Finance, Insurance and the Economy in Standardsnexustandards.com
- ReportsWhere findings are published with their method, uncertainty and evidence class, and corrected as new versions.Economic Development in ReportsReports
- Risk AcademyWhere methods and systems are taught on real data and real places, by working the case, on Risk Academy.Faculty of Finance and Economics in Academyrisksacademy.com
The same field, seen three ways.
GCRI studies a field as science, GRF governs it and GRA builds shared financial understanding of it. Economic Development links to its counterparts so that work on one side is visible on the others.
Where this page’s references lead.
The bodies and documents this page is read against. Status and editions change; each link goes to the issuing body.
- System of National Accounts 2025 (UN Statistical Commission, 2025)
- Compromiso de Sevilla, outcome of the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development (United Nations, 2025)
- IMF Fiscal Transparency Code (IMF, 2019)
- PEFA Framework for assessing public financial management (PEFA, 2016)
- Nexus Standards, the proposed NS series (nexustandards.com)
Pages in Economic Development.
Mandate and publisher
PageField overview
PageResearch and evidence
PageInnovation and practical technology
PageProgrammes and projects
PageData and technical methods
PageSpecialist community
PageLearning and professional development
PageEvents and technical dialogues
PageResearch and publications
PageParticipation paths
PageContact the specialist team
PageTrust, rights and status
PageSTEM foundation of Economic Development
PageHow work moves in this field
PageBuild in Foundry
PageTest in Universe
PagePublish in Reports
PageThe same field across the Consortium
PageTopics
Where this page leads across the Consortium.
Questions and answers.
Who publishes Economic Development?
Is Economic Development active?
How can I contribute?
Where are findings published?
Which values on this platform are real?
How do I report an error?
How does this platform differ from GRA’s development finance work?
Does the platform advise governments on economic policy?
Contribute evidence from this page.
Reports is the Consortium’s quarterly publication. What you know about this subject can become evidence, a case or a correction in the next edition, credited to you and published under CC BY 4.0 where it is your own work.
- EmailGateway GW-GCRISend it from this pageEvidence, a correction, a case, a method, a review, a translation or profile input. It arrives tagged with this page, so the editor who owns it receives it.
- ZenodoOpen depositDeposit it and submit to the communityPublish your own record on Zenodo with your ORCID iD, then submit it to the Reports community there. Curators review it; the DOI stays yours.
- ReportsGCRISee every way to contributeThe contribution types, how each is reviewed, what credit you receive, the licence and what is never accepted.
Never send personal data, sensitive infrastructure detail or anything you have no right to share. A contribution is reviewed before use; sending it confers no authorship or editorial rights, and sponsorship never buys a finding.
How Economic Development works.
Choose a view and press Play to follow the platform’s process, its programme year, the standards it applies and how its findings are published. The outline shows how the work is designed to run, not the status of any decision.
Economic Development
How Economic Development works
Platforms · Programme year · Standards · Reports
A platform joins a field to named methods, labelled evidence and the outputs it publishes, without becoming the authority it serves.
01 Scope
- 01Field and familiesStart · The platform leadThe home states the field, its families and who it serves.
- 02Topic dossiersRecord · Platform authorsTopics explain the subject with labelled evidence.
02 Evidence
- 03Evidence labelsRecord · GCRIEach value is labelled: observed, published statistics, estimated, modelled, scenario or unknown.
- 04MethodsStep · Method ownersMethods come from the STEM Commons, each with one canonical page.
03 Work
- 05Scenarios on the systemsModel · Foundry pillarScenarios run on the Nexus systems, labelled as scenario.
- 06Standards that applyRecord · Nexus StandardsThe platform names the standards that apply. A validator report is evidence for review.
04 Publish
- 07EditionsRecord · ReportsFindings are published through Reports with their limits.
- 08Authority decidesOutcome · The competent authorityDecisions and execution stay with the government, operator or licensed institution.
Economic Development home · Platforms · Shared methodsAn outline of how the work is designed to run; it does not report the status of any decision or record.
Take part in Economic Development.
Start from who you are. Answer an open call. Or form and lead a competence cell on the Economic Development platform.
National institutions
Ministries, statistics offices and agencies: a national desk and chapter, and a seat in the working groups. National chapters
Sectors and professions
Operators, regulators, banks, insurers and professional bodies whose work touches Economic Development. Participate
Learning
Courses and practice, with a record of every course completed. Free to study. Open learning
Standards
Draft, review and adopt the methods and data standards with the working groups. Working groups
Communities and research
Universities, civil society and individual experts: projects, data and review. Write to the team
| Open call | Seeks | Closes |
|---|---|---|
| Founding call for experts to the working groups CALL-FOUNDING-EXPERTS | expert, editor, chair | 2026-12-15 |
| Open nomination for the three independent expert seats of the Global Standards Council CALL-GSC-IND | council-member | 2026-12-01 |
| Nominations of interim regional members (applies only if the transitional provision is decided) CALL-GSC-REG | council-member | 2026-12-15 |
| Review of the wave-1 risk core outlines (C1, C2, C3, C4, C8, C10, C11) CALL-REVIEW-WAVE1 | contributor | 2027-01-31 |
| Experts for the core standards of risk science: uncertainty and evidence grading, scales, structured expert judgement, tolerability, extremes and compound events, catastrophic and existential risk, ethics and equity, units and measurement (NRS-C17 to NRS-C24) CALL-CORE-SCIENCE | expert, editor, chair | 2027-01-31 |
| Independent reviewers for the families of the hazard atlas, three from at least two regions for each family (NHS2-R19), priority families first CALL-ATLAS-REVIEW | expert | 2027-03-31 |
| Members of the interim Frontier Safety Review Panel and red-team reviewers (biosafety and biosecurity, AI safety and security, critical-infrastructure security); applications treated in confidence CALL-FRONTIER-SAFETY-REVIEW | expert | 2026-11-30 |
| Experts in ontology, metrology, software verification and conformity assessment for the requirement register, the NHS-2 machine representation, the conformance test suites and the conformity assessment scheme CALL-CONFORMANCE-ONTOLOGY | expert, editor | 2027-01-31 |
Calls past their closing date are hidden automatically. Every call, proposal and route: open areas and calls.
Gather the cell
Bring together three to seven people with complementary skills: data, field practice, policy and communication.
Register it
Write to the team with the cell’s name, members, area and region. You receive a reference and a contact. Write to the team
Choose a charter
Pick one focus: research and evidence, data and maps, standards review, or community preparedness.
Learn together
Follow shared study paths at Risk Academy, with practice and a record of every course completed. Hazards and resilience
Lead and report
Hold regular sessions. Publish what the cell learns through Reports. Bring findings to the working groups. Working groups
What a national team or a local community can do on The Global Risks Index (NXS-GRX) today.
Your country’s profile
Open risk profiles for 195 countries, with sources and licences on every value. Open the Index
Correct or reply
Correct a value or reply for your country. The change is logged with its effect. Open the Index
Offer data
Offer a dataset. It enters through the licence gate, with your credit. Open the Index
Every figure on this page is indexed: society, demography, health, Africa.
The Index is the Consortium’s indexing system for risk data. Every indicator, hazard, series and country profile carries its Nexus Standards identifier, its source and its licence, so what this page shows can be traced, corrected and reused.
- 01 · Sources205 registered sourcesEvery value keeps its source and licence; withheld values are counted.Data and licences
- 02 · Nexus StandardsNIS-1 and NHS-1451 indicators, 905 hazards; every record carries a UNI.Nexus Standards
- 03 · The Index54 series, 195 country profilesComputed on the standards; no value is published until an edition is released.The Global Risks Index
- 04 · This pageEconomic DevelopmentMaps, figures and feeds read the Index in the context of society, demography, health and Africa.Public API
Series in this context society, demography, health
- GSGlobal DevelopmentPoverty, inequality, human development, demographic pressure and displacement as the ground on which shocks become losses.NXS-GRX-AR-000064Society · Demography · Health
- GLBGlobal SystemsThe state of interdependent global risk: the twenty domain indices aggregated to the world, the five core systems (water, energy, food, health, biodiversity) and their couplings, the global tail register and the gap…NXS-GRX-AR-000002Society · Health · Demography
- GSGlobal HealthHealth security capacity, epidemic emergence and spread, heat and air-quality burden, health system stress and access.NXS-GRX-AR-000062Health · Society · Demography
- SRConflict, fragility and human securityConflict risk and escalation, fragility, organised violence, civilian harm and the conflict–climate–food–displacement nexus.NXS-GRX-AR-000075Governance · Demography · Society
Country profiles Africa
Every country profile carries the source and licence of each value. Correct a value or reply
Hazard domains NHS-1
- Health and biosecurityNXS-GRX-AR-000143
- Society, conflict and economyNXS-GRX-AR-000147
Geodata and API open
Open layers on an equal-area hexagon grid, shown as densities per km² or as symbols: People · GHSL 2025People · WorldPop 2025Built-up areaPortsAirportsRoadsRailwaysRivers and lake centrelines
/api/v1/public/grix · https://nexustandards.com/uni/{uni}
Developers · Data · Made with Natural Earth, Public domain; GHSL and WorldPop, CC BY 4.0
Snapshot of the Index registries pinned 2026-10-23 · 22c6eed. Research and risk-analytics information: not a rating, an official classification, a warning, a benchmark or advice.
Bring a method, a dataset or a question.
Information and enquiries are open today. An enquiry receives a reference and names the next step; applications, payments, compute allocations and registrations open only when their team, terms and review capacity exist.
Legal documents.
Maps, data and figures on this site are shown for context and general information. They are not advice, forecasts or warnings; the limits of the information are set out in the Disclaimers and Data Notices.