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Breaking the gridlock

Human Development Report calls for collective action to address growing inequality and other global challenges

The world has achieved a new record in human development. After steep losses in 2020 and 2021, the Human Development Index – a summary measure reflecting income per capita, education and life expectancy – has climbed to its highest level ever recorded at the global level. But this headline from the 2023/2024 UNDP Human Development ReportBreaking the Gridlock: Reimagining cooperation in a polarized world – masks some very concerning realities. Here are five graphs that paint a fuller picture of human development today.

The overall Human Development Index (HDI) value is greater than it was in 2019. But that doesn’t mean the world has recovered fully from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, compounded by other global crises. The 2023 figure remains below the level that was predicted before the pandemic. Essentially, we have not reached the level of human development that could have been expected had the pandemic not happened.

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Before the crisis, the world was on track to reach an average “very high” HDI by 2030, coinciding with the deadline for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Now we are off track, with every region running below its pre-2019 projections.

Some of this lost human development may never be recovered. First, COVID-19 killed 15 million people. These are millions of lives cut short, boundless potential that will never be realized. And among the survivors are those suffering long-term health effects that limit their choices, and those who have lost years of education that they may never make up.

Partial, incomplete, unequal

Another shadow over the human development recovery is its uneven nature. While wealthy countries are showing signs of robust recovery, the poorest are struggling. All wealthy countries have surpassed their 2019 HDI level. But among least developed countries, only one in two have recovered their already low pre-crisis HDI levels.

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The ‘partial, incomplete and unequal’ recovery is leaving the poorest behind, exacerbating inequality and stoking political polarization. For two decades, the world’s poorest countries were making progress in closing the HDI gap with wealthier countries. This trend has now reversed, and inequality between countries is on the rise.

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"We are in a world in which we are linked economically and by our shared interest in peace that makes us part of common humanity... This year's Human Development Report accepts these basic realities and reimagines how we can cooperate and find common ground within our own societies and across international community." Tharman Shanmugaratnam, President of Singapore
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The failure to properly manage our interdependencies has high costs for human well-being. With just six years left, the world is further away from achieving the SDGs than four years ago, and we’re regressing on key goals on climate action, nature protection, food security, poverty, inequality and gender inequality.

In 2022 the world saw the highest number of state-based armed conflicts since World War II. That same year, the number of people forced to flee their homes, due to conflict, persecution or human rights violations, reached an all-time high.

All is not right, and we all feel it. In rich and poor countries alike, the Human Development Report found that people are sadder and more stressed than a decade ago.

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Breaking the gridlock

We need to reimagine and reinvigorate multilateral cooperation to achieve high human development everywhere. Yet the widespread sense of insecurity contributes to the polarization that prevents us from coming together to solve common challenges, within countries and at the global level. To break the gridlock and scale up collective action, the report calls for:

  • increased agency: Development must be centred on increasing people’s agency, their sense of being able to determine their own future;
  • planetary public goods, for climate stability, as we confront the unprecedented challenges of the Anthropocene;
  • digital global public goods, for greater equity in harnessing new technologies for equitable human development;
  • new and expanded financial mechanisms, including a novel track in international cooperation that complements humanitarian assistance and traditional development aid to low-income countries; and
  • dialling down political polarization through new governance approaches focused on enhancing people's voices in deliberation and tackling misinformation.
"The 2023-2024 Human Development Report summons us to engage in the much needed and not always easy discussion on how a 21st century architecture prone for cooperation should look like... Going forward, there are only more globally shared challenges and opportunities. Let us harness our connections to build a better future for all." Laura Chinchilla, Former Vice President of Costa Rica
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Despite rising polarization and mistrust, there are some hopeful developments to learn from. The HDR found that over the last 10 years, high HDI countries have improved their human development without increasing pressures on the planet. This decoupling is a significant shift from previous years, in which the two increased together. It offers strong evidence that increasing human development does not have to come at the expense of the environment.

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There are also multiple examples where people and countries have succeeded in breaking the gridlock and working together to solve big problems:

  • Reliant of a global supply chain, the production of COVID-19 vaccines saved some 20 million lives in the first year of the pandemic alone. Countries continue to cooperate on genomic sequencing of variants, even as shameful inequities in vaccine access persist.
  • At the UN Climate Change Conference (COP28), the world established a loss and damage, with pledges totaling over US$600 million. More than 3 billion people who have suffered from climate change impacts are set to benefit.
  • Before its suspension, the Ukraine grain deal averted widespread famine, which would have hurt poorer countries and poorer people most.

Against heavy headwinds, these examples show it is possible for the world to come together to address critical challenges like conflict, poverty, climate change and abuse of human rights. In our interconnected world, collective action is our only route to ensure all countries can reach their full human development potential.

“Our problems are intertwined, requiring equally interconnected solutions. By adopting an opportunity-driven agenda that emphasizes the benefits of the energy transition and of artificial intelligence for human development, we have a chance to break through the current deadlock and reignite a commitment to a shared future.” – Achim Steiner, UNDP Administrator
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READY TO DIVE DEEPER?

Read the 2023/2024 Human Development Report, “Breaking the Gridlock: Reimagining cooperation in a polarized world"


© 2024 United Nations Development Programme

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