Human development regresses as global crises pile up, UNDP says

Human development has declined globally for the last two years, falling back to levels last seen in 2016 and reversing progress toward achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals by 2030, according to the U.N. Development Programme.

Such a downturn hasn’t been seen since UNDP began calculating its human development index 32 years ago. Its latest report, published on Thursday, blames a cycle of complex global crises — from the COVID-19 pandemic to the war in Ukraine and all their respective knock-on effects, such as uneven economic recoveries and rising inequality.

UNDP’s human development index is calculated by considering factors such as life expectancy, education, and per capita income. It then ranks countries based on a composite score.

Nine out of 10 countries in the report registered a weakening of those indicators in either 2021 or 2022, with 40% falling behind in both years. Driving home the uniqueness of the present, the report shows that human development continued upward even during the global financial crisis a decade ago, when millions lost their homes and jobs. The sharp drop began only in 2020 with the onset of the pandemic.

These declines have exacerbated a growing sense of insecurity, mistrust, and polarization among populations, making it harder for countries to move forward and regain their losses toward achieving development goals, UNDP’s data show.

The 320-page report’s title, “Uncertain times, Unsettled Lives: Shaping our Future in a Transforming World,” perfectly characterizes the precarious era, UNDP Administrator Achim Steiner pointed out last week in a call with reporters.

It “is truly located in this moment when we are living through a very distressing time, whether it’s a world underwater or a world with no water, whether it’s a world at war or whether it’s a world in the midst of a pandemic,” he said.

UNDP describes the unprecedented wave of catastrophes and changes as an “uncertainty complex” and calls on nations to renew their solidarity to tackle interconnected challenges. It also recommends that governments invest in public goods such as renewable energy and pandemic preparedness, as well as insure populations against the shocks of uncertainty. Finally, it recommends investment in innovation to strengthen future crisis response.

UNDP’s human development index ranks countries and divides them into four tiers: very high, high, medium, and low.

The data paint a picture of widening global inequality as some countries recover from the pandemic much faster than others. While declines in the HDI cut across all tiers in 2020, most countries ranked in the very high tier did not see continued deterioration in 2021 — though most countries in the low, medium, and high HDI tiers did.

The data shows a rise in political polarization and levels of psychological distress, as well as a drop in the elements needed for healthy systems of democratic governance. It also reveals a reversal of progress in eradicating gender bias in many countries.

“We are heading in the wrong direction,” Steiner said last week, calling for various groups — including civil society, national governments, the private sector, and multilateral institutions — to recreate “a sense of common ground” and commit to cooperation on development goals.

“I would argue strongly that our international institutions need to emerge from a period of, essentially, benign neglect — whether it’s the international financial system, our Bretton Woods institutions that are the backbone of a world being able to deal to be able to deal with these crises in a shared sense of opportunity, responsibility, and solidarity.”