Faced with an unprecedented layer of crisis, in particular Covid-19, the world has fallen back five years in terms of human development, fueling “mistrust” and “frustration” across the planet, the UN alarms in a published report. Thursday.
For the first time since its creation more than 30 years ago, the Human Development Index, which takes into account life expectancy, education and living standards, has fallen two years in a row, in 2020 and 2021, the report of The United Nations. United Nations Development Program (UNDP).
weather disasters
While the index had been rising steadily for decades, in 2021 it returned to its 2016 level, “wiping out” years of development. It is in particular about Covid, but also about climate disasters that multiply and crises that overlap without giving populations time to catch their breath.
This decline is almost universal, affecting more than 90% of the countries on the planet, although inequalities between countries remain flagrant. At the top of the list are Switzerland, Norway and Iceland. And in the background, South Sudan, ahead of Chad and Niger.
And while some countries are beginning to recover from the impacts of the pandemic, many others in Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia or the Caribbean have not had time to recover from the new crisis: the war in Ukraine. .
Decreased life expectancy
With its huge impact on food and energy security – not yet taken into account in the index that stops at 2021 – “certainly the outlook for 2022 is bleak,” Achim Steiner noted.
The decline in the Human Development Index is largely due to the fall in life expectancy of more than a year and a half between 2019 and 2021 (71.4 years in 2021 compared to 73 years in 2019), while at Usually they earn a few months each year.
Loss of confidence
The report also describes a world and a population “disturbed” by these accumulated crises and the resulting “uncertainty”.
The report suggests in particular to focus on three areas: investments in particular in renewable energy and preparation for future pandemics, insurance (including social protection) to absorb shocks, and innovations to strengthen capacities to face future crises.
UNDP also calls for the recent downward trend in development aid to the most vulnerable countries not to continue. It would be a “serious mistake” that would reduce “our ability to work together,” insists Achim Steiner. While “climate change, poverty, cybercrime, pandemics require us to work together, as an international community.”
Source: BFM TV
