Inequality between countries skyrocketed in 2020 and the trend that until then was slowly decreasing has not been reversed, according to the World Social Report 2024 of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA).
The director of DESA’s political and economic analysis division, Shantanu Mukherjee, highlighted on Thursday, at the presentation of the report “Social development in times of converging crises: a call to global action”, the “persistent impact” of crises in the poorest countries.
The report adds to the numerous UN calls for reform of the global development financing system and estimates that the loss of investment opportunities in this area, as a result of multiple crises, will mean a cumulative loss of 50 billion dollars for 2020 and 2030.
“Inequality between countries, which followed a stable but slow and decreasing trend, in fact skyrocketed in 2020 and has not been reversed“Declared the diplomat, repeating that, in 2022, most countries returned to extreme poverty at the pre-pandemic level.
Mukherjee explained that Debt service in poor countries, affected by high unemployment rates that accelerate inequalities, represents a burden so great that it exceeds spending. public health, education and infrastructure, hindering their progress towards social development objectives.
Furthermore, in the face of new ‘shocks’, Mukherjee denounced that the world is worse prepared, for example, to respond to health emergencies, since all regions have a worse score in a key index in 2023 compared to 2015, while social protections are concentrated. minimal. in rich countries.
The authors of the report highlight that strong social protection systems allow for better crisis management, but “Only half of the world has access to at least one benefit” of this type, so it is necessary to better regulate insurance markets to expand coverage.
The report makes recommendations guided by a premise: that There must be international agreements to give room for maneuver to countries that need to “relieve their debt burden.” and be able to implement national social development policies.
Another DESA official, Wenyan Yang, said she hopes countries will “help each other” in implementing the 2030 Agenda at the social development summit taking place late next year in Qatar.
He highlighted the recently adopted Pact for the Future, which concludes that there is “investment in people” to eradicate poverty and, therefore, improve “trust and social cohesion” after decades of uncertainty that led much of the population to doubt the capacity of their governments.
However, he warned that social reports for 2025 predict that the scale and complexity of global problems “will exceed the capacity of existing policies and institutions” to solve them.
Source: Observadora
