The world has gone back five years in terms of development, education, hope and quality of life with Covid-19, according to the conclusions of a United Nations report published this Thursday.
The report on the Human Development Index (HDI) also expresses the fear that the war in Ukraine will make the situation even worse.
For the first time since its creation more than 30 years ago, the Human Development Index – which takes into account life expectancy, education and quality of life – decreased two consecutive years, in 2020 and 2021, returning to the level of 2016 .
And this “immense fall” concerns more than 90% of the countries of the planetaccording to the United Nations Development Program (UNDP).
A milestone that, according to experts, results from a spiral of crisis that began with the Covid-19 pandemic and that now has as its main exponent the Russian invasion of Ukraine and its collateral effects on a global level.
The UNDP, in charge of preparing the study for 32 years, detects a regression to 2016 levels, which ultimately implies new burdens to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) that the international community aspired to achieve by 2030.
The decline is widespread, with more than 90% of the countries reporting a deterioration in their levels in 2020 or 2021. More than 40% recorded setbacks in both years, according to the UNDP, which detected a “partial and uneven” recovery and sees particularly significant gaps in Latin America and the Caribbean, sub-Saharan Africa, and South Asia.
Switzerland, Norway, Iceland, Hong Kong, Australia, Denmark, Sweden, Ireland, Germany and the Netherlands occupy the top ten positions in this Human Development Index, while Spain remains in 27th place. At the bottom are South Sudan, Central African Republic, Chad, Niger and Burundi.
The administrator of the UNDP, Achim Steiner, called for international solidarity to continue advancing in a world that “desperately tries to respond to successive crises” and warned against the risk of thinking only in the short term.
The official acknowledged that in times of inflation or energy crisis it can be “tempting” to subsidize fossil fuels, but considered that this portrays the “systemic changes” that the world needs in the long term.
“We have a narrow window of opportunity to reboot our systems and build a future with decisive action on climate change and creating new opportunities for all people,” he added.
Source: Observadora
