UNITED NATIONS –
Many countries are recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic, but the poorest are not and a significant number are seeing conditions deteriorate, according to a United Nations Development Program report on Wednesday.
Achim Steiner, the agency’s director, said that after two decades during which rich and poor countries were moving closer in terms of development, the finding is “a very strong warning sign” that nations are now drifting apart.
The Human Development Index that the agency has produced since 1990 is projected to reach record levels in 2023 after sharp declines during the pandemic years of 2020 and 2021.
But development in half of the world’s poorest countries remains below pre-pandemic levels in 2019, the report said.
“It’s a world of rich people versus a world of poor people in which we are seeing development unfold very unevenly and partially incomplete,” Steiner said at a news conference. “Why does this matter? Not only because it creates more vulnerability, but it also creates more long-term misery and poverty, and growing inequality.”
Growing inequalities are exacerbated by the concentration of economic wealth, according to the report.
He noted that almost 40 percent of world trade in goods is concentrated in three or fewer countries. And he said that the stock market value of the three largest technology companies in 2021 (Amazon, Apple and Microsoft) exceeded the gross domestic product of more than 90 percent of the 193 UN member countries that year.
Steiner said the world’s nations should join forces to focus on the major threats of the 21st century, especially climate change, the next pandemic and the rise of a digital economy and artificial intelligence. But instead, he warned, there is growing division and growing frustration and polarization.
He said a significant response has been the rise of populism, which is anti-elitist and hostile to international cooperation. He said this “is increasingly dividing societies, radicalizing political discourse and essentially turning more and more people against each other.”
The report says advancing global collective action to address the world’s major challenges is hampered by an emerging “paradox of democracy”: 90 percent of people around the world support democracy, but for the first time More than half of respondents in a global survey expressed support for leaders who risk undermining the foundations of democracy.
Territorial conflicts will continue to arise, but threats to human security in the 21st century will increasingly require the ability to collaborate, Steiner said.
“We are sinking deeper and deeper into a situation where our ability to solve problems is being compromised,” he said. “We won’t stop climate change with missiles. We won’t stop the next pandemic at our border with a tank, and we certainly won’t stop cybercrime with missiles.”
Steiner said it’s important to lower the temperature, misperceptions and misinformation “because they’re actually being used as weapons to turn people against each other.”
He said we also have to look very carefully “where inequality has become so extreme that it actually erodes the political will to cooperate.”
The report calls for greater spending on global public goods that benefit all people, including to stabilize the climate and the planet, harness new technologies to improve human development, and improve the global financial system to benefit low-income countries.
The agency’s Human Development Index measures key issues for a long and healthy life, for acquiring knowledge and for achieving a decent standard of living.
According to the latest figures from 2022, the 10 states with the highest human development scores are Switzerland, Norway, Iceland, Hong Kong, Denmark, Sweden, Germany and Ireland, tied for seventh place, Singapore, Australia and the Netherlands tied in tenth place. The United States tied with Luxembourg for 20th place.
The 10 countries with the lowest human development were Sierra Leone, Burkina Faso, Yemen, Burundi, Mali, Chad, Niger, Central African Republic, South Sudan and Somalia. All but Yemen are in Africa.