Recovery: Post-pandemic, poorer countries failed to bounce back, says UNDP
Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: While many countries are bouncing back from the COVID-19 pandemic, the poorest are not and a significant number are seeing their conditions deteriorate, the UN Development Programme (UNDP) chief has said.
According to UNDP Administrator Achim Steiner, the finding is a “very strong warning signal” that nations are now drifting apart. This is in contrast to the two pre-COVID decades when the rich and poor countries were coming closer in terms of development.
The UNDP’s Human Development Index (HDI), which the agency has produced since 1990, is projected to reach record highs in 2023 after steep declines during the pandemic years of 2020 and 2021.
But development in half of the world’s poorest countries remains below the pre-pandemic levels of 2019, the report said.
“It’s a rich person’s versus a poor person’s world in which we are seeing development unfolding in very unequal, partially incomplete ways,” Steiner said at a news conference on Wednesday after releasing the report.
Why does this matter? Not only because it creates more vulnerability, but also because it triggers more misery and protracted poverty, growing inequality. The growing inequalities are compounded by the concentration of economic wealth, the report said.
It pointed to almost 40 percent of global trade in goods concentrated in three or fewer countries. The stock market value of the three largest technology companies in 2021—Amazon, Apple, and Microsoft—surpassed the GDP of over 90 percent of the 193 UN member nations that year.
Steiner said the nations should focus on major threats in the 21st century, especially climate change, the next pandemic, and the emergence of a digital economy and artificial intelligence (AI). But instead, he warned, there is increasing division and growing frustration and polarization.
A significant response has been the emergence of populism, which is anti-elite and hostile to international cooperation. He said it “is increasingly dividing societies, radicalizing the political discourse, and essentially turning more and more people against each other.”
Advancing global collective action to tackle the world’s major challenges is hindered by an emerging democracy paradox. While 90 percent of people worldwide endorse democracy, but, for the first time, over half the respondents in a global survey expressed support for leaders that risk undermining the foundations of democracy.
Territorial conflicts will continue to crop up, but the threats to human security in the 21st century will more often require collaboration, Steiner said.
“We are driving ourselves deeper and deeper into a condition where our ability to solve problems is being compromised. You will not stop climate change with missiles. You will not stop the next pandemic at your border with a tank, and you’re certainly not going to stop cybercrime with missiles.”
Steiner said it is important to dial down the temperature, misperceptions, and misinformation because they’re being weaponized in turning people against each other. There also has to be a very careful look at where inequality has become so extreme that it erodes the political willingness to cooperate.
The report calls for more spending on global public goods that benefit all people, including stabilizing climate and the planet, harnessing new technologies to improve human development, and improving the global financial system to benefit low-income countries.
The HDI measures key issues for a long and healthy life, for gaining knowledge, and for achieving a decent standard of living.
According to the 2022 data, the top places with the highest human development scores are Switzerland, Norway, Iceland, Hong Kong, Denmark, Sweden, Germany, Ireland, Singapore, Australia, the Netherlands, the USA and Luxembourg.
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.
