UN: The coronavirus took the world back five years

Faced with an unprecedented series of crises, mainly that of the pandemic covid-19the world went back five years in terms of human development, causing “distrust” and “indignationaround the world, the UN warned in a report published today.

For the first time since its creation more than 30 years ago, the human development index – which takes into account the life expectancythe education and standard of living –showed a decrease for two consecutive years, in 2020 and 2021, the report of the UN Development Program (UNDP) highlighted.

“This means we die earlier, are less educated and have lower incomes“, explained UNDP chief Achim Steiner.

“With these three parameters one can form a picture of why people start to feel desperate, resentful, anxious about the future,” he added.

While this index has been continuously increasing for decades, in 2021 it was reduced to the 2016 level, “erasing” years of progress. The main cause is covid, but also the climate disasters that are increasing and the crises that succeed one another without giving people room to recover.

“We have experienced catastrophes in the past, there have been conflicts in the past, but the accumulation of all that we are facing now is a major setback for the development of humanity,” Steiner emphasized.

This setback concerns more than 90% of countries, although there are variations. In a better position are Switzerland, Norway and Iceland, while in the last places of the list are South Sudan, Chad and Niger.

And while some countries have begun to recover from the effects of the pandemic, many others in Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa, southern Asia or the Caribbean did not have time to recover before being hit by a new crisis: the war in Ukraine.

“Gloomy outlook for 2022”

With this war having huge implications for energy and food security, “the outlook for 2022 is undoubtedly bleak,” Steiner said.

The decline in the human development index is mainly due to the decrease in life expectancy by more than a year and a half from 2019 to 2021 (from 71.4 years in 2021 versus 73 in 2019).

“Despite the significant recovery of the economy in 2021 life expectancy continues to decline“, noted the report’s editor Pedro Conceição during a press conference, describing this trend as an “unprecedented shock”.

“In the US there is a two-year reduction in life expectancy, in other countries the reduction is even greater,” he added.

The report presents a world and citizens “disturbed” by the accumulating crises and the “uncertainty” they cause.

“People have lost their confidence,” noted Steiner, fearing that all this “indignation” will lead some to extremes and violence.

“We cannot continue with the rules of the game of the last century, which were based on economic development,” he added. “The change we need requires new indicators: reduced carbon use, less inequality, more sustainability…”

The report suggests that the global community should focus on three axes: investments, especially in renewable energy sources and in preparing for future pandemics, guarantees to absorb shocks and innovations to strengthen capacities to deal with future crises.

UNDP also calls for the current trend of reducing development aid to the most vulnerable countries not to continue.

“It would be a big mistake” that would reduce “our abilities to work together”, insisted Steiner, at a time when “climate change, poverty, cybercrime, pandemics demand that we all work together as a global community ».

RES-EMP

Read the News today and get the latest news.
Follow Skai.gr on Google News and be the first to know all the news.