Growth of gulf between rich and poor countries ‘recipe for much darker future’, says UN
The gulf between rich and poor countries continues to grow, according to the UN, furthering the reversal of a 20-year trend where the gap steadily shrank until 2020.
The latest human development report found that although each of the 38 OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries has recovered from the Covid pandemic, only half of the least-developed countries have done so.
“If you take [the index] as an average of all countries you see a story of recovery,” said Achim Steiner, the administrator of the UN Development Programme (UNDP). “But when you look more closely it is a recovery particular to high-income countries. It is not yet a recovery for the low-income and least-developed countries.”
The report points to rising populism, “mismanaged globalisation”, and militarisation as the key challenges facing today’s global development.
Steiner said: “We are seeing that defence budgets are increased year on year, while development budgets, the very currency of being able to help poorer countries to invest in cooperation, are being slashed. This is a recipe for a much darker future.”
The human development index is a tool used by the UN since the 1990s. It takes into account life expectancy, education and per capita income. Switzerland, which topped this year’s chart, gained a score 0.967, an increase from its 2021 score of 0.962. However, South Sudan, which was bottom in 2021-22 with a score of 0.385, had an even lower score of 0.381 this year.
The Covid pandemic had been a “multiplier” of pre-existing structural problems such as poverty, Steiner said.
“The pandemic weakened countries’ resilience and ability to withstand shock. So the subsequent shocks of conflict, which have affected many countries, and the high-inflation environment have cumulated to disproportionately affect those countries that were already the most weakened by the pandemic,” he said.
Somalia, which is included in the report for the first time, came last on the list.
The UNDP’s Somalia resident representative Lionel Laurens said the fact that enough meaningful data has been gathered by a “fruitful collaboration” between UN bodies and the Somali National Bureau of Statistics “shows how much progress has been achieved in recent years”. But he acknowledged that “much work remains to guarantee healthcare, education and prosperity for all Somalis in a context that remains fragile, particularly [given its] exposure to climate vulnerabilities”.
The Somali government has been approached for comment.
Steiner pointed to vaccine inequality as an example of “mismanaged globalisation” described in the report.
“Covid taught us in a very brutal way the price of inequality,” Steiner said. “It showed how quickly a clinically triggered phenomenon can turn into a social and economic set of ripple effects. The polarisation, the deep debates about confidence or lack thereof in our state institutions, the economic impacts – these factors amplified feelings of abandonment for many people. Consequently many turned to more radicalised political discourse and more populist narratives took centre stage.”