The newly launched Human Development Index report for 2023/24 by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) has revealed that human capital development has been on a constant decline since 2019.
The HDR showed that the path of human development progress which shifted downwards in 2020 has remained below the pre-2019 trend, threatening to entrench permanent losses in human development gains.
The report attributed the reason for the constant decline to increasing deaths from violent conflict and displacement, reaching the highest levels since World War II: rising temperatures with 2023 being the hottest temperature ever recorded. widening inequalities between countries at the bottom and countries at the top of the HDI as well as the rising feeling of stress, insecurity, sadness, and anxiety reaching its highest levels since the Gallup surveys began.
The analysis in the HDR using data from the World Values Survey showed that only half of the global population feels in control of their lives and that only one-third of people believe that their voice is heard in their political system.
It further pointed out that for Nigeria, while HDI value has moved upward by 22 percent between 2003 and 2022, human development remains low at 0.548 – placing the country in a low human development category.
The Report called for the need to change course, otherwise the world may not recover from the decline in human progress, warning that the repercussion of not changing course and removing the gridlock will be seen in additional lives that will be lost, in opportunities that will be forgone, and in feelings of despair.
To change course the report argued the need to capitalize on local and global connections, choosing cooperation over conflict.
It said “The Report is an invitation to reimagine cooperation by pursuing three ideas that it encourages the world to fight for. These include taking steps to lower tensions and push back on the divide hindering cooperation.”
The UNDP Resident Representative in Nigeria Elsie Attafuah while speaking at the official launch of the report in Abuja noted that the Human Development Report provided analysis to show that the solutions to the problems are within our grasp especially by reimagining cooperation and uniting for a better world we can address shared challenges and make progress towards.
She noted that the HDR was designed to help decision-makers change course and accelerate progress, towards 2030, lowering tensions, addressing agency gap and building a 21st century financial architecture to deliver essential public goods.
The Minister of Finance and Coordinating Economy Mr Wale Edun stressed that the HDR is a rallying cry that we can and must do better than what is being done as it charts a way forward for conversations on reimagining development cooperation for a better world.
He stated that In re-imagining cooperation, international financial architecture ought to be structured to proactively support the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the realization of human rights, saying the only way to facilitate such a structure is through ambitious reforms, starting with more inclusive, representative and, ultimately, more effective global economic governance.
He noted that reforms to the international financial architecture will have the greatest impact if accompanied by strengthened national financing policies and capacities, for instance through integrated national financing frameworks (INFFs), which will require significant capacity-building with support from the international community.
