HUMANITY recorded an unexpected and “unsettling” slowdown in development in 2024 as the global post-pandemic recovery began losing steam, well before President Donald Trump dramatically cut US international aid, the UN warned Tuesday.
The world had rebounded from the shock of the COVID-19 pandemic by 2023, as measured by the UN’s Human Development Index (HDI), which charts living standards, health and education.
But that rebound appears to be losing momentum, according to the United Nations Development Programme’s annual report, released Tuesday.
If that “unsettling” slowdown becomes the new normal, achieving levels of human development once hoped for by 2030 “could slip by decades — making our world less secure, more divided, and more vulnerable to economic and ecological shocks,” warned UNDP head Achim Steiner.
Recent drastic cuts to international aid announced by several countries — most notably the United States, where Trump has slashed programmes and dismantled USAID, the country’s main foreign development arm — will exacerbate the issue, Steiner told AFP in an interview.
If wealthy countries stop funding development, “this will ultimately impact economies, societies, and yes, I think it will also register maybe a year or two down the line in the Human Development Index, lower life expectancy, declining incomes, more conflicts,” Steiner said.
— AFP
#GlobalNewLightOfMyanmar