A new analysis by the UN development agency highlights that the population’s feeling of protection is below the minimum in almost all countries and that six out of every seven people in the world suffer from a feeling of insecurity.
The multiple advances achieved in human development indicators do not necessarily imply a greater sense of security, even in the richest countries, according to a new report published this Tuesday by the United Nations Development Program.
The new study provides new data and analysis that demonstrate that the population’s sense of protection is below the minimum in almost all countries. Nations with some of the highest levels of health, wealth and education show a greater degree of anxiety than they did ten years ago.
The data collected in the analysis shows the need to act immediately since for the second consecutive year they indicate a decrease in life expectancy worldwide due to COVID-19 and a worsening of all parameters measuring human development.
To this factor, we must add the serious threat posed by climate change. Even if there is a moderate reduction in polluting emissions, temperature changes could cause the death of 40 million people by the end of the century.
To address this dissociation, the report calls “for strengthening international solidarity and developing a new approach to development that allows people to live without want, fear, anxiety and indignity.”
UN Program Administrator Achim Steiner highlighted that most people have a sense of worry about the future, an impression that has been exacerbated by the emergence of COVID-19.
“In our unbridled desire for economic growth, we continue to destroy our natural environment while inequalities increase, both within and between countries,” he highlighted.
Steiner added that the time has come “to pay attention to the signals that societies under immense stress are emitting and redefine the true meaning of progress. “We need a development model fit for this purpose that is built around the protection and restoration of our planet, and that offers new sustainable opportunities for all.”
Strengthen global solidarity to achieve common security
The report analyzes a series of threats that have become more prominent in recent years, such as those related to digital technologies, inequalities, conflicts, and the capacity of health systems to face new challenges, such as the coronavirus pandemic. COVID-19.
According to the authors of the study, the fight against these threats will require that policy makers address them jointly, considering the principles of protection, empowerment, and solidarity so that synergies, and not contradictions, are created between the security of people, the health of the planet, and human development. This means that solutions to one problem should not exacerbate others.
“One of the fundamental aspects of practical action highlighted in the report aims to strengthen a sense of global solidarity based on the idea of common security. This idea assumes the notion that the security of a community depends on the security of adjacent communities. This is clearly seen with the current pandemic: countries are largely powerless to prevent the cross-border spread of new mutations,” explained United Nations Under-Secretary-General Asako Okai.
Report Highlights These are some more relevant data from the report:
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