Even citizens living in countries that enjoy some of the highest levels of health, wealth and education outcomes, are reporting even greater anxiety than a decade ago.
Confused about the future
Achim Steiner, home UNDP Manager.
“In our quest for unbridled economic growth, we continue to destroy our natural world as inequality grows, both within and between nations. It is time to recognize the signs of societies under extreme stress and redefine what progress really means.”
Report, New threats to human security in the Anthropocene epochcalls for greater solidarity across borders to address perceived links between development and security.
Sustainability for all
UNDP also advocates a new approach to development that it hopes will help people live free from desire, fear, anxiety and grievance.
“We need a purpose-fitted development model built around protecting and restoring our planet with new sustainable opportunities for all,” said Mr. Steiner.
UNDP first introduced the concept of human security in its landmark Human Development Report, issued in 1994.
The study signaled a radical departure from the idea that people’s security should be assessed by relying solely on territorial security, and should instead take into account basic needs, dignity and their safety, to lead a safe life.
It’s time to take action
UNDP believes that the imperative to act has never been clearer. For the second year in a row, the pandemic has reduced life expectancy globally, as well as overall measures of human development.
Climate change is also likely to become the leading cause of death worldwide, the authors warn, and could be responsible for 40 million deaths before the end of the century, even if the amount slightly reduced emissions.
The report further examines other threats that have become more prominent in recent years, including those posed by digital technology, growing inequality, conflict, and health care systems dealing with new challenges such as pandemics.
Protect, empower, unite
The authors argue that addressing these threats will require policymakers to consider protection, empowerment and solidarity side by side for human security, planetary considerations and human development, all working together and not in defiance of each other.
Asako Okai, UN Assistant Secretary-General and Director of the UNDP Crisis Office, said the report highlights the need to build a greater sense of global solidarity based on the idea of common security.
“Common security recognizes that a community can only be safe if adjacent communities are also,” she explained. “This is what we see all too clearly with the current pandemic: countries are largely powerless to contain the new spikes of this pandemic. Coronavirus from crossing the border. ”
The report found a strong link between decreased confidence levels and feelings of insecurity. Those with a higher level of awareness of human insecurities were three times less likely to find others trustworthy.
Among other findings are widening gaps in health care systems between countries. The report includes a new index that shows that between 1995 and 2017, inequality in health care worsened between countries with very low and very high levels of human development.
