Worlds apart

Disruption, resentment, division - but the story can change 🌐

Apr 11, 2024

WorldWise readers—

It’s the job of the media to inform about what’s going on in the world, and it usually ends up being about what’s going wrong. There’s plenty of that to go around.

But behind the big news and the negative trends lie shoots of positivity. So many of you, of us, are working to make change for the better in our little patch. There’s much to do and to nurture beyond the gloomy headlines.

Anita

VIEW EDITION | a global take on pressing issues for humanity

INSIGHT | views & analysis

A troubling pandemic legacy is emerging.

We all know that most assessments of how countries advance cite changes in their GDP, or gross domestic product. What this single measure embodies is a simple idea which carries a lot of power: that the more a country produces (or spends, or earns), the better off it is. By measuring the monetary value of goods and services, the GDP frames progress in purely economic terms.

But there’s an alternative. Almost 35 years ago, in 1990, the United Nations created the Human Development Index (HDI). Unlike GDP, the HDI takes a broader, different view of what counts as development. It does this by factoring in societal outcomes such as life expectancy at birth, years of schooling and level of income per-person. Think of it as a shorthand for progress framed as human (vs. economic) development.

HDI rankings are published every other year by the UN Development Program (UNDP), and the index has become one of the most widely used measures of countries’ advancement, after GDP. That makes it handy for comparing progress over time.

So we come to the news: The latest 2023-24 HDI rankings were published in mid-March, together with the Human Development Report. They show that four years after the pandemic—and despite the “build back better” slogan of that time—half of the world’s poorest countries haven’t recovered from the shocks brought on by that crisis. But every wealthy country has bounced back. This has created a gulf which suggests Covid-19 has set back global development permanently. It also suggests that inequality may be the pandemic’s most visible and lasting legacy.

The response to this turn of events by nations in the Global South is already making waves, shifting the balance of power on the global stage. A development gap that continues to grow is expected to fuel that dynamic.

If you’ve been reading the newsletter for a while, much of this will sound fairly familiar (e.g. here, here and here). The UNDP’s findings paint a picture that both reflects the trends we’ve seen unfold in recent years, and gives them better shape.

Let’s take a look at the key messages as highlighted by media reports.

2020 is a turning point. For decades, rich and poor countries were developing at similar rates. The gap between those with the highest and lowest HDI scores had narrowed over much of the past 20 years—that’s until 2020, when the gap began to widen. The disruption to the long-term trend looks to be permanent. Once converging paths are now growing apart.
The divergence was triggered by Covid-19. The pandemic both amplified and made more obvious long-standing imbalances in resources and power between the Global North and the Global South. “Vaccine apartheid” is probably the most obvious example: by hoarding doses, the wealthiest countries made it nearly impossible for poorer ones to access the most effective tool available to beat back the virus.
The economic shock fuelled inequalities. Badly hit financially, many countries in the Global South took on even more debt to stimulate their economies and maintain social benefits during lockdowns. This resulted in a debt crisis. Some governments defaulted; many spent less on development to service their debts, widening inequality even further.
Add conflict and climate change. Not long after the pandemic subsided, the war on Ukraine sent food and fuel prices surging. Plus, there are now more cross-border armed conflicts than at any time since 1945. And extreme weather events are slowly but surely bringing the reality of climate change closer to home everywhere, not just in the Global South.
A backdrop of “mismanaged interdependence”. The UN puts the spotlight on globalisation as a key factor behind this break in development trajectories—or rather, on the failure to manage it well so that benefits are spread fairly. The authors of the Human Development Report say that although globalisation has helped lift millions of people out of poverty in the developing world, many workers in developed countries felt that they lost out. This not only fuelled inequality, but brewed resentment that has left societies divided.

Pedro Conceição, the report’s leading author, speaks to this in cogent terms in an interview with the Washington Post:

“People in communities that suffered relative economic decline have concluded that the system is not working for them. And under economic stress, many individuals have sought solace in shared identities that are defined in opposition to other groups, leading to polarization.”

Articulating the connection between disrupted development and divided societies is, I would argue, one of the most important contributions of this work.

Polarisation has increased since 2011 in more than two-thirds of countries, according to the report. We’ve all seen the signs: more and more, people (maybe ourselves too) align with like-minded groups and openly voice disagreement on any number of issues. Many of us have a sense of losing control, both over our own lives and our governments’ actions. In parallel, there’s rising popular support for anti-democratic leaders.

No one has any silver bullets or recipes for how to get back on a better track. The UNDP is calling on political leaders to tone down divisive rhetoric. I would say there’s a version of this that’s not just about the extremes: even governments we might consider progressive seem to be turning away from cooperation to focus on internal affairs—take several European development donors’ shifting focus on domestic priorities, for example.

This turn to protective instincts may well be what we do, as people and as societies, but it’s counter-productive. Whether it’s about the climate or the economy, we’re part of one system: actions that add pressure to one part are likely to have consequences felt in another. Think about extreme weather and migration, conflict and food prices.

Rather than abandoning globalisation, says UNDP administrator Achim Steiner, it should be reformed with different priorities: protecting the environment, making supply chains more resilient, easing debt in the Global South.

In a sense, this takes us right back to where we began: by placing value on human and social rather than economic advancement, the HDI exposes a different narrative of progress, or lack thereof, which speaks to the need for reform. In the words of Steiner:

“This year’s HDI analysis sketched a gloomy picture of a world that, while materially richer than in the past, is deeply stressed, politically divided and shadowed by war.”

GDP or HDI. Economies or life. Turning the ORs to ANDs is the task. The narratives of human and economic development need to merge, so we can tell a different story.

[Sources: WaPo + Guardian + WPR + Economist]

BRIEFING | around the world

News highlights

The Earth is still losing its pristine tropical forests, but at a slower rate than previous years, according to new figures. That’s mainly because forest loss has decreased in the Brazilian and Colombian Amazon after changes in political leadership. But the destruction continues, and deforestation has risen in other countries, with an average of 10 football pitches lost per minute in 2023. World leaders have pledged to stop forest loss by 2030. In Peru, one nonprofit is working with miners to replant areas of the rainforest that has been damaged by illegal gold mining. [Guardian + Nature + BBC + Axios + Sensemaker + NPR]

Gambian lawmakers have voted in favour of reviewing a ban on female genital mutilation (FGM) in the name of “culture and religion”. The move is expected to result in re-legalising the practice, which is recognised internationally as a form of human rights abuse. If it succeeds, Gambia would be the first country to roll back legal protections against FGM. Even though some countries are moving towards ending the practice, the number of FGM survivors worldwide has risen by 30 million to 230 million over the past eight years. [NYT + Al Jazeera + Sensemaker + France24 + NYT]

Uganda’s constitutional court has upheld the core provisions of a new harsh anti-LGBT+ law, bar some tweaks that reports suggest are designed to appease aid donors. There are signs that Ghana may follow suit with a similar proposed law. [Tortoise + Economist + Devex + Al Jazeera + The World]

Gaza is on the brink of famine while aid efforts are held back on several fronts—and it’s not the only humanitarian hotspot. Famine looms in Sudan too, while sexual and gender-based violence is increasing a year into its civil war. A few weeks after gang violence erupted in Haiti, families are struggling to secure basic necessities and the healthcare system is edging closer to collapse. Violence is also escalating in the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, which is facing humanitarian crisis as 250,000 people have been displaced in a month. Meanwhile, a severe drought has led Zimbabwe to declare a state of disaster, with its president requesting $2 billion in humanitarian aid to ease hunger. Malawi, Mozambique and Madagascar are also affected by the drought. [Al Jazeera + WaPo + Reuters + WaPo + UN News + NYRB + UN News + Guardian + WaPo + Al Jazeera + Think Global Health + AP + Al Jazeera + Le Monde + AP + AP]

Views of note

Populists are using anti-sustainability rhetoric, write Mexican journalist Deborah Martínez and professor Sjors Witjes for World Politics Review:

“Similar to Trump, other populist leaders worldwide have used comparable narratives to appeal to Indigenous communities and business sectors that feel either neglected or disproportionately affected by measures implemented to transition to a more sustainable model of development.”—Deborah Martínez and Sjors Witjes

Under the radar

The Inter-American Court of Human Rights made a landmark decision on March 22, in a case involving allegations that more than a century of catastrophic industrial pollution from La Oroya Metallurgical Complex in Peru violated the right to a healthy environment. Katie Surma reports for Undark that the case could have implications for other communities affected by pollution. And according to a piece in The Global Network for Human Rights and the Environment:

“The Inter-American Court’s decision is the strongest and most comprehensive judgment of any regional human rights court to date.”—David Boyd, UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and the Environment.

Against the grain

A social anthropologist has been running workshops in Mexico that create a space for men to express their emotions in a judgment-free forum, Ena Aguilar Peláez reports for Global Press Journal. Demand has grown—more women are requesting them for their male colleagues—but he says funding opportunities still lag behind those for gender-equality workshops for women:

“All men should have spaces for reflection—in schools, work, health centers—so they can work deeply on their learned reactions and raise their awareness."— Eduardo Liendro, social anthropologist and founder of Colectivo de Hombres por Relaciones Igualitarias.

Culture corner

Accra’s next generation of young designers are turning waste to wealth, Elvis Kachi reports for Atmos. And in the Malaysia Borneo, there’s a renaissance of Indigenous cuisine and food practices, Rebecca Tan writes in the Washington Post.

HOUSEKEEPING NOTE

A big thank you to those of you who continue to support WorldWise through a paid subscription (the option is available here). You can read more about the project via the about page. In a nutshell: this is my attempt to draw on knowledge gathered over 25 years and across sectors to help us navigate complex challenges that affect life on this planet, and to support individuals or organisations working with the media to cover those issues.

MEDIA | working communications

Talks to end plastic pollution are resuming this month—UNEP has issued a media advisory for the fourth session of the  Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee, which is  tasked with developing an international legally binding instrument on plastic pollution. The talks are scheduled to take place from 23 to 29 April 2024 in Ottawa, Canada. The revised draft text of the international legally binding instrument is available in all UN official languages. The Scientists’ Coalition for an Effective Plastics Treaty has published a response to the revised ‘zero’ draft text, and a factsheet on links between plastics and climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution. A report by Stéphanie Fillion for Devex sets the scene for the negotiation battles ahead.

📩 Plus, ICYMI—our latest MEDIA edition leads with a few thoughts on the authority divide in the media, before moving on to a helping of fresh grants, fellowships, trainings and many more opportunities.