The United Nations Development Programme released the 2022 Human Development Report earlier this month. I’m no great fan of long and complicated reports but this one is always worth reading. It’s written in plain simple language and pulls no punches. It is worrying, shocking and, at the same time provides some clear direction. It highlights that global human development is backsliding for the second year in a row.  

The central message is straightforward: to turn new uncertainties from a threat to an opportunity, we must double down on human development to unleash our creative and cooperative capacities. The question, of course, is how we do that at a time of increasing anxiety and stress. Unsurprisingly the report is entitled “Unsettled Times, Unsettled Lives”.  

Firstly, we need to recognise and understand the situation we find ourselves in. Unlike any previous time in human history, we are facing a series of complexities which, when combined, enormously increase the challenge we face in identifying and agreeing on the way forward. The report refers to this as a “new uncertainty complex” where three factors have come together.  

The first is the dangerous planetary changes we are seeing as a result of human activity as we move towards a planetary population of 8 billion people – the so-called Anthropocene effect – including climate change, extreme weather events, ocean acidification, land degradation, biosphere collapse.  

The second is recognition that we need to transform how we organise our industrialised societies, as we did during the industrial and, to an extent, green revolutions, while feeling stressed about the incredibly short time frame we have in which to successfully make this transition – and with no agreed road map to guide us.  

The third is the intensification of political and social polarization across and within countries, often driven by misperceptions about information and across groups of people – facilitated by how new digital technologies are being used.  

Added to these three factors are: 

• Growing inequality, which often leads to increasing insecurity and a descent into civil strife and, in the worst case, open conflict. 
• The growing irrelevance of the multilateral geopolitical system, created from the ashes of a war and a world order that finished nearly 70 years ago, and which simply isn’t up to tackling the crises and challenges of the present or future.   
• That in many countries the political class isn’t very interested in what happens beyond their borders and, in some cases, even within them.  

At the same time, we are also faced with a series of rolling global crises – financial, climate, pandemic and - likely this year - food.  

And so the report argues there is a sense that whatever control we felt we have over our lives is slipping away, that the norms and institutions that we rely on for stability and prosperity are not up to the task. But while the pressure is on, the UN provides some clear policy proposals to navigate our way through these tough times. Three areas emerge:  

Investment – where money needs to flow in different directions – away from fossil fuel extraction and toward renewable energy supplies, for pandemic and extreme natural hazard preparedness and mitigation.  

Insurance – Covid-19 saw a surge in social protection funding. But getting social insurance onto a sustainable footing requires investment in universal basic services such as health and education. Money for these services needs to be found and can be found if there is a reprioritization of what is considered important.  

Innovation – technological, economic and cultural – has been the driver of the tremendous development we have seen over the last century and more. We have also learned what is damaging and better understand what good innovation must look like. States play a central role in enabling and regulating innovation – providing the policy framework and being an active partner in innovation.  

And to these three “I”s I would add information – how it is used has an enormous bearing on our ability to find a way forward. When put to good use, it allows us to build and informs compelling evidence-based policies. But the lack of online regulation simply adds to our confusion. Information overload and widespread disinformation leads to confusion, feelings of being overwhelmed and helpless, detracting us from focusing on doing the right things together.  

But ultimately navigating our way through this highly fluid “new normal” needs to be a collective endeavour. As the report notes “If we can start fixing the human side of the planetary ledger— then the future, however uncertain, will be more promise than peril, just as it should be”. 

But, and it’s a very big but, as this analysis eloquently explains, time is running out. We need to act, each one of us.  

• We need to understand that “new normal” isn’t a permanent state of being unless we push for change. And that change needs to be significant and rapid if we are to avoid further deterioration in the health of the planet and its populations.  
• Policies, incentives, subsidies, regulation, taxation - all must change, aligning with the transformation that must be made, away from our current unsustainable ways.  
• We, the people and our industrial complex must change.  

• Our social contract must change.  

There is no other option.  

Download the report at: https://hdr.undp.org/content/human-development-report-2021-22.  

Dr Jemilah Mahmood, a physician and experienced crisis leader, was appointed as the Executive Director of the Sunway Centre for Planetary Health at Sunway University, Malaysia in August 2021. She is the founder of MERCY Malaysia and has served in leadership roles internationally with the United Nations and Red Cross for the last decade.  

As published in The Star on 20 September 2022, at https://www.thestar.com.my/lifestyle/living/2022/09/20/unsettled-times-unsettled-lives-a-grim-picture-of-human-development