Palestinian refugees receive aid distributed by UNRWA amid the Covid-19 coronavirus disease outbreak, at the United Nations center in Gaza City, Oct. 8, 2020. (AFP)
Human development set back five years by COVID-19, other crises: UN
The COVID-19 pandemic, compounded with other crises, has pushed a global development metric back to its 2016 level, according to a UN report published Thursday.
The UN Development Program (UNDP) announced that for the first time since it was created over 30 years ago, the Human Development Index - a measure of countries' life expectancies, education levels, and standards of living - has declined for two years straight, in 2020 and 2021, “erasing the gains of the preceding five years.”
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“The reversal is nearly universal as over 90 percent of countries registered a decline in their HDI score in either 2020 or 2021 and more than 40 percent declined in both years, signaling that the crisis is still deepening for many,” said the UNDP in a press release.
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