Year XXXVII, Number 2, July 2024

The commitments made with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development have not been respected. The UNDP, a UN organization, presented the global situation in its Human Development Report 2023-24 entitled: "Breaking the Gridlock: Reimagining Cooperation in a Polarized World".

The report denounces how people's discomfort has increased due to the worsening of the dangers associated with the climate crisis, and the increase in poverty and inequalities. Even leaving aside the crisis induced by the pandemic, the Human Development Index (HDI), which measures the level of well-being on a global scale, signals a strong regression.

The number of people who are stressed, scared, worried about the spread of conflicts, and worried about the belief that they do not have control over the decisions that concern them and their future, has increased.

This discomfort is reflected in the support for democratic systems. From the beginning of the 1990s to 2021, the percentage of the world population that had a positive opinion towards democracy was 90%. But in recent years, approval for authoritarian and anti-democratic leaders has increased by 50%. The report highlights how, by focusing on cooperation, it would be possible to counter this trend and combat political polarization. It would be necessary, on the one hand, to make a decisive commitment towards the construction and financing of "a global architecture of public and digital goods", and, on the other hand, to promote the participation of civil society in "public affairs": the only legitimation capable of renewing democracy. (g.b.)