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things can change for the better. but we know that we must work hard to maintain the benefits of the postwar world. >> a weekly look at the world's top business stories, from global markets to economies, and small businesses. to understand how it affects our daily lives. counting the cost, on al jazeera. adrian: human progress is in decline. the u.n. has found that life expectancies, education levels, and living standards have fallen in nearly every country. so what is behind that change, and how can the trend be reversed? this is "inside story."

♪ hello and welcome to the program. i am adrian finighan. 30 years of continuous human progress is unraveling. that is the warning from the that report from the u.n. human development index. it is a measure of average expectancies, education levels, and living standards around the world. since it was introduced in 1990, the index has increased every year until 2020. the u.n. has now reported two years of decline in a row. it means we are living shorter lives, are less well educated, and incomes are going down. the pandemic, climate change, and the war in ukraine have been blamed. the u.n. says the world has been lurching from crisis to crisis over the past two years.

the setback is global, affecting more than 90% of countries since 2019. the worst affected is south sudan. people there live on average until 55 years old. annual earnings are $768. at the other end of the scale is switzerland, a top performer since 2009. people there are expected to live until the mid-80's and they earn on average $66,000 a year. the u.n. says the situation could be improved by countries investing in renewable energy, preparing for future pandemics, and ensuring against economic shocks. here's more from why chad, south sudan, and niger are at the bottom of that list. hiba: when you look at the three countries at the bottom of the list there are a few factors they have in common. one of them is conflict. those countries have been facing conflicts for years which has led to the -- to the

displacement of millions of civilians, some being forced to flee to seek refuge. there is also the impact of covid on global supply chains and the impact of those countries at the bottom of the list. some are already vulnerable because of the conflict and other disasters they were dealing with. the report says it is not looked into the impact of the war on ukraine on those countries, but that will likely have a more negative and deeper impact on those countries already at the bottom of the list. and it will have an impact on the mental health of the people living in those countries. one thing it says that those countries also have in common is the impact of climate change. south sudan has been witnessing floods for three years now, and that has led to the displacement of tens of thousands of civilians, and to the submerging of villages and loss of lives. the same thing has been happening in chad, with villages being submerged and people losing their lives, and people being forced from their homes to

seek shelter on dryer land. the opposite is happening in niger, and that is drought that has affected the livestock and the livelihoods of people there. all these factors leading to the impact of the well-being of the people there, specifically on their mental health. adrian: let's bring in our guests for today's discussion. from new york we are joined by luis felipe lopez-calva, the u.n. director for latin america and the caribbean. from kuala lumpur, dr. jemilah mahmood, professor and executive director of planetary health. and from nairobi, charles businge, middle east and north of east africa director for plan international. welcome to you all. luis felipe lopez-calva, let's start with you. we live in a world of worry, begins the report. but we have always lived in a world of worry and uncertainty. what is new here?

humans have always been concerned about plagues, pestilence, violence, war, floods, and droughts. what is significant about this report? luis: thank you very much. i would argue that with the report does is in the best tradition of these reports, is to try to propose an idea of the state of development in the world and quantify some of the challenges. the most important is the human index, the measure used to measure progress, for the first time in 32 years since the report has been published, has gone down. it has gone down for the world for two years in a row. 10% of countries have a reduction in the human development index. now 90% of countries have a reduction in the human development index. so it's massive for the world,

but the report makes a very clear point about increased uncertainty. we can talk about the implications of this increased uncertainty, but it's important we talk about the impact of covid, the economic crisis that followed covid, and a recent cost of living crisis. now the report quantifies and shows the magnitude of these impacts. adrian: dr. jemilah mahmood, what struck you most about this report? jemilah: i want to congratulate for this report, because even in the last report, but it positions the danger of the unforeseen in a certain complex, which is a very welcome report. and it gets us to start looking at how the dots are now joining, and how that impacts people's lives. at the end of the day, it's

about the human population, not just in terms of health, but also the stress it's causing and almost the paralysis and powerlessness people feel. we have to now say that we are in this complexity that is cascading, that is colliding, and we have got to find a way out of it. adrian: nine in 10 countries slid backwards on the u.n. human development index in either 2020 or 2021. 40% fell in both years. what's led to such an unprecedented decline, do you think? jemilah: i think this has been something that has been building up, but we know we are living -- it's actually human behavior. but it's the erate at which this decline is happening which is alarming. add to that we've had a couple

of major severe crises, not just the pandemic, but you mentioned ukraine, the polarization of the world that is not helping political leadership to find solutions. we have a very polarized world. and in the middle of that, people are stuck. multilateral institutions are also stuck because you cannot find that clear way out. and i think we need global leadership now to be at its finest. adrian: south sudan, chad, and niger are at the bottom of the list, and you heard our correspondent saying a common thread is conflict of natural disasters. what do you think makes these countries so vulnerable? is it just -- does good leadership come into it too? charles: it is a combination of different factors. and as we have heard, we're

talking about these countries coming off covid, conflict, extreme weather conditions, and also the global impact of the energy crisis. so they are not specifically safeguarded from all these crises, and when that's combined with bad governance, that enhances the culpability of these countries to responding. and as we saw the report, these crises are feeding off each other, and that enhances the vulnerability of the populations in those countries. that significantly impacts some of the populations like women and children who will face the brunt of those kind of situations. adrian: what impact, charles, will the war in ukraine have?

that is happening a long way from most developing nations, particularly in africa. but what impact will the war in ukraine have on developing nations that are already struggling to deal with the fallout of the pandemic? chars: yeah, the war in ukraine is, as we have already seen in most other countries, has impacted the rise in food and fuel prices. and making many of these countries unable to meet their fuel and food needs. so it's compounded the already existing bad situation some of these countries. we have seen the impact of supply chain conditions, which has resulted to many of the countries not being able to have access to these food requirements. we have seen that in north africa, for instance, where most

have been dependent on wheat from ukraine and russia. and that has had a significant impact on women and children. adrian: luis felipe lopez-calva, when the report talks about a decline in human development, what exactly does it mean? luis: the human index combines income, education, and health. measured by a specific indicator, life expectancy. one of the main shocks in this indicator, of course the pressure shock is still to be seen if it will have along -- a longer effect. it's important to say that less

expectancy went down by almost two years. that is a lot, in terms of what it has taken for countries to get to a higher level of life expectancy, which is typically an indicator that summarizes the state of a country. but i also want to emphasize that we look in the report at indications not only in terms of economic conditions for the people, but social and political implications. this is very important. what we see is the lowest level of trust among citizens because of this increased level of uncertainty, and the fact that people don't have control over their own lives because they have experienced a series of shocks. there is also a very high level of political polarization. [indiscernible]

we propose three i's. invest, insure, and innovate. we've shown cases of countries that have done that and recovered faster. adrian: investing, insuring, and innovating needs good leadership, doesn't it? the world is not exactly blessed with the best of leadership at the moment, when we have got so many demagogues, the political polarization that we are seeing at the moment, the lurch towards popularization. the world is looking fragmented, and it is not coming together in the way that it needs to to bring about what you propose. luis: it is indeed a moment of high polarization and low trust. we believe both transformation in leadership -- also

transactional leadership. people have to come together, we have to create space for people to come together. we talk about investment, investment in cleaner energy and cleaner infrastructure. [indiscernible] kenya has gone up seven places because they have taken decisive action in terms of climate. going from social production to social solidarity. we need to give people back the sense of control over their old lives. yes, leadership is fundamental, but also collective action, collective in the sense of bringing people together. adrian: dr. jemilah mahmood, are you confident the world can come

together to solve problems that are, let's face it, mutual? we're all in this together. the report talks about the world lurching from crisis to crisis and creating layers of uncertainty. how is all of that affecting people's general well-being, their mental health? what do we mean by an uncertainty complex? jemilah: first of all, let me maybe look at the report, and almost conjure this image in reading it, basically saying we have all gone back to becoming developing countries. every country is facing its own challenges. i think that, on your question, can we do something about it? yes. in that situation, what did we do, what did we learn, what kind of leadership led us to get out of that situation? all these things, these lessons,

these stories, we need to capture again to navigate this uncertainty. we're talking about the uncertainties and the complexity, and there are core elements very nicely described in the report, which is looking from different elements from economics to the climate issues we are facing, and the individual level as well. so that issue around mental health is what i issued earlier. people are subject to so much information. luis, i love this report, but the one i i would have added is information. there is so much disinformation that is making people -- they are unable to focus and find a way out because you get paralyzed. i want to turn to the media, you, al jazeera, 250 million viewers in 140 countries. what can media do to help us?

how do we get the stories out? how do we have a shared narrative of a common world, of a planet we need to protect, of humanity that we need to put in the center? this is what we need to do. we are faced with a planetary catastrophe. we have no choice. we cannot give up. we need to push on. it requires this transformation that is global. not at a regional, subregional level. it is a global issue. we all need toown -- to own and tackle together. all the speak we have had on greening the economy and green transition, that needs to stop, we have to see action now. adrian: but how? it's one thing to say that we have to, we have to take action. but how? the will has to be there. jemilah: the people have to tell their leadership and the people have to, at the individual level, change the way they behave. if you put politics aside, in the world today, there's more

stuff than the weight on -- of people on the planet. the consumption patterns, the behaviors of not even thinking twice when they are consuming energy, the way we're putting out fossil fuel commissions without thinking about the damages being done, the way we skirt around the word climate emergency and goat -- go to create treaties that nobody puts through. we as individuals need to rise and say at our individual level, this is what we need to do. this is what we also need to demand of, whether of government of business. if people change the way they behave, then we have a chance. i am not saying it is going to solve everything, but we have a chance now of trying to find a solution. if we go into a pathetic mode and we give up, that is the end. for me, working at a university, we tackle it through a

revolution in education, getting our students to understand the decisions they make, when they are at university, when they are at work, will have serious implications on the climate, will contribute to the complexity we are facing in the world today. and we need young people now to be educated in the way that shows value of being a human being on this shared earth that we have. adrian: charles businge, is it possible to put politics aside? we talked earlier about how issues of bad governments have held back development in africa. for instance, the report says recovery from the pandemic has been uneven and partial. further widening inequalities in human development. can you think of any examples to give us about this global divide that exists? access to covid-19 vaccines, for example, which has this political element to it.

the vaccines are available, the world did a great job in producing these vaccines to head off the pandemic, and yet not everyone can get them. charles: yeah. i think the first fundamental issue is to be true to our commitments. across different people, across different sectors, across different groups. especially those in governance. i think there are moral issues here which need to be looked into. and we need to be able to look at these issues as global issues that will require global action. for me, we cannot just separate these issues from politics. because there are decisions made

in some places which will have implications in other places. if we are talking about inequality, there are also decisions which are made by some individuals in power which will impact those other individuals cannot make those decisions. so the equality question comes at the same time which also requires a moral discussion. we have been talking about pre-existing equalities. especially those which are driven by gender, driven by race, driven by other considerations which we need to put into perspective. if we are going to look for solutions, we need to look for collective solutions where specific countries will definitely need assistance to improve on their governance credentials, but also to address

some of the issues that will require specific investment. as i think the report says, we need to invest, because the crises are getting complex. if we cannot be able to innovate, if we cannot be able to invest, as a collective, we're going to remiain in this situation, even getting worse. adrian: luis felipe lopez-calva, i want to end the program on an optimistic note what i will start with a negative question before i ask you, what are some of the positive takeaways from the report. dr. jemilah mahmood was saying people need to demand action of the government, but how can they in some of the world's more authoritarian states? that is not exactly an option open to them, is it? luis: the report actually ends

in a way, after assessing all this, the lack of democratic instruments in many places, the rise of certain kinds of leadership not conducive -- one of the main messages is there is opportunity in uncertainty as well. it's not just a way to say let's have a nice landing of the reporter. investing in every context, what investment we need to transition to a more sustainable path. i want to say, if i may, there are international instruments, certainly the 2030 agenda, which we always say is a way to try to move from ideology to ideals.

we had the paris agreement. let's try to work hard to bring them into instruments to bring them back together. latin america and caribbean in the last two years have had a super cycle in their number of elections and people have chosen to process through democratic means. for the first time ever, it's a call also for individual leadership. everybody has, in a way, a space to take control and be innovative. the i of innovation is about social interaction, everybody becoming a leader in their community. adrian: there, we must end. i'm afraid we are out of time. thank you so much for being with us, luis felipe lopez-calva, jemilah mahmood, and charles businge. and thanks for watching. you can see the program again at any time by visiting aljazeera.com. for further discussion, join us

on facebook at facebook. com/ajinsidestory. and join the conversation on twitter, @ajinsidestory. from me and the team in doha, thanks for watching. we'll see you again. bye for now. ♪

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