Joint Statement at the Executive Board of UNDP/UNFPA/UNOPS

Madam President,

I have the honor to deliver this statement on the Human Development Report on behalf of the Delegations of Australia, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Peru, Portugal, Spain, Turkey, Ukraine, the United Kingdom and my own country Sweden.

The coming 2021-2022 Human Development Report Uncertain Times, Unsettled Lives: Shaping our Future in a World in Transformation will be timely. The Covid-19 pandemic, conflict, disinformation, and climate change continue to pose uncertainties to our common future. Uncertain times can also provide an opportunity take the lead and to find a new path. The analysis and indicators of the HDR are important tools in taking a more sustainable and inclusive direction. We look forward to the report helping to guide our work, not least within the framework of Our Common Agenda.

We welcome the raised ambition to have even more intensive and inclusive consultations, dialogues and partnerships, not least with civil society, that have been part of the drafting process of this coming report, helping to identify the development challenges of today.

We also welcome the efforts to spread the knowledge and products of the HDRO, for example through advancing online communications and data visualizations. This is central in order to reach and engage new groups, not least young people.

We hope to see further exploration of metrics measuring pressures on the planet, to enhance the understanding of countries’ material consumption and carbon footprints. Such metrics provides us with a reality check of where we stand.  It can complement the original Human Development Index and help us on the path to a more sustainable way of life, a necessary change. Together we all must make sure that human development goes alongside with decreased planetary pressures.

We encourage UNDP to continue to gather and analyze data and develop methods to track multidimensional human development, with a gender equality lens and with the perspective of the equal rights of all human beings to live a life in dignity and freedom. Horizon scanning, looking beyond averages and mapping patterns and trends helps us better understand and address poverty, inequality, including gender equality, and exclusion.

In this regard, we look forward to the work of the High-Level Panel on the Development of a Multidimensional Vulnerability Index for Small Island Developing States and encourage all stakeholders to contribute actively to the Panel’s work.

Let me pose a few questions:

• How has UNDP adjusted its work to take account of the adjusted human Development Index (PHDI) last year? Is the HDRO aware of any concrete adjustments in UNDS entities’ work or priorities?
• How can the important information collected throughout this process, and the analyses produced, be known to an even larger audience?
• How are UNDP and the HDRO contributing to the work of the High-Level Panel, and how do you envisage drawing on the MVI in your future work?
• Is there any cooperation between the UNDP and the World Bank Group – the other big thinker in the development realm – on these annual reports that both organizations publish?

Let me close by re-iterating our commitment to support the UN system in its efforts to contribute to human development across the globe, and to the achievement of the 2030 Agenda, leaving no one behind. Let me also thank the Human Development Report Office for its excellent work in producing these important reports.

Thank you for your attention.