Prof Belinda Reyers, Professor of Sustainability Science in the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences, has spent the past five years working with the team behind the UN Human Development Report as a member of their Advisory Group.

The recently released Human Development Report (HDR 2023-24) titled: “Breaking the gridlock: Reimagining cooperation in a polarized world” is an eye-opening call to action.

Prof Reyers explained, “With all the progress we have made, all the technologies invented, all the knowledge and other riches that have been created, why are we not doing better than this? Why can’t we fix poverty, end climate change, ensure peace and keep people and the planet safe? In essence – as the report states – “why are we so stuck?” Why does making progress on things like the SDGs and the Paris Agreement feel like a “half-hearted slog through quicksand”?

Therefore, it is no surprise that although the Human Development Index, an annual measure of a nation’s health, education, and standard of living, has rebounded after its slump since the pandemic, the global HDI value is still below trend. This is further evidenced by the recently published Global Sustainable Development Report 2023, which highlights that the world is far off track to meet the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030 - placing the “Leave no one behind” Principle at serious risk. Without concerted action, crisis and uncertainty – triggered by and reinforcing poverty, inequality, hunger, disease, conflict and disaster – will become the norm.

As a South African researcher working on understanding and engaging with the complex interdependencies and relationships connecting people and the planet, Prof Reyers has been excited to see the innovative strides made in this HDR to highlight the global interdependencies between people, and between people and planet and how the mismanagement of these has led us to the predicament we are in. “These interdependencies are vital as we have seen for pandemic preparedness, peace building, climate action and digital governance. We cannot shy away from these behind porous sectoral and national boundaries. Instead, as the report sets out, we need to work hard at the required shifts in mindsets, policies and institutions to better manage our social and ecological connectedness and get unstuck.”

Prof Reyers has been able to support more integrative and systemic perspectives in the report to find a way forward that brings everyone along. This is vital as at the heart of human development is that people can determine for themselves what it means to live a good life, including defining and reassessing their responsibilities to other people and the planet. This collaborative journey is essential, but it is being crowded out in many ways by polarisation and distrust, driven by crisis and uncertainty.

The Reports explore hopeful avenues forward to build a new global public goods architecture to better manage our interdependences, to push back on polarisation and act on climate change, and to narrow the gaps in agency and better manage our interdependences with one another and with the planet.

Prof Reyers has been grateful to be included in the process of developing these reports, finding a fruitful conversation in which science and policy can overcome problematic divisions between environment and development to focus instead on the quality of relationships connecting people and the planet and the reconfigurations of relationships needed to enhance capacities to navigate uncertain futures.