But there is promise, too-an opportunity to reimagine our futures, to renew and adapt our institutions and to craft new stories about who we are and what we value. There is peril in new uncertainties, in the insecurity, polarization and demagoguery that grip many countries. Many people feel alienated from their political systems, and in another reversal, democratic backsliding has worsened. Even before the pandemic, feelings of insecurity were on the rise nearly everywhere. Many countries experienced ongoing declines on the HDI in 2021.

In the wake of the pandemic, and for the first time ever, the global Human Development Index (HDI) value declined-for two years straight. This new uncertainty complex and each new crisis it spawns are impeding human development and unsettling lives the world over. Constituting it are three volatile and interacting strands: the destabilizing planetary pressures and inequalities of the Anthropocene, the pursuit of sweeping societal transformations to ease those pressures and the widespread and intensifying polarization. A new “uncertainty complex” is emerging, never before seen in human history. Uncertainty is not new, but its dimensions are taking ominous new forms today. Together, they are fuelling a cost-of-living crisis felt around the world, painting a picture of uncertain times and unsettled lives. Record-breaking temperatures, fires, storms and floods sound the alarm of planetary systems increasingly out of whack. War in Ukraine and elsewhere has created more human suffering. The ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, having driven reversals in human development in almost every country, continues to spin off variants unpredictably.

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