Credit: UNDP

By Michelle Muschett and Sabina Alkire
NEW YORK, Aug 27 2025 (IPS)

The development trajectory of Latin America and the Caribbean is going through a period of unprecedented vulnerability and uncertainty. The significant achievements of past decades, as well as the possibility of continuing to make progress, are under threat from the impact of growing geopolitical tensions, unresolved structural challenges, and an increase in crises of various kinds—environmental, political, health, technological, and social.

These challenges intertwine and reinforce each other, magnifying their impact and overwhelming the response capacity of institutions. Against this backdrop, a fundamental question arises: how can we protect the gains made in human development while continuing to move forward in this new reality?

The answer lies in the very essence of the concept of human development. Since its formulation by the authors of the first UNDP Human Development Report in 1990, economists Amartya Sen and Mahbub ul Haq, the focus of this concept has been on expanding people’s capabilities so that we can lead lives we value and find meaningful.

It is not just about income or material goods, but about health, education, participation, freedom, and dignity. But human development is not static and can suffer setbacks. To safeguard its progress in the face of recurring shocks and to continue expanding capabilities, it is essential to embed resilience as an unconditional requirement.

Beyond mere endurance

In the context of human development, resilience is not limited to enduring or withstanding sudden impacts, nor to restoring a previous state. It is the capacity and agency of human beings to live valuable lives in such a way that they can prevent or mitigate the impact of crises both in their own lives and those of their communities and, if necessary, recreate valuable lives and continue to thrive.

It means that people and communities can reorganize, adapt, and move forward, even—and especially—in the midst of adversity. A system is resilient not because it is immune to shocks, but because it knows how to respond effectively, learn from experience, and emerge stronger.

Just as a house is resilient if, even with modest materials, it withstands an earthquake, protects its inhabitants, and allows life to continue, a health system is resilient if, in the face of a pandemic and despite its limitations, it reorganizes resources, mobilizes staff, welcomes volunteers, requests and absorbs external aid, provides psychological support, recognizes collective effort, and leaves behind strengthened capacities for facing future emergencies.

The key is not to avoid all damage—that would be impossible—but to respond with purpose and to strengthen the system based on experience. In short, resilience is not improvised; it is built.

Agency, capabilities, and human security

Resilient human development rests on three fundamental pillars: capabilities, human security, and agency. Capabilities are the real opportunities people have to live a life they value: being healthy, learning, participating, working with dignity. Human security protects that essential core against persistent or sudden threats such as hunger, violence, natural disasters, or disease.

Agency, meanwhile, is the ability to act according to one’s own values. It is not only about feeling included and being able to choose, but about actively influencing one’s own life and environment: organizing, participating in public life, imagining alternatives even in the midst of crisis.

When people live in contexts of limited freedoms or insecurity—marked, for example, by violence, precariousness, or exclusion—their agency tends to weaken. We may withdraw, lose trust in others, become demobilized, or adopt extreme positions.

This is why a resilient vision of development cannot be limited to the material: it must also strengthen interpersonal trust and the sense of belonging—the emotional, relational, and civic fabric that allows us to act, decide, and rebuild.

An urgent approach for Latin America and the Caribbean

The need to incorporate resilience into human development is particularly pressing in Latin America and the Caribbean. Without a resilient perspective, each crisis can mean significant development losses.

Conversely, if development agents and actors integrate resilience into their management and actions, it is possible to prepare better collectively, minimize damage, and transform systems based on each experience.

From a public management perspective, this means, for example, that public policies anticipate risk contexts—such as designing and implementing education systems that can also function in emergencies; social protection systems that expand households’ capacity to cope with crises and that have pre-established mechanisms to extend benefits to those affected; or care systems that facilitate reintegration into the labor market.

It also means ensuring community support networks and mutual aid mechanisms and, above all, strengthening institutions and individual and collective capacities to anticipate, decide, act, and adapt.

Prioritizing the essential, even with scarce resources

Resilience in public policy requires investment, planning, and consensus around a long-term vision. But it does not always entail large budgetary efforts, even in fiscally constrained contexts. The key is to innovate and prioritize what is essential: identifying which capabilities must be protected at all costs, which services must be maintained even in times of crisis, and which bonds must be strengthened before they break. Innovation is not only technological—it is also social, institutional, and territorial. The region is already applying tools with great potential for scalability and impact to transform realities, expand capabilities, and create opportunities where there was once exclusion, such as innovative applications of the Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) or inclusive financing instruments with local impact.

The resilience approach from a human development perspective means prioritizing strategically, making evidence-based decisions, and avoiding improvisation to ensure local impact and agency. Furthermore, by explicitly incorporating prevention, preparedness, and recovery into the development agenda and public budgets, the future costs of crises can be significantly reduced.

A compass of hope for uncertain times

Resilient human development protects and adapts the classic concept of human development to today’s challenges. It combines the transformative vision of development with the precaution of human security and the recognition of people as agents of their own destiny, even in the face of adversity.

In a world with fewer certainties, resilience is an ethical, practical, and hopeful compass. For Latin America and the Caribbean, it is also an opportunity—not to resign ourselves to permanent risk, but to turn each challenge into a springboard for more just and cohesive societies.

The future is not written; we build it together. Collective resilience must be at the heart of our responses: it is key to driving economic growth and shared prosperity; to fostering innovative financing and public policies that make it possible to prevent, mitigate, and rebuild lives after a crisis; and to broadening the sense of belonging, increasing human agency and security. Only through collaboration and collective action can we build valuable, dignified, and resilient development and life paths for all people.

Michelle Muschett is Regional Director, UNDP, Latin America and the Caribbean; Sabina Alkire is Director of the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) at the University of Oxford

This blog is based on findings from the Regional Human Development Report 2025, “Under Pressure: Recalibrating the Future of Development in Latin America and the Caribbean” (coming soon).

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Credit: UNDP Suriname

By Michelle Muschett and Flor de Maria Bolaños
NEW YORK, Nov 26 2024 (IPS)

As the world faces escalating challenges, from climate change to biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation, there is now a rapidly expanding understanding that these crises are deeply interconnected.

This wider recognition of the interconnectedness of these planetary crises is an opportunity to bring interconnected solutions to the foreground and the people who are driving these solutions forward.

Indigenous Peoples and local communities have long adopted integrated solutions that connect climate action, nature conservation, and inclusive economic growth, by amplifying their voices we can accelerate our transition to a sustainable, resilient future.

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is at the forefront of this effort, fostering inclusive governance, building partnerships, and promoting innovative approaches that protect people and the planet.

The urgency of addressing climate change is undeniable, but climate action alone is insufficient. The rapid degradation of ecosystems and loss of biodiversity exacerbate climate impacts, endangering both the environment and people’s well-being.

Forests, wetlands, and other ecosystems are essential in regulating the climate, supporting livelihoods, and ensuring food and water security for billions.

Credit: UNDP Panama

Acknowledging that human and planetary health are inseparable, this year’s 16th Conference of the Parties (COP16) to the Convention on Biological Diversity theme, “Peace with Nature,” emphasized the need for a harmonious relationship with nature. As societies, we are an integral part of the natural world, and only by reversing habitat loss, protecting ecosystems, and creating spaces where biodiversity can thrive can we lay the foundation for a sustainable future.

Nature is embedded in all aspects of life, making it essential for COP16 participants—from governments to Indigenous communities and the private sector—to commit to an inclusive and equitable process in building peace with nature.

The Latin America and Caribbean region, considered a “biodiversity superpower,” holds one of the world’s largest reserves of natural capital, covering 46.5 percent of forested land. This region is home to six of the world’s most megadiverse countries (Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru, and Venezuela), including 11 of Earth’s 14 biomes and the Amazon rainforest, the planet’s most biodiverse habitat.

By connecting climate, nature, and development across diverse landscapes—from Patagonia and the Caribbean to the Galapagos, Chocó and Magdalena, the Atlantic Forest, the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor, mangroves, reefs, and the Amazon—the region has the potential to lead a global shift from nature-negative to nature-positive and climate-resilient systems.

Biodiversity and ecosystems took center stage in 2024 as the COP16 to the Convention on Biological Diversity convened in Cali, Colombia. Here, nearly 200 countries came together to discuss solutions to halt the rapid destruction of nature.

COP16 was seen as the “first implementation COP,” where governments, Indigenous communities, businesses, financial institutions, and civil society shared progress and strengthened the Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF).

This meeting, alongside Climate COP29 in Azerbaijan and Land Degradation COP16 in Saudi Arabia, underscored the interconnectedness of these crises and marked a pivotal moment in taking bold steps to reduce humanity’s pressure on the planet.

Interconnected crises demand interconnected solutions, and UNDP stands as a connector at the nexus of climate, nature, and development, implementing solutions across 140 countries with a $3.4 billion nature portfolio and a $2.3 billion climate portfolio.

Through the Climate Promise and the Nature Pledge, UNDP supports over 125 countries in enhancing their NDCs and biodiversity action plans (NBSAPs), ensuring that these global commitments result in tangible, on-the-ground progress.

By treating climate, nature, and development as interdependent, we can create solutions that address both environmental and economic goals.

The conviction that climate and nature solutions must be inclusive and equitable is at the core of UNDP’s approach. UNDP brings diverse voices to the environmental agenda, acknowledging the ancestral wisdom of Indigenous Peoples, local communities, women, and youth.

Indigenous Peoples, who have managed biodiversity-rich ecosystems for generations, play a crucial role in protecting the planet’s natural resources. Their culture and profound knowledge—based on centuries of living in harmony with nature—are invaluable for shaping sustainable, resilient solutions.

A successful case of inclusive governance and integrated development is the partnership between UNDP, Ecuador, local communities, and Lavazza. This collaboration focuses on producing deforestation-free coffee, allowing farmers to cultivate coffee while restoring forests and protecting ecosystems, blending environmental protection with inclusive economic growth for local communities.

The “deforestation-free” certification guarantees that coffee production does not contribute to deforestation, preserving biodiversity and boosting Ecuadorian coffee’s global market potential. More than 1,800 families from the Ecuadorian Amazon region have participated, receiving training, infrastructure improvements, and market access. Around 40% of these participants are women, underscoring the project’s commitment to inclusivity and gender equity.

The result is a flourishing coffee sector that supports both environmental sustainability and economic resilience. This partnership provides a blueprint for how businesses can align with environmental goals to drive systemic change, proving that sustainable development not only protects the planet but also generates resilient human development and economic opportunities that directly benefit communities.

Financing is critical to addressing the interconnected crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss, and ecosystem degradation at scale. Financial flows need to triple to meet the targets of the Paris Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals. UNDP works with countries to access, channel, and deliver finance for nature and climate goals.

This includes large-scale support for countries such as Ecuador, Brazil, and Costa Rica to secure financing for implementing their Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) strategies. These strategies are critical in reducing deforestation emissions while supporting sustainable livelihoods.

Additionally, UNDP’s Biodiversity Finance Initiative (BIOFIN) supports 130 countries in crafting and implementing national biodiversity finance plans. In Cuba, for example, BIOFIN’s support enabled a policy change that allows landowners to claim payments for carbon emissions offset by forests on their land.

This initiative protects Cuba’s biodiversity while playing a vital role in reducing pollution and mitigating climate change. In Costa Rica, the RAICES Indigenous Tourism Incubator, with BIOFIN’s support, has mobilized over US$1.5 million, benefiting more than 2,000 Indigenous people and establishing 28 tourism projects.

These initiatives help manage nearly 1,900 hectares of forest sustainably. In Colombia, BIOFIN has partnered with FINAGRO, the nation’s largest agricultural development bank, to embed biodiversity protection into its financial tools, advancing Colombia toward achieving its GBF goals.

The enormous challenges of climate change and biodiversity loss present an opportunity to rethink how we develop as a global society. Recognizing the interconnectedness of these issues allows for integrated solutions that unlock new pathways to progress.

As the world approaches crucial tipping points, including the convergence of three major environmental COPs within six weeks, we must embrace solutions that foster nature-positive and climate-resilient economies.

UNDP calls on governments, multilateral institutions, and the private sector to prioritize nature-positive, low-carbon, and regenerative financing, ensuring that ecosystems and communities alike are resilient. The urgency is clear: bold action is needed now, for the benefit of all people and the planet; we need to make peace with nature.

Michelle Muschett is Director, Regional Bureau for Latin America and the Caribbean of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP); Flor de Maria Bolaños is Country Specialist UNDP for Latin America and the Caribbean.

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By Michelle Muschett and Sabina Alkire
NEW YORK / OXFORD, UK , Sep 18 2024 (IPS)

Political polarization, the climate emergency, organized crime, migration, and low economic growth currently dominate the public debate in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), and rightly so. However, there is a significant structural challenge to human development and democracy itself that, along with inequalities, lies at the root of these crises: poverty.

Today, 181 million people, 29% of the region’s population, live in monetary poverty, and 33 million suffer from acute multidimensional poverty (considering only countries with available data). Advancing towards a prosperous and resilient LAC requires putting poverty in all its forms and dimensions back at the center of public debate and addressing new responses through public policy.

In past decades, the region significantly reduced poverty by taking advantage of economic growth driven by the commodities boom and the introduction of innovative public policies focused on solving this problem, such as conditional cash transfers—schemes where cash is given to households in poverty in exchange for specific investments in human development, such as ensuring school attendance or participation in vaccination campaigns-.

However, this trend began to reverse two years before the pandemic.

Revitalizing the poverty reduction agenda requires resuming this innovative capacity and political will. We have done it in the past, we must do it again, and it is possible. Brazil’s recent proposal to the G20 to promote a Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty is an excellent step in this direction.

To achieve this, it will be essential to better understand and measure the multiple forms and dimensions of poverty, ensure effective inter-institutional coordination for policy design and implementation, and refine the targeting and allocation of resources through new planning instruments. Given the context of low economic growth and limited fiscal space, efficiency is key to accelerating significant achievements.

Ensuring that people in poverty have the capabilities and opportunities to live the life they want requires tools that capture their realities and experiences, including the multiple deprivations that affect them in different dimensions of well-being and go beyond the lack of income.

Not having access to education, water, or health, among others, are significant deprivations that may or may not be correlated with having money—a person may have sufficient income to not be considered poor and yet not have access to healthcare because there is no hospital near his or her community.

The Global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI), launched by UNDP and OPHI in 2010, complements the measurement and analysis of extreme monetary poverty with information about people’s situation in multiple socioeconomic dimensions.

The MPI has been adopted by countries around the world as an official poverty measure, complementing income-based measures and focusing on each country’s priorities, turning them into effective public policy tools that allow for more precise identification of who and where the poor are, and how it varies by age, gender, territory, and ethnicity.

Latin America has been a pioneer in adopting national MPIs, with 12 countries and two major cities—Mexico City and Bogotá—and can once again be a reference for poverty reduction. The success of conditional cash transfers in the past meant a quantitative leap in the utility of monetary poverty data.

It is time to replicate this success by developing new transformative policies that have the same effect on the utility of multidimensional data, taking advantage of the planning, policy articulation, and monitoring possibilities provided by the rich information obtained from complementary use of both measures.

In Honduras, for example, multidimensional data was used to better identify the population with the greatest vulnerabilities as a result of COVID-19 and to more accurately guide cash supports.

On the other hand, a clear articulation between other national policies and poverty reduction goals will also be crucial to achieving greater impact. Policies like those related to productivity, energy, or climate change are often defined in a sectoral manner despite their potential to accelerate poverty reduction.

These links need to be formalized. It is also important to invite actors beyond the public sector to incorporate these analyses and actions to accelerate poverty reduction as part of their development strategies. For example, the Colombian natural gas producers’ association (Naturgas) created an index of strategic municipalities.

This explicitly incorporates an equity dimension through poverty-related variables alongside business variables usually used by private companies in their decision-making processes. This index generates incentives to invest in areas of greater poverty while respecting the natural profit-seeking of these companies.

If we want to get back on track towards eradicating poverty in all its dimensions, we must put poverty and inequality back on the public agenda, promoting spaces for dialogue, collaboration, and consensus around innovative and transformative public policies that allow us to move towards more equal and inclusive societies.

Only in this way we will be on track to achieve sustainable development in LAC. Let’s not wait any longer and make the leap that we need in public innovation for a well-being and human development that leave no one behind.

Michelle Muschett is Director, Regional Bureau for Latin America and the Caribbean of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP); Sabina Alkire is Director of the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) at the University of Oxford.

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Credit: UNDP El Salvador

By María Noel Vaeza and Michelle Muschett
PANAMA CITY, Panama, Jan 4 2024 (IPS)

Violence against women and girls is one of the most widespread and persistent abuses of fundamental rights at a global level that, to a certain extent, derives from what we consider “normal” in our societies. In addition to firmly condemning that every three women in the world suffer from physical or sexual violence, we must question what we are normalizing as a society for this to happen.

Faced with this question, the Gender Social Norms Index published by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) reveals that 90% of the population has at least one fundamental prejudice against women, which ranges from believing that men are better business leaders and that they have more rights than women to take a job, to the conviction that it is okay for a man to be violent with his partner.
Gender violence is not a phenomenon that arises out of nowhere and its prevention and eradication also require each of us to be aware of our own biases.

At UN Women and UNDP, we work to reduce gender discrimination and transform sexist attitudes by promoting social norms and positive gender roles. This requires empowering girls and women and working with the entire society to remove stereotypes that promote violent masculinities.

To achieve this, at UN Women we apply the behavioral sciences to involve men and commit them to the prevention of violence against women and girls with more effective awareness campaigns that adapt to the reality of each country in the region. Social norms that limit women’s rights also harm society, they hinder the expansion of human development and increase inequality gaps.

It is no coincidence that the difficulty in achieving progress in social gender norms occurs during a human development crisis. The global Human Development Index (HDI) lost value in 2020 for the first time in history; the same thing happened the following year.

In turn, for Latin America and the Caribbean, the UNDP estimated – based on its proposal for a Multidimensional Poverty Index with a focus on women, that 27.4% of women in 10 countries in the region live in conditions of multidimensional poverty.

The impact of poverty on women varies depending on their location in the territory: in the 16 countries analyzed, 19% of those who live in urban areas are multidimensional poor, while 58% live in rural areas.
The poorest women are those who face greater inequalities, participate less in the labor market, and experience greater time poverty caused by excessive unpaid care work.

These inequality gaps, in addition to being a barrier to human development, are a threat to democracy. Latin America and the Caribbean, the third most democratic region in the world and the only emerging region that aspires to – and still has the possibility of – achieving development through democracy and respect for human rights, will not achieve it if it continues to be the most violent and dangerous region for women.

The Gender Social Norms Index (GSNI) quantifies biases against women, capturing people’s attitudes on women’s roles along four key dimensions: political, educational, economic and physical integrity. The index, covering 85 percent of the global population, reveals that close to 9 out of 10 men and women hold fundamental biases against women. Credit: UNDP

The Latinobarometro 2023 report points out a clear democratic decline in Latin America: the percentage of its population that sees democracy as the preferred form of government fell from 60% in 2000 to 48% in 2023. Women remain underrepresented in decision-making decisions and are the most dissatisfied with democracy with 70%.

At the same time, according to the latest data reported by official organizations to the Gender Equality Observatory of Latin America and the Caribbean, in 2022, at least 4,050 women saw their lives cut short. 4,004 from Latin America and 46 from the Caribbean, from 26 countries in the region, were victims of femicide or feminicide.

This is a clear sign that despite the progress in several countries in the region with the approval of specific and comprehensive legal frameworks and the establishment of specialized prosecutors and protocols to respond to gender violence, the fundamental rights of women continue without translating into tangible achievements.

Without effective governance and solid institutions that guarantee women and girls the full enjoyment of their rights, including the right to live a life free of violence and discrimination, it will be impossible to regain confidence in democracy in the region.

In building more peaceful, just, and inclusive societies, universal access to justice is essential to eradicate gender violence and impunity. Girls, adolescents, and women who suffer violence do not find sufficient protection in the judicial system, and when they have the courage to report, they are often re-victimized until they give up their complaint and seek help and protection from the authorities. public institutions.

At the same time, these women have a triple workload: they face caretaker tasks, domestic work and their paid jobs, which are usually precarious, informal and low-income.

Furthermore, much of the impetus for the judicial process falls on the complainant, who must not only appear before the court on numerous occasions, but also bear the financial costs of transportation, the difficulties in organizing household responsibilities, and the fear of retaliation by the aggressor or members of their communities.

To this must be added both the possible lack of knowledge that many women may have about judicial or extrajudicial procedures, as well as the difficulties in accessing free services and/or ignorance of their existence. There is also little or no public information about specialized services.

For example, in the case of experiencing violence, there is usually distrust on the part of women regarding the speed and effectiveness of the judicial response to their situation and, they also often face practices of re-victimization such as being forced to tell the facts on several occasions. or have their testimony called into question.

From UNDP and UN Women, we call to build more just societies for women. All people and societies can advance through education, social mobilization, adoption of legal and political measures, advocacy for greater budgets to prevent violence, promotion of dialogue, and search for consensus to break down biases and open passage to more peaceful, secure, fair, inclusive, and egalitarian societies as a requirement to leave no one behind on the path towards sustainable development.

María Noel Vaeza is regional director of UN Women for the Americas and the Caribbean;
Michelle Muschett is regional director of UNDP for Latin America and the Caribbean.

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