By Canadian Press

UN report: ‘progress has bypassed groups, communities’

Mar 21, 2017 | 3:15 PM

COPENHAGEN — Globalization has integrated people and the digital revolution has changed lives but development has been uneven and “communities, societies and people have been left out,” a U.N. report said Tuesday

The U.N. says in its 2016 Human Development Report that “some have achieved only the basics of human development, and some not even that.”

Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven said “the report will push us toward the world we want,” as he presented the 288-page document. He noted that fewer than 10 per cent of the world’s people live in poverty.

The report by the U.N. Development Program cited “impressive” progress over the past quarter-century, with people living longer, more children going to school and access to basic social services increasing.

But although average human development improved significantly across all regions from 1990 to 2015, one in three people worldwide continues to live in low levels of human development, as measured by the Human Development Index.

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“Human development for everyone is not a dream, it is attainable,” said Helen Clark, head of the U.N. Development Program.

The world has come a long way in rolling back extreme poverty, in improving access to education, health and sanitation, and in expanding possibilities for women and girls. But those gains are a prelude to the next, possibly tougher challenge, to ensure the benefits of global progress reach everyone,” she said.

Lofven said it was time “to raise the bar,” adding new challenges have surfaced — including climate change, desperate migration, terrorism and violent extremism.

The report, presented in the Swedish capital, said “policy options exist” and could contribute to achieving human development for everyone. It also called for “reformed global governance, with fairer multilateralism.”

The Associated Press

by Canadian Press

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UN report: ‘progress has bypassed groups, communities’

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