Regional report highlights challenges to human development

HAVANA, Cuba, September 19 (ACN) To highlight the current complex situation in Latin America and the Caribbean countries, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) recently published the 2025 Regional Human Development Report.

Titled “Under Pressure: Recalibrating the Future of Development in Latin America and the Caribbean,” the document is available on the organization’s website and points out, among other challenges, the vulnerability of Cuba and the rest of the Caribbean to the impacts of climate change.

The text indicates that, according to the National Institute of Meteorology of Cuba (INSMET), the sea level is expected to rise by 29 centimeters by 2050, with impacts exacerbated by the increased frequency and intensity of extreme weather events such as hurricanes, which pose a direct threat to 262 coastal settlements where 1.5 million people live.
It also highlights the accelerated pace of demographic transition in the Caribbean and states that several countries, including Cuba, already have more than 15 % of their population aged 60 or older.

In the Latin American and Caribbean region, the Human Development Index (HDI) is above 0.7 points; in the case of Cuba, it is above that average, but still far from the countries with very high human development, which exceed 0.9 points on this indicator.

According to the report, the region has made significant progress in this area in recent years, although this trend varies greatly from country to country, it has slowed down and is vulnerable to setbacks.

The UNDP is launching this report as an urgent call to invest in sustainable and resilient development approaches to protect the achievements made and move towards a fairer and more sustainable future, and it emphasizes the need for a new approach that prioritizes resilience.

Michelle Muschett, UNDP Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean, explained in the introductory video that, in the light of the report, resilience is not synonymous with resistance or endurance; Rather, it is an opportunity, a spring that uses pressure as a force to drive development.