By: Staff Writer
June 13, 2025
The United Nations Development Program said in a recent report the Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) needs more than course correction, but it needs a new playbook.
The report, Under Pressure: Recalibrating the Future of Development, said: “After decades of sustained gains, human development in the region has slowed. The COVID-19 pandemic marked a critical turning point, disrupting the region’s development trajectory and revealing the depth of its structural vulnerabilities. It exposed just how fragile the achievements of recent decades have been. The way human development has been built in LAC has not proved resilient in the face of shocks. In times of crisis, the scaffolding gives way.”
The region is navigating a complex landscape marked by heightened uncertainty, recurring and overlapping crises and multiple interlinked stressors—rapidly evolving technologies, deepening social fragmentation, and an increasingly changing climate.
These factors have exposed profound vulnerabilities in the region’s development trajectory, challenging its ability to sustain and advance human development.
The report also said: “What the region needs is not just a course correction, but a new playbook. One that accepts complexity rather than resists it. One that recognizes that the instruments, institutions, and infrastructure that carried us this far may not carry us further. And one that places resilient human development—rooted in agency, inclusion, and the ability of people to shape their future—at the center of the regional agenda.
“This is not a call to despair. It is a call to recalibrate. To shift from reactive to proactive. To release the pressure by equipping societies with tools to navigate uncertainty, by designing institutions that adapt to evolving contexts, and by investing in the capacity of communities to imagine and build better futures.
The region is particularly vulnerable to setbacks in human development because a large portion of the population lacks the resources and mechanisms needed to cope with even moderate crises. This highlights deep structural weaknesses that threaten long-term progress, especially in a context of growing uncertainty and interconnected crises.
The report identifies three dynamics that – combined – are stressing human development in the region:
• Rapidly evolving technologies, which are transforming labor markets and governance but expanding unevenly, thereby deepening existing inequalities.
• Deepening social fragmentation, reflected in rising mistrust between people and institutions, which hampers consensus and coordinated responses to shared challenges.
• An increasingly changing climate, with the number of extreme weather events more than doubling—compounding threats such as fires and droughts. These not only endanger lives and livelihoods but also worsen existing economic and social inequalities.
These interconnected factors amplify vulnerabilities and generate interrelated risks that exacerbate development challenges. That is why when we talk about development, we must also talk about resilience.
“Latin America and the Caribbean has demonstrated time and again their capacity to withstand adversity. The pressures we face—whether climatic, economic, or social—can become the starting point for a new development model centered on human resilience,” said Michelle Muschett, UNDP Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean. “Investing in resilience today means protecting development gains and ensuring dignity and security for all—especially the most vulnerable. It is not enough to resist. We must transform to prosper,” she added.