The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) launches, at dawn on Tuesday (6), the Human Development Report (RDH) 2025. The global launch event will be broadcast online from 5:30 am (Brasília time).
Coorganized by the UN agency, the European Commission and the Kingdom of Belgium, the two -hour ceremony will have digital coverage on the UNDP channel on YouTube, and will be driven and moderate by journalist and writer Esther Paniagua.
The theme chosen for this edition was “A matter of choice – people and possibilities in the Age of AI”. According to a press release, the report “investigates the impacts of digitization and artificial intelligence on human development.”
The objective of the work was to investigate the transforming impacts of digitization and the fundamental dimensions of human development, such as health, education, social standards, relationships, employment and autonomy.
How does I want to redefine the future?
According to the researchers, “AI advances in the speed of light, but human development does not accompany the same rhythm”. The critical imbalance between technological advancement and social development place humanity in a crossroads: how to integrate and rule these technologies?
Although AI undeniably has the potential to redefine the future in a positive way, with promises of improvements in health, education and efficiency, it has the risk of worsening existing inequalities, benefiting already privileged groups, and creating new forms of exclusion.
In this sense, depending on the choices we make collectively. The text warns of the need for conscious decisions on how to develop, implement, and govern AI.
It is not, according to the researchers, of an exercise in future, but of trying to shape the future, “making bold decisions to expand what people can do.”
The three faces of the Human Development Report
The 2025 Human Development Report (RDH) is the second of a report trilogy that began in 2023-24, focusing on polarization, that is, the profound social, political or economic divisions that are affecting human development, governance and stability of nations.
What is discussed this year is, examining as digital technologies and AI can be oriented to benefit the community.
Expected in 2026, the third report will address how to “navigate anthropocene through human aspirations”, analyzing how to reconcile human development with current environmental challenges, where human activity has significant impact on the planet’s future.
Working with an extensive network of experts and partners in 170 countries, UNDP has the difficult mission of fighting to end the injustice of poverty, inequality and global change of climate. The idea is to help nations create integrated and perennial solutions for people and the planet.
The event will take place in hybrid format in Brussels, Belgium. After participants more deeply explore the reports of the report during the discussion panel “choices”, A LIVE QUESTIONS AND ANSWER SESSION WILL OPENwith specialists in public policy, economy, social technology, digital education and sustainability.
