Managing Development Policies Amidst Poly-crisis: The 21^st Century Conundrums and Challenges¹

The world in the 21st century confronts numerous challenges of sluggish post COVID-19 recovery, disruption in supply chains in the wake of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, steep rise in the prices of food and fuel, accelerating climate change and rising social unrest. The unprecedented decline in the value of the Human Development Index for two consecutive years in 2021 and 2022 in a large number of countries, along with the halting and even reversal of progress on poverty reduction and other priorities of the Sustainable Development Goals 2030 agenda, demonstrates the deep adverse impact that the crises have had on people’s lives. This situation of a poly-crisis, or entangled crises in multiple global systems, deeply undermines human flourishing.

This paper examines the nature of the poly-crisis and discusses its identified drivers in terms of (a)inequality, (b)climate change, Anthropocene and overshoot, (c) increasing complexity, and (d) hyperglobalization and uniformity. It deals with the conundrums facing development policy in terms of (a) managing uncertainty, (b) managing national and global goals, and (c) balancing short-term and long-term goals. The paper suggests a four-fold strategy focusing on the four ‘R’s, viz., Recovery, Resilience, Responsiveness, and Responsibility to cope with the situation.