After recording advances until 2019, Brazil’s Municipal Human Development Index (MHDI) experienced a six-year regression in 2021, caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. Calculated by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and released on Tuesday (28), the HDI was 0.766, a level close to that of 2015, when an index of 0.765 was recorded.
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MHDI Scale
The MHDI is a number that varies between 0 and 1. The closer to 1, the greater the human development of a city.
Effects of the Pandemic
The effects of the pandemic undermined the advances made previously. In the period from 2012 to 2019, life expectancy at birth in Brazil fluctuated positively from 74.48 to 76.47 years. School attendance, which corresponds to the percentage of people aged 6 to 14 who attend school, increased from 98.13% to 99.27%. And the per capita income of Brazilians increased from R$759.11 to R$814.30.
The same data, for both 2020 and 2021, reflects the impact of the pandemic. In 2021, the life expectancy of Brazilians dropped to 74.16 years; school attendance fell to 98.84%; and per capita household income fell to R$723.84.
Throwback
This decline in the MHDI is more significant in states in the North, Northeast, Southeast, and South regions. In 2021, there was a decline in Amapá, Roraima, Pará (North), Bahia, Paraíba, Piauí (Northeast), Rio de Janeiro (Southeast); Paraná, Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul (South).
Before the pandemic, from 2012 to 2019, the Northeastern states were the big winners in the MHDI, with Pernambuco (7.6%), Maranhão (7.1%), and Piauí (7%). In the period 2020-2021, the COVID-19 crisis had a stronger impact on Roraima (-6.7%), Amapá (-6.6%) and Rio de Janeiro (-5.8%).
Analysis:
The systemic crisis of COVID-19 in 2020 and 2021 requires, in the Brazilian case, a more careful reading. This is because it sometimes reaches dimensions of development in an abrupt and transitory way, as in the case of longevity. After all, it accentuates ongoing structural crises, as in the case of income.
It is undeniable that the pandemic generated strong consequences throughout the world, but it can be observed that the impacts were more severe in countries and regions with structural challenges and disparate development patterns.
Sources: O Globo.
