The UNDP's latest Human Development Report says Guyana remains in the high development category and has rebounded from the setback caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Using data from 2022 and 2023, it however cautioned about vulnerabilities to climate change.
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) launched its 2025 Regional Human Development Report for Latin America and the Caribbean on Thursday, titled "Under Pressure: Recalibrating the Future of Development in Latin America and the Caribbean."
The report, which proposes a new framework of "Resilient Human Development," highlighted Guyana's recent development triumphs and its significant vulnerabilities to climate change.
The report defines its Human Development Index (HDI) as a composite measure of income, health, and education. According to the data, Guyana's HDI value reached 0.776 in 2023, officially placing the country in the high human development category. This achievement marks a complete bounce back from the COVID-19 setback from 2020 to 2021, with the country's development now exceeding its pre-pandemic level.
This upward trajectory diverges sharply from the regional trend. While most of Latin America and the Caribbean saw a slowdown in HDI growth, Guyana's average annual HDI growth was 2.33% in the years following the pandemic, a significant increase from the 0.90% growth in the five years before.
Despite this economic and social progress, the report identifies threats to Guyana's future. With a Vulnerability Score of 0.44 and a Readiness Score of 0.34 in 2022, Guyana's risk of climate impacts is higher than its capacity to mobilize investment for adaptation. This is particularly concerning given the country's geography; 31% of its population and significant portions of its capital, Georgetown, exist at elevations below five meters above sea level, making them highly susceptible to rising sea levels and storm surge flooding. The report projects that 7.98% of the country's population will live in a 1-in-20-year floodplain.
Climate change also threatens long-term economic productivity. High temperatures are projected to cause significant losses in labour productivity across all sectors. The report shows that countries like Guyana, Suriname, and Venezuela are expected to experience the most substantial losses -- beyond nine percentage points -- by 2050 due to heat stress. This is compounded by a dramatic increase in heatwaves, which have jumped from 0.8 days per year between 1986 and 2005 to 8.2 days per year between 2016 and 2022.
In contrast to these climate-related vulnerabilities, the report highlights two key areas where Guyana demonstrates strength: social cohesion and technological innovation.
While trust in government and other people has declined across the region, trust in one's immediate community remains steady. In Guyana, this trust is exceptionally high at 70.6%, compared with the regional average of 55.8%. The report also notes that Guyana's political polarization score in 2023 was 2.9 out of 4, which, while above the global average of 2.8, it indicates less perceived hostility among party supporters compared to the regional average.
Guyana is also among the 24 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean that are deploying Artificial Intelligence (AI) in public administration. The country's application of AI is primarily focused on public order and safety (50%) and public services (50%), a unique distribution compared to the broader regional focus on public services and economic affairs. The report cites "Jessie," an AI chatbot on WhatsApp that connects with the Guyanese diaspora to identify skills and interests, as a key example of this innovative use of technology.