The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has released its regular annual Human Development Report for 2019. According to the UN, inequality remains a key challenge to efforts to implement the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, which are included on the agenda.

The authors of the report, which is based on the analysis of the value of the Human Development Index (HDI), share the opinion that, despite the progress that has been made over the past 20 years, the international community still has to deal with various forms of gross inequality: about 600 million people live in utter poverty, 262 million children do not go to primary school and 5.4 million infants do not reach the age of five.

In this connection, the authors of the report are urging that immediate comprehensive measures based on a country’s specifics be taken in the political, economic, environmental and technical spheres.

Over a period of the past three years, Russia has ranked 49^th in HDI and it is among 62 countries (along with the United States, the European Union member countries, Norway, Japan and Australia) with the highest figures for life expectancy, years of schooling and gross national product.