This is a new version of the flagship product of the work carried out by the Country Office in Chile, almost 10 years since the last Report in 2015. Based on the traditional methodology of the UNDP, mixed with a sociological perspective focused on subjectivity, that is, on people's experiences, fears, emotions, and dreams, it transcends contingency issues. It stimulates public debate on the challenges that Chile faces on its path to development.

The Report was received with a positive wave of reflections, comments, and analysis from the most diverse sectors, both academia and the political sector. The reflections began with President Gabriel Boric himself at the launching ceremony where, breaking protocol and surprising his team, he put aside his speech and asked the moderator and prominent journalist Paula Escobar to improvise a frank conversation. 

The success of the national HDR 2024 is due, in my opinion, to its content as much as to its construction process. Heir to a way of doing social research, with a rigorous and multi-method procedure, which has produced primary information, both qualitative and quantitative, has drawn on numerous sources of secondary information and specialized literature and includes an innovative survey of elites and a historical series of up to 30 years of data in the case of some indicators. 

It also had the contribution of a high-level, pluralistic Advisory Council, where we have sought both gender parity and a balance of political sectors and territorial representation, as well as indigenous peoples. The objective was to have a diversity of thought that reflected the complexity of Chilean society. We also had the invaluable support of widely recognized experts in Chile. 

The 2024 Report is especially significant because it comes after a period of profound transformation and unprecedented challenges. It is the first since the 2019 social outbreak and the COVID-19 pandemic, events that have impacted the country's well-being and social cohesion. It is also the first Report published by UNDP Chile after the two attempts at constitutional change. 

Like previous documents, the current Report has set itself the challenge of explaining a paradoxical situation: Chile exhibits truly remarkable achievements in human development: poverty reduction, increased life expectancy and renewed transportation infrastructure are very noteworthy examples. The paradox is that, at the same time, the country is experiencing profound difficulties to change. The successive attempts to reform the pension system, to solve the problems in the area of health, and the repeated constituent processes, attest to this. 

It argues that the difficulty of change lies in a complex web of factors. It is due to a predominance of dysfunctional relationships between citizens, elites, and social movements, in subjectivities, in the functioning of institutions, and in public debate.

Despite the difficulties -and the analysis details many of them-, it also states that there are sufficient elements to overcome them. One of these opportunities is the desire for change. People do want change: 88% of the citizens say they want change. 67% want things to be different, neither as they were before, nor as they are now. After two rejections of the constitutional projects, this message did not seem evident in Chile, but it is very clearly presented in the survey and the focus groups. 

Moreover, people prefer profound rather than superficial changes. And, also after the constitutional processes, citizens have learned to value gradualness and patience in the processes of change. The citizenry has a pragmatic and diverse vision, clearly different from the dichotomous vision of the elites: it aspires that are a mix of security, social rights, and economic growth, without fitting into one-dimensional agendas for change. 

Another opportunity is the continued adherence to democracy and the favorable disposition to representation, together with a revaluation of collective projects. Also, the high intolerance towards inequalities, especially gender inequality, offers a normative horizon for seeking fairer and more inclusive social arrangements.

This vision is a fertile space for building bridges, bringing together projects for the future, and involving people. The report precisely started this movement. To raise the necessary questions for the construction of a common future.